Best revenge
Living well is the best revenge.George Herbert, "Proverbs" in The Complete English Works, 272. Several caveats are in order before this one yields helpful insight…
Live or die
One of C.S. Lewis's many goals is to prepare his readers to die with hope, courage, and honor. The theme pops up consistently in his…
Onward
C.S. Lewis is a compassionate writer. He remembers his unhappy childhood well enough to engage his readers (whatever their age) with impressive empathy. I wrote…
His tears
When I was a kid, our church had a scripture memory program for children. Each week we'd memorize our verses and earn prizes. If we…
Advice and orders
In C.S. Lewis's Prince Caspian, there's a Dwarf named Trumpkin who is very important to the story. He's presented as a cooperative and wise leader--happy…
Curiosity
"Remember, class, curiosity is always favorable to convenience." Clark clicked his pen and wrote: Curiosity is always favorable to convenience, on his clipboard under the…
Apology accepted
We don't really like to apologize, do we? It's humiliating to admit we were wrong--it smarts. But if we can be swift about it--both in…
Courage
I've heard it said that courage and cowardice are hard to predict. That some, assumed to be brave, don't hold up. And others, assumed to…
Antiseptic
No one likes cleaning out a wound with antiseptic. It stings. Little kids learn pretty quickly that they don't love it when grown-ups want to…
Own it.
Children have a sixth sense for hypocrisy. Adults do too. There's Hypocrisy (with a capital H) that rightly ruins credibility. This is avoided by a…