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Douglas Gresham, C.S. Lewis's Stepson, Shares Insights at North Central Michigan College
11/03/05
Submitted By Jon
Douglas Gresham, C. S. Lewis's stepson, spoke this past Tuesday at North Central Michigan College, lending some insights and anecdotes of his relationship with Lewis. The Petoskey-News Review published an article on it... so here's an excerpt:"It has been a great adventure," he said.
But he asked, why do people like to read these books? His own answer: "My motivation is through the Narnia chronicles and 'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe' they represented some qualities we lost."
Those qualities were duty, honor, chivalry and courage. Qualities that Gresham said we threw away in the 20th Century and now in the 21st Century - "As civilization crumbles around us" - people want them back.
Gresham said Lewis was a "faithful Christian" who lived out his "duty to Christ every hour, of every day, of every week of his life."
But, he said the books he wrote and the movie based on the book are not Christian. Gresham said Lewis did not set out to write Christian books, but set out as a Christian to write good books.
He said the movie does not have any Christian allegory in it, but he did say it has Christian symbolism.
Gresham shared some memories of Lewis, saying he had a photographic memory and could remember everything he read. He added his mother also had a photographic memory and she and Lewis used to play Scrabble with their own set of rules thanks to these gifts.
Gresham said their Scrabble rules dictated they could use words from any known language, real or fictional.
He also spoke highly of Lewis' humor, saying you could not be in a conversation with Lewis for more than five or 10 minutes without roaring in laughter.
One memory he has of spending time with Lewis was attending meetings Lewis had with other authors of the time. In these meetings, the authors would all tear each other's work apart to loud laughter.
"You cannot learn anything from people who agree with you all the time," Gresham said.
Gresham added Lewis was a man who loved to write and would write with a dip pen. He would dip the pen in, write about four or five words, pause, and dip the pen again to write another four or five words.
"I think it is a wonderful way to write if you have the patience," he said.
Furthermore, Gresham said Lewis was a man who was "completely aware of his sinfulness and completely aware of his salvation."
"He never lectured or preached at me as a child, but his example to me taught me how to live," Gresham said. "Had I been able to search the entire planet I could not have found a better stepfather."
Read the entire article
