Travel Series Volume, I
London Diaries
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LONDON "A city at the centre of the world – and a world in one city." -"London at a Glance." Visitlondon.com Embedded with people of different cultures, backgrounds, and 230 spoken languages, the city of London is where history meets art, fashion, food, and good ol' British ale. Something can be found for every taste and interest: culture hounds should hit the Tate Modern and the Royal Opera House. Fashion enthusiasts will drool over vintage Oxford Street shops. For foodies, crispy fish from a casual pub or even classic Nando's chicken offers plenty of London flavor. Music junkies will adore Abbey Road, and Big Ben will surely attract any dumb tourist. As I look back at my enriching learning experience in the summer of 2014, this diary serves to share the insights I have gained while roaming the streets and reading the writings of C.S. Lewis in the capital city of England. ___________________________________________________________________________________
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"The Far-off Country" [Blank.] Hollow. Vacancy. As we go through the daily routine of the usual busy week, a small but certain uncomfortable void may often hover within us. Whether we brush it off as nostalgia, loneliness, or simply an emotional phase, we cannot ignore the thought of something missing in our lives, which we cannot fully grasp. In his inspiring address “The Weight of Glory," C.S. Lewis describes this missing piece as a feeling of hunger for a far-off country, or what he calls "longing" (3). We try to ignore it, play it cool, or take another shot and go about our way, but what if it strikes again?
"The books or the music in which we thought the beauty was located will betray us if we trust to them; it was not in them, it only came through them, and what came through them was longing."
-"The Weight of Glory", p. 3
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Ginormous mountains, endless horizons, orange-hued sunsets... We find a powerful, mysterious connection with these breathtaking views of nature, and oftentimes, we find it in awe-inspiring movies, deep mind-boggling novels, and mean, heart-wrenching love songs. Many of these expressions by artists do more than steal our breaths away; they stimulate and ignite a small flame inside all of us, a spark that can explode into a constellation of sensations. We have so much contained inside of us, which we hold back. It's not a surprise drinking is such a demanding tradition in Asian cultures to cry away the pain and hurt from moments past. Our emotional nature will always draw us to objects which temporarily satisfy the holes left in our hearts. The fact is, what we really desire is not the musical or aesthetic experience - these are mere teases and glimpses of comfort. ___________________________________________________________________________________
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If we are constantly hit again and again by these pangs of nothingness, it isn't uncommon for us to question why we feel in such a way. If you are hungry, your hunger proves that your body was made to be fed and to survive on something that fills you up. In the same way, if we are hungry for something more than what the extravagant foods and drinks can stir us with, then maybe we were made for something more. And if we cannot find it here, not in the adrenaline and the romance, what we are looking for may lie outside of this world, in a Paradise. What we term as "heaven," however, is “outside our experience . . . all intelligible descriptions must be of things within our experience� ("The Weight of Glory," 4). All that we know now, in our most intellectual minds, are things our ancestors have seen and historians have written down. Thus - since our human mind can only reach up to their limit of experience, we cannot come to fully understand such a place as heaven. Now, our only goal is to seek it, dream it, and live day by day toward it. This is about our journey to heaven, to P a r a d i s e . ___________________________________________________________________________________
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Three Loves... How to Love? "The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated." -William James Through the illustration of three sisters, C.S. Lewis’s Till We Have Faces describes three different types of love: Romantic Love (Eros), Affection (Storge), and Charity (Agape). A book written in 1956, it remains powerfully applicable to how we love today. 1) Love to Feel Loved Redival, the second oldest sister, is a beautiful and vain gal who is "drunk in love." Constantly looking for male companionship and sneaking off with any young man from the castle, this type of ‘Eros’ love is a self-sought attachment. Perhaps a pitiful character feeling a lack of love from her older sister, she searches for it in whichever man she can find, consequently selling herself to sexual attraction without love. Like any typical rom-com in the twenty-first century, Redival’s love can be described as a #needy and #thirsty love to fulfill her lonely self-needs. It amazes me to think that we humans are designed in such a way that we desire to be loved. Sometimes, or perhaps more often, we love people because we want to be loved in return. We seek the love that we don’t get. And this causes us to downgrade the quality of love - to use our physical features to gain likes, followers, and friends. But what's wrong about that? We want to be feel good about ourselves - we can't stop and won't stop enjoying the high tide of feeling appreciated. And this may very well be humans’ most secretive and greatest desire. ___________________________________________________________________________________
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2) Love to Possess
"the Gods… they had stolen her… The girl was mine… I was my own and Psyche was mine and no one else had any right to her… What should I care for some horrible, new happiness which I hadn’t given her and which separated her from me? … She was mine. Mine!”
-Till We Have Faces, p. 290-92
Orual, the oldest sister, represents a love disguised in outward affection but equally as selfish. While she has spent years loving and caring for her youngest sister, when she finds that she wil leave her, she is distraught. Her love reveals itself to be one of jealousy and possession, and not a one-way arrow directed toward another. Unfortunately, it personifies a perverted Affection tied to a possessive need-love. Sometimes, I might ask myself the question, Why do I love this person? Do I love him/ her for who he/she is, or to keep him/her for myself? Is it for your own desire? ___________________________________________________________________________________
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3) Love, Pure Love.
“I’ll not rest till you’re as happy as I”
-Till We Have Faces, p. 105
Psyche’s love is constant and one of true charity. While Orual pours love on her sister at which she expects to receive in return, Psyche loves her sister at no cost, at no price, and simply to see her happiness. Comparing the loves of Redival, Orual, and Psyche, Lewis shows us the kinds of love we practice in our lives with one another. We often have a romantic love that is for our own lustful taste and pleasure, and not necessarily for the happiness of the person. Even among our friends, we pour out rashly only to expect so much in return. But the key is: when we are sharing agape love, then we will truly understand the fullness of JOY of loving someone. To sacrificially love others and still love myself and love God above all else, is the ultimate mission. ___________________________________________________________________________________
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Š Janice Chung Pepperdine University | Class of 2017 Integrated Marketing Communication