Lemonade for the mind?

I think C.S. Lewis is one of the most perplexing people ever to set pen to paper.  He can take these lofty and complex ideas and reduce them to simple statements using common words that anyone can understand or even make a fairy tale out of them and impart them without seeming to even try.  I forgot I had a copy of 'The Four Loves,' and happily sat down to peruse it the other day.  He makes it look so easy, but it must be pure magic.  I'm not much of a nonfiction person, but Lewis is different, I can read anything he writes again and again.  As a person who has to learn about love and relationships as one might study birds or mathematics, I found his insight upon the topic quite invaluable.  But then he too was a student of the same subject so it is no surprise he knows how to write for those of us who never learned it firsthand from our families of origin.  His autobiography, 'Surprised by Joy,' is a worthwhile read as well.

The first thing I noticed was how intellectually stimulating his writing is.  In the world that grammar and spelling forgot, it is fun to discover words I must actually look up and literary references I must google.  It is rather depressing how much our cultural intellect has atrophied in the last few decades, ugh!

The second, was how timely his writing is, or perhaps I should say timeless, as there is something that applies to every age of the world and culture, as he's dealing with issues of the human heart, which changes little between times and places, no matter our technology or customs.  Personally, I found his chapter on 'Affection' most applicable to my messed up family of origin and to my husband's family issues likewise.  But his chapter on 'Eros' is very timely, even more so than the day he wrote it.  In a world where romantic love is everything and cannot be denied, it was refreshing to find someone who didn't think that was quite the case.  It didn't work for Romeo, Lancelot, or a hundred other characters out of history and legend, why do we think it has suddenly changed?  On a professional level, I think he's spot on in his diagnosis of something that has puzzled me for years: people who baby their pets to the point of inducing ill-health, physically and or mentally, in the poor, wretched creatures.  You never know what you are going to find when you pick up a book written by Lewis!  If your brain is feeling a little squishy or you've finally grown tired of cat videos, maybe pick up a little something to perk up your mind and enlighten your soul at the same time, enjoy!