Two writers whose ideas and language inspired and satisfied me in college and since are C.S. Lewis and Jacques Barzun. Lewis was a professor of literature at both Oxford and Cambridge. He once said no book was too long for him nor any cup of tea too big. He was a clear, steady forthright thinker, at least he seems so from his writings that I have read.
Barzun grew up in an upper class French family and went on to become a dean at Columbia in New York. His writings seem more varied in subject and more flamboyant than Lewis. Somewhere in his writings, he listed five writers that had influenced him but I can only think of three of them:
William Blake, Nietzsche and William James. In college, I read to a blind professor who dismissed Barzun for having written too widely, on too many subjects.
Barzun and Blake came to mind today as I read complaints about the nuisance of having to stay home because of COVID-19, the virus. I thought of the line "to see a world in a grain of sand" (William Blake). I have been to the store today and I have been online with some friends. I think I can see "the world in a grain of sand and heaven in a wild flower." I can hold "eternity in the palm of (my) hand" and so can you.
Blake has some lovely things to say to us today, even though he lived in a different time (1757-1827). I had paid some attention to him before but when I found Barzun's salute to him, I paid more.
As people focus on the difficulties of carrying on as usual while avoiding the coronavirus, irritation and argument can interfere with the sights, sounds and tastes on offer everywhere. Don't let a little critter obscure the beauty and fun of being alive here and now.
