First Words from Aslan

"Narnia, Narnia, Narnia, awake. Love. Think. Speak. Be walking trees. Be talking beasts. Be divine waters."

Stories of beginnings are found in many (all?) of the various cultures of our planet. They often serve to give us answers to questions that we all find intriguing, yet difficult to answer - Who are we? Where do we come from? Why are we here? These questions go to the core of who we are and what we believe.

Even in the magical world of Narnia, answers to these questions go to the core of identity. Who are these talking beasts? Where did they come from? What is it that makes them different from the regular animals also found in Narnia? In Lewis's fictional world, we are given the answers from the mouth of the creator of Narnia - Aslan himself. The quote at the top of this post is from "The Magician's Nephew", the 6th of seven books in the Narnia series.

In many ways, "The Magician's Nephew" is the creation story of Narnia. Lewis writes a tale once again about children, but this time they stumble into Narnia as a barren, dark world. They arrive, however, just in time to watch it become. There they watch as Aslan selects a few animals, speaks the above words to them, and they become the magical talking beasts of Narnia. Three things make them different from the dumb animals, three things they must do in order to remain themselves - Love, Think, Speak. Otherwise, we find out a few pages later, they will return to their prior, dumb ways. We might say that these are the things that make them "human".

So back to reality - what if we try the same thing? What if we the people made these three words into a basic model for our lives? I think Lewis, in just 3 words, sums up what is really important in life - how we live, work, & play with one another. This blog is dedicated to exploring those ideas.