"Surprised by Joy"

 In his book "Surprised by Joy" C.S. Lewis writes about the realization that came to him over many years of contemplation, and experiences, of his own longing for, (as it turns out) longing itself. I can sympathize with this understanding. After a few decades of not being a reader, (in fact hating the idea of reading) having gone through many fads, interests, and things in my life, do now realize that in my more recent years, I have found the pleasure, and joy of reading. What is revealed when looking back is this... I had been reading about agriculture. Specifically reading about grassland management, and pasture management. Soil health, also that I loved learning about livestock, and animal health. And the pastoral or maybe even a more agrarian style, and pace of life. So I set out to fix up the barn, build a fence, and some stalls. Add a hay loft, have some chickens, and some goats. Also that I love learning languages. But lately I've been reading mostly Theological books, and I have enjoyed all of these books that have, and are teaching me so much! All these things remain true.. But what is also true, is what I have learned about myself. And that is that through it all,  ...I  love  learning. That hunger, or longing for the next piece of understanding, or the learning of something new (or something old). That only creates more desire for learning.

He points out that the acquisition, or in that moment of joy, how that suddenly when it's gone, it makes you keenly aware of your need for another longing of the next "joy". It's not something you can control. Lewis writes that "Joy is not a possession". And he makes clear that he is not talking about a sensual type of desire, or longing. He specifically makes certain to establish that when he says...

“Joy is not a substitute for sex; sex is very often a substitute for Joy. I sometimes wonder whether all pleasures are not substitutes for Joy.”

The Joy he is talking about is desire itself, a reminiscence of something priceless, or the waiting with expectation for something grand. Again I find it best to use his words.

“All Joy reminds. It is never a possession, always a desire for something longer ago or further away or still 'about to be'.”

He also discusses his experience, that once he started to seek out this true understanding of Joy, he realized that you really can't control it at all. You can't 'bring it about' or even necessarily expand it, when you are in it.  But the one thing you can do, is to squelch it. And the quickest way (he found) to do that is to... in the moment you realize you are full of Joy, is to start analyzing that joy. Because NOW, you are thinking about the joy, instead of the thing that has brought you joy.

Through many stratagems, in his book "Mere Christianity" he comes to the same point, that through his life's journey, he has come to the place of Faith in Christ ultimately. And that finding this elusive joy he states this...

"If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world." - C.S. Lewis

In a way, it reminds me of William Wordsworth's (1770-1850) poem "Ode: Intimations of Immortality" One portion reads...

Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:
The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star,	60
Hath had elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar:
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come	65
From God, who is our home