The Idea of an Essay, Volume 4

98 The Idea of an Essay: Volume 4 Good Grief! Cat Clemons Grief has a way of grabbing the attention, chiseling at every other aspect of life until nothing seems as important as that grief. Important issues melt away as pain drills for the center of every situation. Is grief important in the journey of life? While grief is natural, certainly, what lessons can be gleaned? In a Christian’s life, there are many counterintuitive situations which have the unique ability to produce fruit. In the same way, grief holds an unexpected present for Christians. In a grieving C.S. Lewis’ journal, A Grief Observed, Logos, Pathos, and Ethos work together to successfully convey the idea that there is no sanctification without grief. The process of grief must include the realization that the loved one no longer exists in the way that they did on earth. While it is tempting to set up a shrine in the mind to someone who is dead, it should not happen. C. S. Lewis appeals to Logos when he states, “But don’t come talking to me about the consolations of religion or I shall suspect you do not understand” (Lewis 25). Here he is referring to the argument of his friends and acquaintances and even family who were saying that H., Lewis’ late wife, was safe and much happier in her heavenly home. Lewis declares this brings little comfort to the grieving. He declares the idea that he ought to rejoice in his wife’s new situation for the sake of religion implausible and discouraging. Religion cannot comfort him because he cannot see what it has done to H.. He believes that she is living in another world, another time, another place. However, he does not knowwhat he believes is true; his lament echoes that she will never again be what she was on earth. In her book The Truth About Grief, Ruth Davis Konigsburg discusses how people radically change their mindset about their loved one and how they themselves change through the process of grieving. They must create a new normal for themselves (Konigsburg 170- 175). Lewis knows especially that “the specific maternal happiness must be written off. Never, in any place or time, will she have a son on her knees, or bathe him, or tell him a story, or plan for his future,