“Looking Along” and “Looking At”

Several weeks ago, I was able to hear a lecture on Lucy from the C.S. Lewis scholar Andrew Lazo. If you are ever in need for a resource for C.S. Lewis’s works, he is certainly someone to refer to. In any case, I had not exactly been looking forward to this event, since the idea of a lecture sounded a bit dull to me after 4 strenuous years of college. Nevertheless, I went. The talk almost seemed too short.

Lucy is the character Lewis designated to bring truth to light. She would look along a beam of light to see where it led, rather than at the beam and witness the particles of dust. C.S. Lewis had an idea about “looking along” vs. “looking at” something. If you look at something, say, the purpose of your work as an artist, you are no longer doing the work of an artist. You are not creating anything, but looking at the act of creating. Looking along something, to use the same example, would be to participate in the act itself and actually make something. Both are helpful, but both are needed to have a rounded sensibility of what you are doing. Does this make sense?

No matter where in the world you are, I hope you enjoy today in the fullness of participation and contemplation in what’s around you.