Embracing Chaos (Susan Howatch)
I enjoy Susan Howatch's novels about the Church of England. Her characters are terribly flawed, easily recognizable. Here's a quote from The High Flyer:
(p 301)
A long while later I said to Lewis: "I can't stand there being no order. I'm so frightened of the chaos."
"It's like being thrown into the deep end of the pool, isn't it?" said Lewis casually. "The rules that apply to life on dry land no longer apply. You're immersed in water, a substance which as the potential to drown you. If you're not accustomed to swimming every instinct tells you to yell in terror and grab the rail at the side of the pool, but in fact this isn't the way to deal with the problem. You have to make the problem no longer a problem by embracing it -- you have to let go of the rail and launch yourself out on the water because once you're swimming, playing by the water-rules instead of the land rules, you find the water's stimulating, bracing, even welcoming. So by embracing the chaos instead of shunning it you've opened up a whole new dimension of reality."
Hmmm.....
(p 301)
A long while later I said to Lewis: "I can't stand there being no order. I'm so frightened of the chaos."
"It's like being thrown into the deep end of the pool, isn't it?" said Lewis casually. "The rules that apply to life on dry land no longer apply. You're immersed in water, a substance which as the potential to drown you. If you're not accustomed to swimming every instinct tells you to yell in terror and grab the rail at the side of the pool, but in fact this isn't the way to deal with the problem. You have to make the problem no longer a problem by embracing it -- you have to let go of the rail and launch yourself out on the water because once you're swimming, playing by the water-rules instead of the land rules, you find the water's stimulating, bracing, even welcoming. So by embracing the chaos instead of shunning it you've opened up a whole new dimension of reality."
Hmmm.....
Comments
A friend of mine, who is a mystic, advises me and others to pray to be uncomfortable. That's pretty much "embracing the chaos."
Thank you, Katherine. I love quotes.
Glad I found you!
Doesn't that speak to our baptismal experience--leaving land, diving into the water, learning a new way of existing and being transformed into a new reality.
Thanks so much for leading me into a new understanding. (Curses :) for introducing a new author I now have to find and read.)