GKC on Mothers

I happened to be browsing through a number of nearly forgotten links and found a blogg called Amongst Lovely Things which talks about God and prayer and READING and Chesterton and - ah - other lovely and important things. The most recent posting was about mothers, for Mother's Day, and though I don't really have time for making an adequate reply in a short posting, I will try to say SOMETHING. And the easiest is simply to appeal to AMBER for assistance and see how often Uncle Gilbert mentions "mother". (Yeah, something no "search engine" on THIS planet is competent to do, heh heh) It looks like he uses the simple word "mother" somewhere over 900 times... of course there are also instances such as "mother's" and "grandmother" and other variants. (Shh, don't tell GurGle, or BNIG, but I know how to SPELL automata theory, which means I actually can handle such riddles. What fun they are missing.)

But even if you have visited the Kingdom of Wisdom via the "Phantom Tollbooth" and feel the tension between King Azaz and the Mathemagician, you will not doubt prefer some WORDS about mothers, not some numbers. Hee hee! Very well. Here is just one very special bit from GKC, about a very special Mother:

If the world wanted what is called a non-controversial aspect of Christianity, it would probably select Christmas. Yes it is obviously bound up with what is supposed to be a controversial aspect (I could never at any stage of my opinions imagine why); the respect paid to the Blessed Virgin. When I was a boy a more Puritan generation objected to a statue upon my parish church representing the Virgin and Child. After much controversy, they compromised by taking away the Child. One would think that this was even more corrupted with Mariolatry, unless the mother was counted less dangerous when deprived of a sort of weapon. But the practical difficulty is also a parable. You cannot chip away the statue of a mother from all round that of a new-born child. You cannot suspend the new-born child in midair; indeed, you cannot really have a statue of a new-born child at all. Similarly, you cannot suspend the idea of a new-born child in the void or think of him without thinking of his mother. You cannot visit the child without visiting the mother; you cannot in common human life approach the child except through the mother. If we are to think of Christ in this aspect at all, the other idea follows as it is followed in history. We must either leave Christ out of Christmas, or Christmas out of Christ, or we must admit, if only as we admit it in an old picture, that those holy heads are too near together for the haloes not to mingle and cross.
[GKC The Everlasting Man CW2:303]

With prayers for all mothers who read this, and all the mothers of all who read this.
(Written on May 13, which is the feast of that above-mentioned Mother.)

Sorry, I cannot omit posting this also...

A Little Litany

When God turned back eternity and was young,
Ancient of Days, grown little for your mirth
(As under the low arch the land is bright)
Peered through you, gate of heaven - and saw the earth.

Or shutting out his shining skies awhile
Built you about him for a house of gold
To see in pictured walls his storied world
Return upon him as a tale is told.

Or found his mirror there; the only glass
That would not break with that unbearable light
Till in a corner of the high dark house
God looked on God, as ghosts meet in the night.

Star of his morning; that unfallen star
In the strange starry overturn of space
When earth and sky changed places for an hour
And heaven looked upwards in a human face.

Or young on your strong knees and lifted up
Wisdom cried out, whose voice is in the street,
And more than twilight of twiformed cherubim
Made of his throne indeed a mercy-seat.

Or risen from play at your pale raiment's hem
God, grown adventurous from all time's repose,
Of your tall body climbed the ivory tower
And kissed upon your mouth the mystic rose.

[GKC in The Queen of Seven Swords]