
I think one of the surprising
things for people when they
begin to read Lewis, say his
letters or something like that,
is that he didn't like children
and you'd think that the guy who
wrote Narnia would just be a
lover of children.
But he was not fond of them, he
wasn't like a guy who would walk
down the street and want to get
down on the level of every child
and the interesting thing is he
regarded this as a significant
defect in his own constitution.
He said, "I'm not really fond of
children, I don't have a natural
affinity for them and I think
there's something wrong with me
because of that" and I think
that's a right response, it's
why Jesus says to us "If you
receive a child in my name you
receive me", like if you want
more Jesus you have to receive
children.
And Lewis knows I have a hard
time receiving children and so
that's a defect and so I think
that's an interesting thing and
it's something that he sought to
overcome.
I think he was actually more
comfortable writing letters to
people, I think a lot of people
have had the impression of Lewis
that he would be a really
enjoyable conversation partner
like they would love to have met
him.
And I think for his friends, he
had deep lifelong kinds of
friendships, but I suspect that
in terms of his social life I
think that he would be very
awkward like I don't really want
necessarily to sit down with
him.
Like you get to have one meal,
who's it going to be with? I'm
going in blind and it's with
C.S. Lewis.
I think it's probably going to
be very awkward unless we could
get onto a subject that both of
us loved and we could get there
quickly to where the personal
thing is almost left behind and
we begin to have what he called
friendship which is when both of
us have a sort of 'you too'
moment, 'you like that too?'
Then now we're off and running
but if that doesn't happen I
suspect it's going to be very
awkward and so I think people's
perception because of Lewis's
writing style that there would
be this kind of instant rapport
I doubt would be the case.
