Tom is such a wise and wonderful person, as is his wife, Faye. We are privileged to go to church with them and he is one of the few people with whom Tdub has confided his struggles and relies on for mentoring and just general "fatherly" type support. He is a retired art director for Word Publishing and knew C.S. Lewis personally. He even did a portrait of him for Word to use in his (Lewis') books and there's a photo in one of them that pictures Faye walking in the distance. Cool stuff. The wonderful thing about Tom is that even though you know you are speaking to someone of great knowledge and wisdom, you feel like you're talking to an ordinary person. He has a wonderful presence that makes you feel affirmed and your thoughts valued. Maybe it's just me. But, I don't think so. He's just a very Godly man and he puts you at ease.
I did have the chance to talk with him about The Movie last Wednesday night. To give you an idea of what sort of wonderful person he is, he approached US to ask what we thought and if there were things that bothered us that were different from the book. Mind you, this man can recite Lewis from cover-to-cover and has spent literally YEARS in study of the man and his writings. And yet, he asks for our opinions and looks at us eagerly as if we are about to tell him something he hasn't already thought about.
We rambled on for a bit and then I said, "I really want to know what YOU think of the movie!" He was proud of himself for having seen it three times to our two and then proceeded to tell us about the most disappointing part for him. He talked about how in the book, after the resurrection of Aslan, there's a good deal of celebration between Aslan, Susan, and Lucy. They romp, run, roll in the grass, and just play for a while, and all the while the big battle is about to begin. Tom found this scene so important that he dedicated an entire chapter of his book to it. And yet, the movie leaves it off. He said he understood that it wasn't vital to the advancement of the story, but he finds it significant to the nature of Aslan and the way he mirrors God's relationship with us.
I haven't read Tom's book yet. He's going to be teaching Wednesday night classes using it for the next several weeks at our church so I'm going to read it in conjunction with that. Can't wait.
grace
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2 comments:
Thanks for stopping by and commenting the other day! I just posted up a response to your question. Feel free to drop by and read it. As to your question about how you handle speaking truth on your site, I think you do a fine job of it. As I said in my article, respect is a big part of speaking truth without shutting down discourse, and I have not yet seen you deal anything by respect. So, keep up the good work! I hope my responses prove helpful for you.
Interior: Exactly. I can't wait to read Tom's book. As always, thanks for reading and commenting.
Jim: Thanks so much for responding to my question...I'm heading over to your site right now to check out the rest of your wisdom on the subject! As I said, I do value your opinion so what you've said here helps me a great deal. Thanks for taking the time.
grace
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