The Pressure of the Ordinary

Have you read The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis?  This short, pointed book is one of my favorites.  The premise is that a demon named Wormwood is trying to win the soul of a man, and Wormwood corresponds with the head demon, Screwtape, in order to get advice on how to worm his way into the man's heart and mind. 

At one point, Screwtape writes "...you don't realize how enslaved [humans] are to the pressure of the ordinary...."

Isn't this true?  Don't we have lofty ideals, but tend to get bogged down in the pressure of the ordinary?  Even the beautiful bits of ordinary can become mundane.  They can wear on your soul, drag you down, look dreary.  Am I enslaved  to the pressure of the ordinary?

 In this section of the book, Screwtape is discussing how important it is to distract humans: instead of allowing them to dive deeply into thought over an excellent book, lure them into the street to buy a newspaper.  The power of constant distraction cannot be overstated; it's hard to dive deeply into any subject, or achieve excellence in any part of life, in the face of constant distractions. I love that Lewis uses a newspaper to demonstrate this point (multiple articles on various topics); I am sure that in 2019, he'd use a smartphone app....

Likewise, the power of wasting time in nothing is an additional way to tap into and destroy a soul: 

"Nothing is very strong: strong enough to steal away a man's best years not in sweet sins but in a dreary flickering of the mind over it knows not what and knows not why, in the gratification of curiosities so feeble that the man is only half aware of them, in drumming of fingers and kicking of heels, in whistling tunes that he does not like, or in the long, dim labyrinth of reveries that have not even lust or ambition to give them a relish, but which, once chance association has started them, the creature is too weak and fuddled to shake off."

Nothing seems to be the type of living that culminates in regret in middle age, or later in life.  Do you know anyone who wakes up and goes to sleep with their regrets?  It is a hard way to live.  Although I don't think it's possible to live a life with no regrets, it seems wise to do the best you can to try to live a life that you will not regret living. 

This nothing is not to be confused with enjoying life for the simple sake of enjoying it, which is, in fact, a healthy thing:

"The deepest likings and impulses of any man are the raw materials, the starting point, with which the Enemy [Polly's note: this is a demon talking, so the "Enemy" here is God!] has furnished him.  To get him away from those is therefore always a point gained...[county cricket or collecting stamps or drinking cocoa], I grant you, have nothing of virtue in them; but there is a sort of innocence and humility and self-forgetfulness about them which I distrust."

In our self-absorbed, internet-rich world, is there any activity that we or our children engage in that still contains the qualities of innocence, humility and self-forgetfulness?

What's our motivation behind what we do?  My son and I were recently discussing this. Is our motivation to look good or impress others?  There's not much humility or self-forgetfulness in that; that's all about pride and self-consciousness.  When we are motivated purely by what people think of us, we lose the beauty and purity of enjoying an activity simply for the sake of enjoying it.

What's our motivation behind what we post on social media?  Are we employing innocence, humility, and self-forgetfulness?  I hazard to say that nearly everyone who has ever engaged with social media has, at some point or another, forgotten these virtuous qualities and instead posted or commented with an unhealthy spirit of offensiveness, pride, and self-awareness.

The pressure of the ordinary and power of distraction combined with the frittering away of time over nothings, those half-aware, fleeting curiosities, are--Lewis argues--destroying our souls. And he wrote The Screwtape Letters nearly 80 years ago, before television and the Internet took over our modern lives and minds.

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A few years ago I had a sobering dream. I am (unfortunately, at times) prone to prophetic dreams, and this is one I've never forgotten.  I was on a nearby road at night, walking with my children. (Interestingly, it's a road that runs through the poshest neighborhood in our county, about a mile from our farm.)  I was distracted by my phone and was scrolling through its lit screen while we walked along.  Suddenly, I became aware of the sound of howling wolves, and I knew that they were getting closer. I realized they were after us, particularly after my children. I panicked; we were nowhere near safe shelter, and the only thing I held was a cell phone. My children were about to get eaten by wolves, and I somehow knew that it was my fault, because I'd been so deeply distracted by scrolling my phone that I was not aware of my surroundings earlier.

Then suddenly the phone turned into a shovel.  And I realized that I was going to kill the wolves with an instrument intended for digging. 

I woke up.

As soon as I woke up I knew exactly why I had a shovel, not a gun. The solution to the danger my children were in was to quit being so distracted and to dig deeper into life.

And so that is what I try to do.