The Extraordinary in the Ordinary
Ordinary people have an exciting time, while odd people are always complaining of the dullness of life. This is why the new novel dies so quickly and the old fairy tales endure forever. The old fairy tale makes the hero a normal, human boy. It is his adventures that are startling. They startle him because he is normal. But in the modern psychological novel, the hero is abnormal. The center is not central. You can make a story out of a hero among dragons but not out of a dragon among dragons. The fairy tale discusses what a sane man will do in a mad world.
G. K. Chesterton
G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (New York: Dodd Mead, 1908), 16.
Our experience of the world has two parts, the sacred and the mundane. The division between the two is not always clear, nor easily understood. But understanding the difference can help us reconcile the two. The food-gathering method of the Trobriand Islanders illustrates our different approaches to the two realms. The Trobrianders live on atolls off the eastern coast of New Guinea in the southwest Pacific. Most of their food comes from fishing in the protected Trobriand lagoon. They use traditional fishing methods there, and an abundant catch, for which the Trobrianders are regularly thankful to their gods, is usually assured. On exceptional occasions, however, fishing on the open seas becomes necessary. The Trobrianders' tiny boats don't fare so well in the heavy waves. Danger can strike quickly from seas roiled by sudden storms. Because of the hazards, elaborate rituals and magic rites to appease angry gods are performed before the islanders venture forth.1 Our experience of prayer is similar in some ways to the Trobriander's fishing preferences. Most of our prayer takes place in the lagoons of ...
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