My January Post at The Lamp's Blog
01/27/2022
Here. It's a complaint about my tinnitus.
They made a few edits with which I didn't necessarily agree. But I didn't strongly object, either. And I've learned, or maybe I should just say decided, to let that stuff go, because:
- They may be right, that their changes are improvements.
- "Choose your battles" is always a prudent strategy. In general, I would only argue with an editor if I thought the edit changed the sense of what I had written such that it said something I didn't intend to say.
- I'm very grateful to them for publishing me.
- Nobody likes a prima donna.
Also, I have to give them credit for making more of an effort than I did to track down a quotation. I had written:
Somewhere, I think in C.S. Lewis, there is a description of heaven as a place where "all that is not music is silence."
They changed that to "Somewhere George McDonald....". I will assume that they are correct, though "somewhere" rather than a specific citation suggests that they aren't 100% certain either.
I never posted the link to my December post, partly because I wasn't real happy with it. It's a sentiment I've expressed here before, a complaint about the replacement of Christmas by the empty Holiday.
Here's the link to the blog page. There are a number of other things there that are worth reading.
The quote, and yes, by George MacDonald, comes from his Unspoken Sermons, The Hands of The Father. The full sermon can be found here:
http://www.online-literature.com/george-macdonald/unspoken-sermons/9/
"Nor shall we ever know that repose in the Father's hands, that rest of the Holy Sepulchre, which the Lord knew when the agony of death was over, when the storm of the world died away behind his retiring spirit, and he entered the regions where there is only life, and therefore all that is not music is silence, (for all noise comes of the conflict of Life and Death)--we shall never be able, I say, to rest in the bosom of the Father, till the fatherhood is fully revealed to us in the love of the brothers."
The internet sure is helpful in this sort of sleuthing.
Posted by: CK | 01/28/2022 at 07:20 AM
Thank you. I have to admit that I didn't try very hard. I haven't read much MacDonald and definitely haven't read that sermon, so it's almost certain that what I read was Lewis quoting it. Or else in that collection of MacDonald snippets that Lewis published.
Posted by: Mac | 01/28/2022 at 07:55 AM
Good post. I thought the Christmas one was pretty good too, actually.
Posted by: Rob G | 01/29/2022 at 06:19 AM
Thanks. I didn't think the Christmas one was bad, just...I don't know, maybe sort of thumping on a dead horse.
That was a case, btw--speaking of editors and editing--where the editor fixed a serious problem with the original, which went beyond the facts about the suppression of the word "Christmas."
Posted by: Mac | 01/29/2022 at 10:40 AM
I've had it since I was a kid. Pretty mild, although it is getting worse as I get older, especially when I'm really tired or under stress.
I didn't recognize it for what it is until well into adulthood.
It actually makes me sad sometimes that I can never hear real silence..
Posted by: Robert Gotcher | 01/29/2022 at 02:57 PM
Yeah I basically took 800 words to say it makes me sad. :-)
Posted by: Mac | 01/29/2022 at 03:53 PM
Maclin, I love the Dickensian allusion in your closing line!
My sympathy to you and Robert both.
Posted by: Anne-Marie | 01/29/2022 at 04:17 PM
I didn't even consciously intend it. It just was the way I thought about the scenario. Only after I'd written it did I realize that it sounded familiar.
Posted by: Mac | 01/29/2022 at 08:52 PM