Michaelango's hand of God and Adam
The Pieta by Michelangelo is a marble sculpture in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome
New Years Day is a good day for resolutions. Goals for the coming year. Habits to change. Facing the challenge of being a better person. Lots of pressure.
C.S. Lewis offers a better solution than just pressure*. He suggests that a literary experience heals the wounds without undermining the privilege of individuality. He is talking about reading.
At a time when it is easy to feel that we just have to set goals to become better it is also easy to become unhappy with ourself. Lewis says that by reading great literature that we can become like a thousand men and yet remain ourselves. He adds that like a Greek poem says that we can see with a myriad of eyes, but it is still ourselves that see.
He compares buying a book to someone who buys a picture. One person might buy the picture to cover a bare spot on the wall and then after a week or two the pictures become mostly invisible to them. Another person would buy a picture, live with it, and actually feed off of it, for years. He suggests that to do this with your reading allows you to become what you had not been.
Some great pictures and great art that made me think of some good books.
* An Experiment in Criticism C.S. Lewis
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