Author: Karl (Page 1 of 52)

See My Story and Vitae on Dashboard

FUN WITH JOICE (AND SOMETIMES KARL)

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I started this series of short stories by thinking about some of the funny things that have happened in my married life. I had been posting something about Joice and her legacy on Facebook each week and this could be an addendum. I have not attempted to put the stories in any chronological order. I begin with the mosquito story:

The Persistent Mosquito

This incident happened several years ago at a church in Michigan. Joice and I hadn’t met the new pastor, so we were standing at the entrance chatting. A mosquito kept buzzing around the pastor and finally landed on his forehead. Without hesitation Joice reached over and slapped the insect, which fell to the floor. The pastor looked slightly puzzled, but Joice calmly bent down, retrieved the now dead mosquito and held it up like a prize. “See,” she said, “I got em.” That is not the end of the story. Later when Joice was asked to say a few words from the pulpit, she remarked, “Well I think I finally knocked some sense into your pastor,” and told the mosquito story. Later the pastor, not to be outdone, remarked “The next time the Franklins come, I am going to wear a helmet:” Needless to say, we became good friends and I believe they later sprayed the church entrance with an insect repellant. Life was never dull with Joice around.

That little story elicited several comments and it brought to mind a number of other “funny” incidents. I’m going to start here, and hopefully I can continue to add to them.

The Lost Skirt

Joice often told this story, and I can picture her telling it now and laughing as she does so. She was speaking at a church in north Dallas to a group of women and she had on her PNG attire, which included a “lap-lap,” a decorative full-length skirt, tied with a knot in the front. As she was making and important point with her hands raised, she noticed that the women were not looking directly at her, but at her feet. And there lay her skirt, which had come off. Joice didn’t miss a beat and said, “Well, I guess you never had a missionary stripper here before.” The women were in awe and laughing as Joice continued, “Now let me show you how to put on a PNG skirt.” Fortunately, she had a slip on, so she wasn’t as revealing as it sounds. She continued, “I’ll never forget Elmwood Methodist church,” to which a woman replied, “We’ll never forget you either Joice. And I bet they won’t. When she told the story to our then teenage daughter, Karol said, “Oh mom I would have been so embarrassed.” Her mom replied, “At your age I would have been too, but not at my age.” Joice loved that story and it spread far and wide among our missionary colleagues.

The Green Dress

Joice had a green dress that was attractive, and she wore it a lot—too much I thought. One day our dear PNG friends (David and Sineina, who were more like our kids) were visiting us and I thought “This is my chance to get rid of that dress.” I walked into our bedroom closet, got the dress, and took it to Sineina. “Here, Sineina is a dress that Joice has been wanting you to have.” Joice looked at me puzzled and then a sly smile came across her face. She went into the bedroom and returned with a large armload of my shirts. “And David,” she said, “Karl wants you to have these shirts.” I didn’t, of course, so I walked over and took them back, saying “Most of them won’t fit you, but here is one that will,” and I gave him a shirt I had bought in the Philippines. Not much more was said, but that is not the end of the story. Sineina gave the green dress to a woman who worked in an office near me, and she promptly wore it almost every day. Joice was pleased.

Missionaries in Black

In one way, it was clear from a young age that Joice would become a missionary. Her parents often hosted missionaries and she loved their stories. In addition, each year her church had a mission conference, something common some years ago. And each year Joice would respond to the invitation to follow God’s calling her to be a missionary by walking to the front when there was an invitation. However, she told me, “there is one thing I will never do as a missionary: I will not wear black.” Why not? It seemed so drab to her, a woman who loved colorful clothes and a bright atmosphere, sometimes with many candles. True to her calling, Joice married me and became a missionary and I never saw her in black clothes. They simply would not have fitted her personality. There are all kinds of missionaries, but she was unique in many ways and I love to remember her (in bright clothes).

The Smile and “the Look”

I have hundreds, perhaps thousands, of photos of Joice and people who look at them have often said, “She always seems to be smiling.” For the most part that is true, but she had a particular look that she would give me that made me pause. It was a kind of bemused look, as if to say, “What are you thinking?” I would have done something or, more likely, said something, that displeased her and, by that look I knew immediately that I should stop and punt. It seems wonderful to me that she did not usually have to say anything, instead just look at me with that expression. Sometimes I would quiz her about the look, but not often. I wonder sometimes, perhaps often, if Jesus isn’t looking at me like Joice did because, when she did, I had the convicting work of the Holy Spirit suddenly talking to me. I really miss the smile, but I also miss “that look.”

The Antenna

Sometimes Joice liked to have a little too much fun. I came home from work at our school in Dallas one day and noticed that the antenna of the car lay limp on the roof of the car, much like a dead, but thin snake. I asked what happened. “Oh,” she laughed, as she said, “I often like to push the button to have the garage door go down and then see how quickly I can get out with the car. I didn’t quite make it this time.”

The Water Drum

Joice and her best friend in Papua New Guinea were much alike: gregarious, energetic, pretty. and smart. (They also had great husbands.) Marge and Joice did a lot of things together and there is one event that typifies their bond. One afternoon when I was outside our house painting, I heard them approaching in an old Landrover. They had been to a nearby town shopping and Marge was bringing Joice home. They pulled into our driveway and Marge, thinking she was pushing the brake, instead gave the accelerator a mighty nudge. At the corner of our house stood a 55 gallon drum filled with rain water. The Landrover cruised into the drum and sent enough water from it to baptize the side of our house. I rushed to see what had happened and found the front bumper of the vehicle perched on the drum with the tire still spinning. As it spun aimlessly, it made a noise that blended perfectly with the peals of laughter coming from the women. What do you do with a wife like that? You laugh with her and wonder what will happen next! What is she up to in heaven now?

Yodeling at Windsor Castle

This story happened when we were in England teaching at our summer school and on one weekend we went to visit Windsor Castle. I had gone off to buy some film and left Joice, our daughter and our niece to wait for me. Somehow, we got separated and I was far up the trail when Joice spotted me in my brightly colored shirt. She got up on a wall and did the Kewa yodel for me. I heard it, turned, and spotted her, much to my embarrassment. But Joice was having fun and laughing at me. “It worked—I got your attention,” she told me when I rejoined them. “Yes, and the attention of a thousand others,” I replied. That made her laugh even more. She loved life and laughter.  A Kewa yodel is generally only something the men did to pass messages, but Joice learned how to do it and the men of the village would have peals of laughter when she yodeled for me.

My Libido

Sometimes Joice got her technical terms mixed up (like we all do). She was telling a story about me—I don’t remember what it was—and saw my disappointed face. She felt sorry for me and meant to say, “Oh Karl, I’m sorry, did I hurt your ego?”  Instead of ego she said libido!

Gag Gifts

Joice loved to give out gag gifts at parties and one of her favorites was to take a very small box, perhaps 3 inches by half an inch, and insert a bikini in it. She would then act so surprised and offended when the person opened it. She had several such “white elephants,” including a pair of mega-undershorts. They were all waiting to be released at the proper moment.

So Many Shoes

Joice loved shoes and she had a lot of them, probably 80 or 90 percent from the “missionary barrel” or “boutique” as we were encouraged to snobbishly call it. We were going to teach in England one summer and enroute we stayed with our good friends Bill and Lucille Wernsing in Ithaca, NY. We had to repack and after Joice laid out her 10 or so pairs of shoes, Bill commented “so that is what you do with our support money.” He was joking of course, but years later Bill was in the latter stages of Alzheimer’s disease, and we were visiting him at a care center. His wife told him that he had visitors, but no response. “The woman with all the shoes,” she said. With that comment, something triggered Bill to give a response. “Oh, that one,” he said. It was the last words we ever heard from him, but we treasured them.

Fortune Telling

We were living in the village and women would stop by regularly to see us. On one occasion, a very pregnant woman came by and was complaining of pain. Joice gave her two aspirins and, in joking, told her that she was going to have a baby boy. Two hours later the woman returned with her baby boy and soon other pregnant women were coming to see Joice. “Give us the pills that make the baby come and tell us if it will be a boy or a girl.” What Joice had intended as small talk and a joke prompted other pregnant women to see her as a fortune teller.

Puppetry

Joice had a little hand puppet that she would use to talk to the Kewa women. She would hold it in her hand—it fit something like a glove—and it would talk Kewa. She would get the women to talk back to the puppet and I think they even gave it a name. She had a lot of fun with it!

A Pupil of Joice’s

I’ll quote from Joice for this story, which happened when we were at a government station called Kagua, in the Southern Highlands of PNG in the late 1980s. “When we got there a teenage girl came running so excited and breathless. Karl opened the car door and she fell into his arms crying ‘You didn’t know me, did you?’ It was Yausi who was in our [Joice’s] pre-school literacy class years ago. Now she was in Kagua High School. She insisted on speaking English and it was very good. I felt rather gratified since I had taught her to read. She got in the car and wanted to talk and talk. She had been worried that she had missed us.”

Flipping her Wig

While we lived in the village of Muli, in the Southern Highlands of PNG, it got very cold and windy. It was hard for Joice to keep her hair looking like she wished. For some reason, a couple of women visited and they got talking about hair and asked Joice for a snippet of hers. We didn’t know why but a month or two later a package arrived with a wig for Joice. Joice decided to have some fun with the Kewa women, so she wore her wig, which they didn’t notice because it looked like her normal hair. The people often had lice and itched their heads a lot and Joice pretended that she also had lice. She itched and itched and, in the process pulled her wig off. The women shrieked, thinking she had pulled out her hair, but when they learned the truth, they laughed, and all wanted to wear the wig.

In the Dark of the Night

Joice and I were invited to the Catholic mission station to spend a weekend. We had often interacted with them, encouraging them to use the Kewa scriptures and some of the nuns had even visited our village, about 15 miles from their station. When we arrived at their station, we had to split up and Joice went to the nunnery for the night. All the rooms the nuns slept in were the same, and sometime during the night Joice had to get up and find her way to the bathroom. She did so but became disoriented on her directions and, searching for her own room, ended up in the bedroom of a nun–if I remember correctly. She thought it could have been very embarrassing but, instead she got a funny story out it.

Kidnapped

Joice loved to tell the story of how she got kidnapped when we were at Kangaroo Ground, teaching at our Australian linguistic school. All the staff knew Joice well and they knew she could take a joke. So, they decided to kidnap her. She related it like this: “I heard a knock at the door and although my hair was up in curlers, I went to see who it was. Suddenly a large bag was put over my head and I was taken firmly to a nearby car. No one said anything, but I was driven around for what seemed like hours and then taken back to my house, or at least that is where it seemed to be. As the two men untied the bag, I reached for my hair and removed the curlers. I saw that my abductors were two men from our staff that I had probably played some jokes on. I was released in our house into the comforting arms (perhaps) of Karl. Did I learn my lesson? No, but I had a funny story to tell.”

My 40th Birthday Hay-seed Party

Joice loved birthday parties and she made sure that my 40th was one to remember. All of my friends who came to the party were dressed like hillbillies. One man had a corncob pipe and his toe bandaged up. They wore bib overhauls, and one woman had her teeth blackened. I was given weird gifts I am sure, although I can’t remember what they were. And, of course, there was my wife directing it all and delighting in the party. What laughs we had!

Surgery

Joice had many surgeries during her lifetime—I think we counted up 8—and when we came home on furlough in 1976 she needed some extensive repair work done because of Kirk’s long and difficult birth. I don’t know who referred us to the surgeons (whose names I have somewhere), but Joice soon became friends with them and as they were walking her down the hall for her anesthetic, she looked at their surgical gowns and quipped, “Do you always dress up like this?” They loved her and one of the surgeons paid what our insurance would not cover for the operation.

Popcorn

Joice loved popcorn and would eat gallons of it. We often ate popcorn with our friends Clyde and Lois Whitby and Joice and Clyde would see who could eat the most, joking as they did so. When Clyde was dying, he said t Joice, “It must have been all that popcorn.”

The Pastor’s Notes

Joice enjoyed telling how she noted that things were not as they appeared. The situation was when she was in the choir many years ago. Each year the pastor invited a man who spoke on temperance or some related item and Joice thought he was exceedingly boring. However, she noticed the pastor taking copious notes. “What can he possibly be writing” she thought, so when the choir stood up to sing, she leaned a bit to the right and was able to read the pastor’s notes. He had written: Change the oil in the car; go to the hardware store; and so on. She was delighted to see that pastors get bored too.

The Old People

We had not been back in the Kewa area for a long time and were in at the Lutheran airstrip in Wabi. We had gotten off our small airplane and were walking along the road to meet some of the Kewa people, who had heard we were coming. I had grown a beard, and it was grey and white. When the men saw me with it, they said, “Oh, the old man is coming,” and Joice thought that was very funny. Then when we got a bit closer, they said “And the old woman is with him too.” Then we both laughed! A caveat: being old in the Kewa culture demands respect and the names for “old man” and “old women” are given with the attitude of esteem.

Joice Gets Mad (at herself)

We were in Paris and the train was packed. I nearly had my pocket picked when entering the train, but I turned and interrupted the man, giving him a shove back outside. Joice was with Karol and Susan, and they were surrounded by several wild looking characters. The girls had their purses over their shoulders, under the arms, but as Joice relates: “I was not so smart. My shoulder bag hung down to my hip and I hung one to a front strap with one hand. With the other hand I was hold on to a pole, sharing it with several others, including a nice looking young man who stood facing me closely. Odd, I thought, but he got off soon and I was relieved. Ken [Susan’s dad] started moving towards the girls and the characters moved away. Later, when shopping by the Arch de Triumph to buy some cards, I went for my wallet and found my purse open and it was gone. The nice looking man, no doubt. I was very mad at myself for not being more cautious.”

Not Complaining

Joice was helping at the SIL museum in Dallas, and I was teaching at our school. She often went to the “boutique” to find donated clothes. “I go every time I’m on the Center. The clothes aren’t much but the price is right! I would love to buy new clothes—but can’t reconcile this with our other needs for Karol, the house, etc. I guess this is the way mothers have been for centuries. I’m not complaining. I love doing it for my family’s sake. Particularly Karol. I had thought of taking a part-time job. But when I thought of the clothing I would need I figured I would soon nullify my earnings.”

Meeting Mike

We had come to the US from PNG to be interviewed for a forthcoming job with our organization. We had about two weeks and during the weekends we wanted to go to Waco to see Karol and meet her fiancé Mike for the first time. Joice was prepared for the occasion, and we hadn’t been talking long before she said to Mike, “I don’t know if you are the one for Karol, but I have been praying for years for that man and here is what I have prayed for.” Karol and I cringed a bit, having no idea what Joice was about to say, but also knowing that it would be direct and revealing. “I have prayed,” Joice continued, “that the man would be Christian, come from a stable home, and be sexually pure.” That seemed to go over OK, so Joice continued, “Are there any diseases in your family that we should know about?” I thought that might end the romance, but Mike easily countered with “Mental or physical?” I knew immediately that Karol had chosen the right man.

The Singing Dogs

I believe that Pretzel IV is the fourth Dachshund that we or our family have owned and Joice has taught every one of them sing duets with her. She would put Pretzel on her lap and start singing “How much is that doggie in the window?” and soon Pretzel would put his head back and start to wail the song, mostly in tune as far as I could tell. One of our “Pretzels” was in New Guinea and just learning to “sing” at our house at Ukarumpa. A neighbor heard the noise and came quickly to see if there was a problem at the Franklin’s house. She promptly got an introduction to the talent of the singing dog. Joice would often have Pretzel perform for our PNG student friends and they would clap and yell with delight.

The Cement Marker

Joice and I have done some odd things, which we thought was funny and this is one of them. We were teaching linguistics for SIL during the summer at one of the Universities in Sydney, Australia. We had a business manager named Tom Hibberd and he loved a good joke. We decided to see how far we could stretch that humor. We were out driving on a back road and noticed a large cement post by the side of the road. “I know a good place for that,” I said, meaning in Tom’s bed. The post was heavy, and we worked hard to get into the car, up two flights of stairs in the dorm, and into Tom’s bed. The bed was not very substantial ,and it sagged almost to the floor. We waited anxiously the next morning for Tom at breakfast, for he usually sat with us. “What would he say?” we wondered. He said nothing and we have no idea if he felt it was funny or not.

Practicing a Jewish Dance

For some reason, the staff at our Dallas SIL were going to put on a performance and one part of it involved a Jewish dance. Joice, who had never danced in her life (her parents and church would not allow her) was asked to participate and of course she wanted to. However, in the first practice she attempted a high kick and strained her thigh muscle. She was sidelined and could not participate. “That is probably what was due to me for trying to dance,” she said and then had a laugh.

Throwing away Money

It happened on two occasions. The first time was after Joice had attended a church function in Dallas and the church had given us the equivalent of one year’s support, a check for $1200. For some reason, I didn’t go and was in bed when Joice returned. In an excited voice she woke me and said, “Look what I got and waved the check before me.” It was the last we ever saw of it.  Apparently, when getting she was getting the wash ready the next morning the check got tangled up in the sheets and disappeared down the drain. Somewhat shamefacedly we had to ask the church to write a new check. The second time was at Kangaroo Ground, Australia, where we were teaching and heading up the SIL school. Karol had just graduated from Baylor and had come to visit us. While there she received a grant from the University to teach in Guatemala. It was in a manila envelope, plainly marked and it was a check for around $1200. Joice, cleaning up the room, threw the empty envelope (so she thought) into the trash. I had taken the trash to the dumpster, and it was sometime later that Karol couldn’t find her missing money. “Where is the Baylor envelope?” she asked, and mom replied that it had gone to the dumpster. Karol and I hurried off to the dumpster and I climbed down inside it. I sorted through the trash and found it! Joice was very careful with checks after that although, for some reason, she thought it was funny. I didn’t—it is amazing what people throw in a dumpster!

Fake Lamington Deserts

While living and teaching at Kangaroo Ground in Victoria, Australia, a couple of the staff became Aussie citizens. Joice decided to “celebrate” and gave them a party. As part of the event, she said that she had some Lamingtons for them as desert. Australian Lamingtons are “A moist butter sponge dipped in chocolate then coated with coconut.” However, Joice decided to play a joke on them and instead chocolate, she covered the cake with vegemite. If you have ever tasted vegemite, I don’t need to say anything more! The new citizens were not pleased with the new taste in their mouths!

Rubber Cockroaches

We had a couple of rubber cockroaches that we would insert into Joice’s blueberry pie or gingerbread cake when certain guests were not looking, but we would carefully determine the recipient. On one occasion when we were having students from UPNG, I set them up, telling them that we had been having cockroach problems and I had to spray all over the house. Later when it was desert time, Joice slipped a rubber roach into the cake of Tom. He started eating it and came across the rubber varmint. “Oh, Oh, Oh,” he exclaimed as he stood up and pushed the cake away. We told him the joke, but it did not matter—he would not eat the cake. Another visitor didn’t have his glasses on and was eating his blueberry pie desert. He knew something was in the pie that was hard to chew, but he kept attacking it. Joice, fearful that he would eat and swallow our rubber pet, confessed. He was not happy, but he did finish the blueberry pie. Another student asked to “borrow” one of our rubber roaches and took it to the Teacher’s College to play a joke on fellow students. We surmised that it got mixed in with the real roaches at the school because we never got it back. 

The Vacuum Cleaner Salesmen

Joice was home alone when two well-dressed men knocked at the door. Believing them to be Mormons, she eagerly invited them in, thinking she could witness about Jesus. “What do we have here, Mormons,” she asked cheerfully. They came inside and said, “No, actually we are selling Kirby vacuum cleaners.” And their demonstration began: they cleaned a part of the living-room rug. “But will it do brick?” Joice asked, pointing to the fireplace area. “Oh yes,” they said and proceeded to clean the area. “What about tiles?” and led them to the kitchen. She then saw me drive into the garage and came running out to meet me. “Oh Karl, I have some men that you will want to meet! She took me to their Kirby demonstration site and looked at me with a twinkle in her eyes. I could tell we were going to have some fun. Joice continued to point to potential cleaning sites: tables, chairs, lamp shades, until the man in charge said they wanted to show us how it would clean a mattress. We went in the bedroom and as they vacuumed the mattress, they took a video that they wanted to show us on our TV. “See,” they said, “You have thousands of mites in your mattress.” And we could see them because they were magnified until they looked a herd of small dinosaurs. “But those are not ours,” I explained. “We got this mattress from our kids in Waco.” “Furthermore,” I cautioned, “We should not disturb them. They are used to us, and we are used to them. If stirred up, they could cause a serious disease.” The men looked at one another, uncertain of the next step. They had been quoting prices from when they first met Joice ($2000) to a new low of $1000 but they could tell we were hard customers. They decided to call their supervisor, who just “happened” to be working nearby. He came immediately and offered us additional incentives and perks. We didn’t budge and finally, they gave up and left. Joice and I sat down and had a good, long laugh.

The Business Cards

John and Ruth Burgin came to help at the Kangaroo Ground school when we were leading it for SIL. John had to leave a year before we did but we found a stack of his business cards that he had left behind. Sometime later they invited us to visit them in Toowoomba, near Brisbane. We decided to have a little fun and took the business cards with us. Joice thought it would be fun to hide them throughout their house, so we put them in books, cupboards, plates, drawers, and so on. Then we thought of the overhead ceiling fans and put them on the blades of the fans. It was winter, so they didn’t turn the fans on for a couple of months. And when they did, cards flew everywhere and we were remembered, but perhaps not with fondness. They told us about it later and we all had a good laugh.

The Salt and Pepper Shakers

The staff from the Australian SIL often did things together and one night we went to a self-serve restaurant. John and Ruth Burgin had invited everyone to their house later that evening and Joice decided to have some fun. She saw Ruth putting free donuts into her purse and said to me “Let’s take the salt and pepper shakers from a table and put them in her purse as well,” so when we had the chance, we did that. We got to Burgin’s house late, but Ruth was already waiting for us. “You have gone too far this time,” she said, and we could tell that she was not happy. “Oh, we were going to take them back,” Joice explained and tell the proprietors “Oh, auntie Ruth is always picking up things and we are sorry she took these.” We would then return the shakers. Ruth did not think this was funny at all, but she got over it.

Whitby’s Dog

Clyde and Lois Whitby were good friends of ours in Duncanville. We had known them in PNG as well, but once we both lived in Duncanville we often got together. They had a dog that they were quite fond of and at some point (it may have been after the real dog died) we got a stuffed dog and placed it somewhere in their house—perhaps sitting on the toilet. That started a round of “hide the dog” and we found it in our tree, and they finally found it in their bird bath, with cement to hold it there and a RIP sign. We had fun doing it and I think they did (sometimes) as well. We also hid recipe books (they had dozens) around their house and between Clyde’s library books. He didn’t like that so much, but it was fun for us.

Joice’s Perfume

Professor Pike came to PNG in the early 1960s to hold a linguistic workshop. Both Joice and I were working on the Kewa language and we met with Dr Pike each week. Joice was working on Kewa tone and had prepared elaborate charts and recordings. In her consultation one day, Pike said to her, “Joice, you bring something very special to these meetings.” “Aha,” Joice thought “He is finally noticing my work and preparations on tone.” So, she asked him what it was. “It is your perfume,” Pike replied. Another time he visited us at our home in the evening after he had eaten (and abruptly) left another home. We had a linguist guest staying with us who thought this would be a chance to ask Pike some linguistic question, which he did. But Pike turned to Joice and asked, “Do you have some paper and scissors?” and for the next hour he made very fancy cutouts for Kirk. He didn’t want to talk linguistics!

The Jungle Camp injection

We were attending Wycliffe’s Jungle Camp for training in southern Mexico in February 1957. Part of the training was to learn how to give injections and we were given oranges to practice on. I was excused because I had already learned the “skill” during my training at the BIOLA School of Missionary Medicine. Betty, the camp nurse, said that Joice should give me the shot. I was reluctant, having seen the orange she practiced on. “Don’t be silly,” said Betty, “she can give it to me.” Then she gave Joice instructions: “Just hold it like a dart and thrust it into the muscle of my arm.” I shuddered, but Joice took the apparatus firmly in her hand and thrust she did. Betty had small arms and the needle went in one side and came out the other. “Pull it out, pull it out,” yelled Betty. And Joice, now quite ashen, did. When we lived among the Kewa, she never gave an injection. It was my job and, remembering that orange and Betty’s white face, I’m glad.

Giving Blood

On April 25th Joice and Lois Whitby went to the small hospital in Kainantu (8 miles away from our center) to give blood for a member who would soon have a baby. While there, Barry Ondo (a Kewa medical orderly) came for most of the event. “He teased me that I would be too weak after giving blood to walk to the car. So on the way out the door I feigned fainting which left him wide-eyed at first.”

Pack your Stuff

I had just gotten home from work and Joice met me at the door. “I have your clothes, just get your bathroom stuff. We are going away.” She had reserved a place for us, and we were off for the weekend. It was a complete surprise to me, but one which she had planned. When your wife is so spontaneous and joyful, it is hard to remain concerned about your work. I had some problems at work, and she was making sure I got away from them.

Wes is Born

Our grandson Wes Franklin was born at our Ukarumpa clinic, the first child of Kirk and Christine. Joice relates it this way: “Karl was out running so I put a blue bow on the door. But Karl’s glasses were too fogged up to see it. He was suspicious because the porch light was off when he returned. He then saw Dr Stan’s car at the clinic and we three were there at 6.45. I praise the Lord for his graciousness in bringing Wesley safely into the world. ‘My soul doth praise the Lord.’ Reminds me of how I felt when our kids were born. Kirk was very cool evidently throughout and a big help. He was cool when he saw Wes. His classic query: ‘Christine, do you think you should check him eo see if he has all his parts?’”

The Joy of Switzerland

Joice relates a joyous instance: “A highlight of the trip was visiting Adelboden and Interlaken. In Adelboden wee stayed at the Hari Pension, run by the father and brother of a colleague in Nepal. He gave us orange drink and mineral water and directed us to the cable car on the other side of the valley. Once at the top we had a feast of Swiss chocolate, enjoyed the beautiful scenery, then went back to the Pension where they served us a three-course meal! They generously would not let us pay for it.” Another example of God’s surprises!

Another Birthday Party

This time it was my 50th and we had several guests. Joice describes out meal like this: “The main course was chicken divan, mixed vegetables, rolls, stuffed tomatoes, then a chocolate cake with a mountain of frosting tinted green with chocolate fudge drizzling down the sides and ice cream. We then played some old, old games and the people brought funny gifts.” I never knew what to expect at my birthday parties—except that my wife would make sure that it was unusual, funny, and that I would be surprised.

A Slip of the Tongue

We were engaged and about to me married and Joice was receiving a lot of gifts. Several of them were slips, which women wore in those days. We were on our way to retrieve another gift and Joice said, “I hope it is not another slip. If it is, I’ll scream.” And of course it was, to which I foolishly said, “Well, scream, you said you would if you got another slip.” Joice looked offended and said, “Why, Karl, what a terrible thing to say.” Notice she did not deny to our friends that she said it, she just said it was a terrible thing to say. And it was, but we got married anyway. It was one of the many times I said something foolish and was forgiven.

Pretzel (II ?) Dies

Over the years we have had several dachshunds, most of them named Pretzel. When one of them died in PNG, Joice put this sign on the bulletin board in the Post Office: “An Ukarumpa resident of 10 years, named Pretzel, has died. We will miss his welcome home each day. Memorial gifts will go towards the 11th grade retreat.” We received a total of K6.73 (probably about $2.50) for the retreat.”

A large Incision

Joice almost died in PNG from a tubal pregnancy. We got to the hospital just in time and a European doctor at the Goroka hospital operated on her and saved her life. A day or so later he came to examine her, and it was the first time Joice had seen his handiwork. “Wow, that is a bit incision,” she said. The doctor, hovering above her, raised his arms and said, “I’ve gotta big hans.” We always laughed and I said that the next time she needed an operation I was going to look for a doctor with small hands. And I did!

In Jesus Name

Joice had called our daughter on the phone, but she wasn’t home. In the customary manner a voice asked her to record her message. Joice talked a bit and then, perhaps forgetting where she was, concluded with “In Jesus’s name, amen.” She then realized what she had said and, while still recording, had a long and loud laugh. And so did we when we heard the recording.

Falling into the Ocean

We were visiting a Wycliffe and SIL couple who lived on an island in the Solomons. We had taken a two hour ride over the ocean to get there and been ferried to shore in a small canoe. A group of the people and our friends had come down to the ocean shore to meet us. Just as we were about to step ashore, a large wave struck us and submerged Joice into the sea. The people were aghast, but Joice got up laughing. The people then laughed as well and we became instant friends, but Joice was the honored guest.

Bluebird of Happiness

Joice loved birds and her most favorite was the bluebird. She had pictures of them in her study and on the refrigerator door. We were returning from MD Anderson after Joice’s evaluation for her cancer treatment. A long road laid ahead of us. We stopped at a rest stop, and I went inside to the toilet. Joice remained in the car and as she sat there a bluebird came and perched on a bush near her. It seemed to be looking her right in the eye. As she watched at the beautiful bird, she heard God saying, “you see this bluebird and it is one of happiness. I am going to be with you throughout your cancer treatment.” When I returned, the bird was gone, but there was a glow on Joice’s face as she told me about her message from God.

The Rehearsal dinner

I’ll close (for now) with this rather long story. It took place on the night of the wedding rehearsal dinner for Mike and Karol at a fancy hotel in Arlington Texas. Mike’s parents rented the facility and provided food, a cinema photographer, and had many invited guests from Tulsa as well. People ate delicious food, were happy and said nice things about Mike and Karol. But Joice had a different plan in mind. At the end of the desert, she stood up, banged the table and exclaimed very loudly, “This wedding has got to stop!” A hush came over the crowd as I stood and asked in an embarrassed voice, “What is the matter?” Joice replied dogmatically, “It is the night before the wedding, and we have not gotten a bride price.” “Well,” I said, “let’s have brother of the bride-to-be help us.” I motioned to Kirk, and he stood up, feeling very noticed. “What do you think Kirk? How many pings is she worth? Ten perhaps?” Kirk looked at her carefully. “No, he said, she is much too skinny. She would not be able to do hard work in the gardens and she would not be able to look after the pigs very well either.” We needed arbitration and I saw someone arriving. It was Dan Litteral, who I introduced as the head man from our village in PNG. I explained who he was and said that we would talk in Pidgin English and that I would then translate. The chief would be our judge. Dan opened with at least 3 minutes of talk in Pidgin English. People asked, “What did he say?” “He said ‘hello’” I replied. Dan talked at length again and I was again asked to translate. “He said, ‘I came by Qantas.,” By now everyone was laughing. Our final act was to call Mike and Karol to the front and adorn them with New Guinea artifacts and dress. Later, when the party was over, the business partner of Mike’s father’s came to Joice and said, “When you stood up and said that, my heart stopped.” “Hurrah,” said Joice, lifting her arms heavenward. The whole incident was filmed, and we have watched it, wondering, “How did we ever get up nerve enough to do that?”

Karl Franklin
February 2024

Prayer in the night: For those who work or watch or weep

Warren, Tish Harrison. 2021. Prayer in the night: For those who work or watch or weep. Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press.

Warren is a priest with the Anglican Church and has a campus ministry with InterVarsity Graduate and Faculty Ministries. She and her husband and three children live in Pittsburg.

The book begins with Warren’s story about the trauma of her miscarriage. During it, she prayed relentlessly and states that “Faith, I’ve come to believe, is more craft than feeling. And prayer is our chief-practice in the craft” (9).

Warren’s emphasis on prayer centers on “finding Compline,” a prayer of “completion,” the last prayer of the day and the service surrounding it is designed for nighttime (12). It is the silent hours of the night when we are more aware of ourselves and of God. She found the Psalms “staving off the threat of darkness” (13). This is because “every twenty-four hours, nighttime gives us a chance to practice embracing our own vulnerability” (15). And further, “When we pray the prayers we’ve been given by the church—the prayers of the psalmist and the saints, the Lord’s Prayer, the Daily Office—we pray beyond what we can know, believe, or drum up in ourselves” (17). In her circumstances, Warren needed a prayer that would give her comfort “that looked unflinchingly at loss and death” (18).

The matter of trust is paramount when thinking about the way God doesn’t keep bad things from happening to us. We have pain and must contemplate what its redemptive meaning might be because “belief in a transcendent God means we are stuck with the problem of pain” (24). We have to examine what we think God is like—looking at the life of Jesus. It was the prayers and practices of the church that were most helpful.

The second part of the book is called “The Way of the Vulnerable” and refers to Warren’s emphasis on “working, watching, and weeping.” We are vulnerable as we come to “see grief as part of the everyday experience of being human in a world that is both good and cruel’ (39). Two things stand out: 1) we are always in the shadow of death and 2) we must learn to weep (41). We have to make space for grief and unless we do “we cannot know the depths of the love of God, the healing God wrings from pain, the way grieving yields wisdom, comfort, even joy” (43).

Warren reminds us that “Our task is to take up practices where we name, with utter honesty, the brokenness of the world and the promise of what’s to come” (46). She encourages us to pray with the Psalms, which “call us back into the dramatic depths of reality” (47). These include psalms of “lament” in which we learn how to weep. In our culture, we often assume that we know better than God but we need to “weep with the One who alone is able to permanently wipe away our tears” (52).

By talking about “Those who Watch” (Chapter 4), Warren is referring to our “attention,” our yearning and our hope. We can see no more than a few steps ahead and, as we watch, it can bring us fear. What we yearn for is not rooted in “wishful thinking” (or pie in the sky). We have to learn to watch because “Just as our pupils dilate to let in more light, prayer adjusts our eyes to see God in the darkness” (61). We watch for what is around us every moment.

This leads to “restoration” for “Those who Work” (Chapter 5) and we need others to help us in the process. We come to realize that “without leaving space for grief or attentiveness to God, oiur work will be compulsive, frenzied and vain” (75).

Part Three of the book is “A Taxonomy of Vulnerability” and begins with the prayer “Give your angels charge over those who sleep” (Chapter 6) because the “historic church imagined a universe jam packed with angels” (83). In other words, “Prayer expands our imagination about the nature of reality” (86).

The next prayer is to “Tend the Sick, Lord Christ” (Chapter 7) because, as we know, our bodies begin to fall apart. Sickness is “death’s handmaid” and “We don’t choose our preferred crosses, or our resurrections” (99). Health is a gift and “our bodies will be made eternal” so, “We learn to pray to the God who tends us” (102).

“Give Rest to the Weary” (Chapter 8) is a prayer that follows and refers to our weariness (Ecclesiastes 12.12). When our health fails “it cuts us to the core, reveals our trusest, most fragile selves” (107). In such situations, sometimes we have to have prayers of silence, which “is an exercise in tolerating mystery” (111). As the author says, “pray for miraculous healing, and get the will ready” (114). “We pray because we believe that God. who makes no promises of our safety and comfort, loves us and takes care of us” (114).

I agree that “The Christian faith never asks us to be okay with death” and that is not the way it is supposed to be (117). Death is an enemy and is the last one to be defeated. “Jaroslav Pelikan said that ‘Christ comes into the world to teach men how to die’’ and that was certainly what Joice believed. She meditated on her mortality—not something that our culture (or many Christians) will ever get used to.

Another prayer of the Compline is to “Soothe the Suffering” (Chapter 10), providing comfort. Suffering, as the author notes “ebbs and flows” and we do not know when healing will come. However, in our prayers we can “join him [Jesus] in the torment of Gethsemane, the torture of the cross, and the darkness of his own grave” (127). It follows that “We have to feel the things we hate to feel—sadness, loss, loneliness” about which there are no shortcuts. (131). Healing always takes longer than we would like or that we think it should but, as Pierre Teilhard de Chardin said, “trust in the slow work of God” (136).

“Pity the Afflicted” is the title and prayer of Chapter 11. Warren states, “I don’t know why God allows affliction, but I do know this: he is found among the afflicted” (144). She notes that prosperity seems to render more doubt than the affliction found in the afflicted (147). She claims that “The shape of our prayers determines the shape of our life” (149) and in the darkness we await the dawn.

Chapter 12 asks that we “Shield the Joyous” showing both gratitude and indifference as we do so. This is because “In this fallen world, joy is risky” and takes courage (151). It can be maddening to those who suffer but Christians should embrace the good and what is joyful, which will remain if we choose it. “To choose joy is to see all existence as a gift “ (157). We learn through our prayers that “Love and loss are a double helix this side of heaven” (159).

Part four of the book, “Culmination,” reminds us that we are trusting God and that is “All for Your Love’s Sake” (Chapter 13). “The Christian life is more like a poem than an encyclopedia” because our life “Like poetry…has restraints—even rules, like a sonnet” (163).

The final chapter (13) is “And All for Your Love’s Sake” encourages the reader to “honor ambiguity” because there is a lot we cannot know about God (164). However, “We weep because we can lament to one who cares about our sorrow” (165) and this is good news to people like me. I know that “in the end the only way to endure the mystery is to put the whole weight of our [my] life on the love of God” (167). God does not extinguish sorrow and the darkness is not explained, but it is defeated.

The book concludes with discussion questions for each chapter, such as how is waiting and watching a metaphor for the whole life? and do we agree that in our culture “we rush to get over grief?”

I find the exposition and personal notes on the Compline prayer a number of new and helpful thoughts and I have highlighted many of them in this review. Put together the chapters inform me of one variation of the Compline prayer:

Keep watch, Dear Lord over
Those who weep
Those who watch
Those who work
Give your angels charge over those who sleep
Tend the sick, Lord Jesus
Give rest to the weary
Bless the dying
Soothe the suffering
Pity the afflicted
Shield the joyous
And all for your Love’s sake

C S Lewis as Missionary Protagonist?

Karl J. Franklin*

Abstract

The space trilogy by C.S. Lewis is used here as a basis for thinking about missionary work. In it Lewis, in the surrogate character Ransom, accompanies scientists Weston and Devine in their sinister visits to the planets of Mars and Venus. They encounter alien beings and cultures with attempts at communication that parallel many of the types of exchanges between missionaries and people of non-Western cultures. In the final book of the trilogy, Ransom is the philosopher-educator who best understands what is happening in a college town because of his experiences on Mars and Venus. This too has parallels with missionaries who examine their own cultures in the light of experience and understanding from other cultures. 

Prologue                                                       

My interest in the writings of C.S. Lewis goes back to my college days. After I read Mere Christianity I was sure that it had the kind of arguments that my skeptical dad would consider and that it would challenge him with the claims of Christianity. I don’t remember that it had such an effect on him, but it was a book that prompted many conversations between us and it influenced my own thinking about the Christian faith.

I kept reading books by Lewis and when we arrived in PNG in 1958 the novel Till we have faces had recently been published (1956). I had conversations about it with colleagues and it seems like his books have been part of my life for a long time. I can remember encouraging my daughter (then a sophomore at Baylor) in her English course to specialize in books by Lewis. She read most of his books and later enrolled me as a member of the New York C.S. Lewis Society. Then a couple of years ago I found a course on CS Lewis offered by the Great Courses, so I read that as well (The life and writings of C.S. Lewis by Professor Louis Markos of Houston Baptist University).

Over the years authors have looked at Lewis from various perspectives, for example: 

  • The taste for the other: the social and ethical thought of C.S. Lewis (Gilbert Meilaender, 1978)
  • Reading the classics with C.S. Lewis (Thomas L. Martin, editor, 2000)
  • The riddle of joy: G.K. Chesterton and C.S. Lewis (Michael H. Macdonald and Andrew A. Tadie, eds., 1989)
  • Surprised by laughter: The comic world of C.S. Lewis (Terry Lindvall, 1996)
  • The spiritual legacy of C.S. Lewis (Terry Glaspey, 1996)
  • C.S. Lewis explores vice and virtue (Gerard Reed, 2001)
  • The question of God: C.S. Lewis and Sigmund Freud debate God, love, sex, and the meaning of life (Armand M. Nicholi, Jr., 2002)
  • C.S. Lewis and the Catholic church (Joseph Pearce, 2003)
  • Beyond the shadowlands: C.S. Lewis on heaven & hell (Wayne Martindale, 2005)

There are also bibliographies, summaries, encyclopedias, collections of readings, websites and so on to consult on Lewis. However, as far as I know, no one has ever suggested that C.S. Lewis championed the missionary cause, nor had much interest in it.

In September 2005 my wife and I spent a month in Ecuador visiting our family who were missionaries there and I decided to re-read the space trilogy that Lewis wrote: Out of the silent planet, Perelandra and That hideous strength. As I read the novels and listened to Lewis comment on space travel, meeting with inhabitants of other planets and the general triumph of technology, coupled with the awful consequences of sin and pride, it seemed to me that he was very much a missionary. Then in September 2006 (in Ecuador again) I re-read That hideous strength more carefully. If Lewis had been a missionary, or if I could pretend he was in a vicarious sense in his space encounters, what did he say that had parallels to the missionary work that I was acquainted with? So I started thinking and writing. My wife tells me that some of my connections are a bit far-fetched, but then, what a lot of what missionaries say is far-fetched, so bear with me in this exercise.

Of course, to even consider the question, I have had to speculate about Lewis as an author and about his characters and plots. Nevertheless, what he wrote in the trilogy—his many characters and events—reveal a great deal about cross-cultural communication, something missionaries are supposed to excel in.

Readers know that Lewis’s books speak of fantasy, myth, devils, other worlds and planets, and that his letters reveal his more personal side, but here my context is his space trilogy, although I may occasionally refer to some of his other writings. I do not want to imply that Lewis considered himself a missionary or thought deeply about missionaries. In fact he was frightened that, if humans should contact an unfallen race somewhere on another planet in space, we would soon corrupt them. In an interview with Sherwood Wirt of Decision magazine (September 1963, and probably the last interview Lewis had before he died) he said:

I look forward with horror to contact with other inhabited planets, if there are such. We would only transport to them all of our sin and acquisitiveness and establish a new colonialism. I can’t bear to think of it. But if we on earth were to get right with God, of course, all that would be changed. Once we find ourselves spiritually awakened, we can go to outer space and take the good things with us. That is quite another matter.

Some definitions and background

The word “missionary” has both positive and negative connotations, so let me explain how I am using the term and why I want to see if Lewis fits the bill. Although the work of a missionary is most naturally related to religious tasks, it does not have to be. A businessman, nurse, teacher or terrorist can have a mission to fulfill, so they could fit that aspect of the missionary profile as well. I therefore go further and qualify the definition by saying “Christian missionary,” thus immediately adding certain additional constraints and facts.

Put simply, a Christian missionary represents (serves as an ambassador for) the Christian faith; secondly, he is motivated by God to do the task; thirdly, he is willing to undergo hardship to accomplish the task; and finally, he carries the message for the benefit of a particular audience.[1] A missionary is therefore one with a mission, a purpose to fulfill. In the Christian context the mission is to tell groups, most often those that are culturally different than one’s own, about the good news of Jesus Christ–how he came into the world to die for sinful people, was killed and then rose again. It is a message of hope because it offers forgiveness, redemption and resurrection.

In thinking about how Lewis portrays the missionary cause, I have imagined him leaving his homeland of England, going to a non-English speaking country, learning the language and customs of the country, all with the goal of conveying to the inhabitants a message of hope and reconciliation. 

We recognize that missionaries, to be at home in another culture and communicate with the inhabitants of that culture, generally need to learn to speak another language, one that may be very different from their mother tongue. They also need to understand another culture without judging it simply because it is different than their own. The depth of their linguistic and cultural understanding will influence the range of their participation in the contacted culture, as well as the degree of friendships that they form within the culture. Their ability to see from the inside of the language and culture, like a native speaker, rather from the outside, like an alien, will provide them with a view that is cross-cultural, i.e. it crosses from their own culture to a new culture. It may turn out that their audience is not at first, or even in the end, appreciative of them or their message, so they may be treated cruelly. All of their interactions will require faith, love, and hope, but the neediest of these turns out to be hope. Many missionaries, probably most, go in faith, not knowing exactly what to expect, but are convinced that God is leading them into this new venture. They also must work at charity because their motives and behavior will be tested and often found raw and bitter. But most of all they must have infinite patience, hoping that learning the language and culture, living in an alien land, eating different foods and viewing practices that are foreign and often distasteful to them, will lead to an acceptance and understanding of the message they represent. We would expect this of missionaries, so how does Lewis do this on Mars, Venus, and then back on earth?

A Missionary to Mars?

To begin this exercise let us look at author Lewis, in the persona of his surrogate Ransom, as he visits two planets outside of earth and observe his interactions with the aliens he meets. We will then notice that what he has learned eventually influences his behavior and work back on earth.

When Ransom goes to Mars he is like some missionary spouses, going more by compulsion than desire. Although a spouse may not be put in a space rocket, he or she may go unwillingly. In this vein, when the space ship goes to Mars it is because of the intentions and desires of Weston and Divine, not because Ransom wants to go there.[2] Missionaries often do not end up where they intended: Judson ended up in Burma when he wanted to be in India; Ken Pike wanted to go to China, but ended up in Mexico; some of my colleagues in PNG wanted to be in Irian Jaya (now called Papua), and so on. “Many are the plans in the mind of man but it is the will of God that will be accomplished.”(Proverbs16:9; 19:21)

The story of Ransom, who is a philologist and a fellow of Cambridge College, begins when he is simply trying to get home before dark. As it becomes late and he seems unlikely to get to his destination, he chances to meet a woman and asks her for directions to an inn where he might spend the night. She is distressed and is waiting for her husband, Harry. Harry turns out to be dumb, but works at a place that Ransom will be passing. Ransom agrees to contact her husband and pass on her message of anxiety. Upon reaching the somewhat secluded place, Ransom has to climb a fence in order to get inside. There he is accosted by Devine (a former acquaintance) and his accomplice, Professor Weston. Unbeknownst to Ransom, they are conducting a human experiment, and want to use Harry.

Lewis uses the experiment motif as the underlying reason that Ransom is taken to Mars. God seems to conduct experiments with people, witness Job who was the experimental evidence that God offered to Satan for a righteous man. Ransom seems to be unaware of God’s ultimate purpose and yet eventually learns what God is teaching him. I have often wondered what God is doing, not if He should do it, but where the action or inaction is leading. Why would an administrator ask me to run a sawmill in 1958 when we were waiting assignment to start language work? Or why did the director choose my wife and me to supervise the opening of an airstrip? The space trilogy is an excellent metaphor of missionary work at times: into the unknown, meeting the unknown, difficulty in communication, battles with evil, questions about purpose, and so on.

Weston and Divine overcome Ransom because they decide to use him instead of Harry for the experiment. Ransom finds himself on a spaceship and as the earth recedes he learns that they are on their way to Malacandra (Mars). Overhearing a conversation on the space ship, Ransom realizes that Weston has been in contact with Mars inhabitants, known as sorn, earlier. He cannot imagine what the sorn are like but from what he overhears he believes that they are demanding a human sacrifice from earth.

Already Ransom, like any curious missionary, is observant and making deductions, even as he is puzzled about what is going on or the purpose of it. Missionaries generally know where they are going and, for the most part, are quite observant. I can remember that when we were assigned to PNG (then the Territory of New Guinea) in 1957, I found some books by Colin Simpson called Adam with arrows and Adam with plumes and read them. I wrote to Oceania and got some monographs on the people and also read back issues of National Geographic to find information on the area and learn as much as I could. All of this gave me background information from which to make deductions about the country and its people. Some were wrong: when we landed in Port Moresby and saw the men spitting out red juice we assumed that TB was rampant instead of recognizing that they were chewing betel nut and spitting out the juice. Similarly, Ransom had difficulty figuring out what was happening on his way to Mars.

Ransom’s party eventually lands on Mars. Weston obviously has been there before because he has a key to a hut that contains provisions. Later they are met by six white “spindly and flimsy things, twice or three times the height of a man,” who compel them to cross over water with them. Weston fires his revolver at them and in the confusion of the moment Ransom is able to free himself and flee.

As best he can, Ransom describes the inhabitants of Mars. Enough sign language is communicated for Weston’s party to know what these unfamiliar creatures, the sorn, want. Ransom, like most missionaries, does not own a gun, but Weston does and he fires it to scare off the natives. This has often been a universal response and tactic when invaders and prospectors have entered new territory and believed the people meant them harm. Although missionaries are in another country and their mission is to interact positively with them (and not shoot them), this has not always been historically true, so perhaps we should not be too judgmental of Weston. In the story of the first contact into the highlands of Papua New Guinea by Hides and O’Malley, they frighten the people by shooting a pig to demonstrate the power of their guns.

Ransom encounters many obstacles, creatures and personal difficulties and, as he does, is terribly afraid of the sorn. But a sorngives him liquid to drink and of course he is grateful. The sorn tries to talk to Ransom, identifying himself as hross (later Ransom learns that hrossa is the plural) and their attempt at conversation and discovery begins. Ransom deducts that the name Malacandra turns out to be the whole landscape, with handra meaning ground or earth. As a student of language, he notices a change in sounds (dialects) as well as suffixes and prefixes.

Sometimes the people we may fear the most in another society and culture can turn out to be our best friends. When we lived in the village of Usa in the Southern Highlands of PNG, off and on, from 1958 to 1973, at first I didn’t like Yanda (not his real name). He was too demanding and always around, wanting to help. But it wasn’t long before he wanted me to train him to do some of the things that I was doing, practical things like carpentry. He became a very good friend, one I could count on for help. Our friendship was often over food and just as the sorn helped Ransom in a practical way, Yanda helped me. In respect to linguistic aptitude, Ransom was a good missionary—a quick learner and one who immediately attempted to use the language. His fear of the sorn is basically reduced through what he learns of the language. This is of course, why missionaries learn phonetics, language learning techniques, and study the basic grammatical and cultural features of other languages. Nevertheless, fear of people and learning a new language in a different culture, leads to problems common to missionaries. We find Ransom overcoming many of his fears as he begins to learn the language and customs of the sorn.

Eventually Ransom is compelled to follow the hross in a boat and he does so, although “its animality shocked him.” The hrosswere “six or seven feet high and too thin for its height, like everything in Malacandra.” However, at the same time he had a “longing to learn its language” and to understand it better. As they travel Ransom continues to learn new things: the high ground is called harandra and the low areas are handramit. The hross live in the handramit and the séroni (the plural for sorn) up on the hrandra.

The hross who first found him is named Hyoi and the one teaching him the language is the “grey-muzzled, venerable” Hnobra.I remember how difficult it was to remember the names of the villages, the clans, the rivers, the mountains, the garden areas, which were all unusual to me as a foreigner in the Kewa area in the Southern Highlands of Papua New Guinea. Nevertheless, it was important for me, as it is with new missionaries anywhere, to learn the names of the areas around us. In this respect Ransom is again an exemplary learner. He continues with observations on the culture and environment, as well as observing the knowledge the Martians have of his world—Thulcandra, or the earth. Of course the Kewa knew nothing of my world but they were interested in my birthplace and where I grew up. In the same way, Ransom wanted to know about the sorn and hross. Ransom begins to learn what is of interest and importance to the sorn and hross, just as a missionary must learn what is important in the worldview of the people he works with.

In response to Ransom’s questions about “the silent world or planet”, known as Thulcandra, the answer is always that “the séroni know.” The Martian inhabitants decide that Ransom should try to meet Oyarsa, who lives in Meldilorn and who “knows everything, rules everyone, and had always existed.”

Ransom is learning about the traditional beliefs of the sorn. Missionaries sometimes are reluctant to put much stock in the traditional tales of the people, doubting the truth of their oral history. However, God does not want anyone to be lost, so there is often some knowledge about Him present in a natural environment, although it may be distorted. Once again Ransom exhibits good missionary skills by learning the names of the experts who know the answers and can represent the culture’s worldview. Worldviews are composite values and beliefs and are not easily verbalized by participants in a particular culture. Our worldview influences the way we interpret not only the Scriptures, but other cultures and languages as well. This is why we study anthropology and linguistics. I remember studying Kewa religion and asking: Who should I ask?, and “Who are the ones who know the most about this topic?” Then I would follow with, “What should I ask them?” I didn’t even know the best questions to ask.

Ransom learns, for example, that Maleldil is not a hnau (human being), that the hross, as well as the séroni and pfifltriggi, are different culture groups. The pfifltriggi like to dig, soften things with fire and make things. They are smaller than humans, “long in the snout, pale, busy.” Ransom begins to realize why Weston is so interested in the area, apparently for what the pfifltriggi can make. He also concludes that the sorns are the intelligentsia.

Here again Ransom could be considered a missionary anthropologist at work: analyzing class and social structure, determining work habits, describing the new culture group as best he can. One of our first tasks was to outline the kinship structure of the Kewa, to see how people fit into the social structure and to note how the clans and sub-clans were named and organized. We then were gradually assigned our own place in the structure and given names to use. This adoption process is essential if missionaries are going to be accepted into a culture group. However, even in the process, we make assumptions that are influenced by our cultural background and worldview. For example, the word “brother” in English can refer to a sibling, a shared parent (half-brother), a common ancestry, a fellow man, a friend, or a member of a religious order. In Kewa a “brother” refers to male siblings, parallel male cousins, the wife’s sister’s husband, the wife’s father’s brother’s daughter’s husband, the wife’s fathers’ sister’s daughters’ husband and several other similar relationships. But in Kewa my sister does not use the name “brother” for me; rather she uses a word that means “sibling of the opposite sex” and I would refer to her the same way.

In the ensuing conversations both Ransom and the hrossa learn that they have hunted the hnakra in their separate worlds and will do so now. But as they engage in the activity a philosophical discussion reveals that the hrossa have no “bent” (sinful) ones of their own species. 

This is a theological point that most missionaries would probably find unacceptable—the whole world and other worlds as well would probably be considered sinful to missionaries. But why is this so? Didn’t Jesus say that he had other worlds that the disciples didn’t know about? Are there really other places in the universe where there are princes and powers that are evil? How do our practical earth-oriented worldviews fit with the Scriptural hints of fallen angels, angel-humans, and fallen angels like Satan? Ransom is learning new things that conflict with his own experiences and worldview. And he is learning about hunting and engaging in similar cultural activities with the people. Ransom follows missionaries in this respect.

During the hunt and as they are about to see the hnakra, Weston appears and kills a hross, thinking it is a beast. Another hrossnamed Whin says this has happened because Ransom was supposed to go to Oyarsa but did not obey the eldil. The hross then explains to him how to take the five day journey to find Oyarsa. Prior to this there is a scene of ethnic and cultural superiority when Weston speaks to Oyarsa about science and human destiny. Ransom is called upon to interpret as Weston compares his civilization with the stone-age life on Mars, how his responsibility from the higher life is over the lower forms, and so on. Ransom falters when he tries to translate Weston’s view of killing the sorn as if it somehow benefited the survival of the human race. A series of conversations shows Weston speaking a kind of pidgin variety of the language in which he assumes his own cultural superiority.

How do we justify or explain war, conflict, and conquest in space in terms of social benefits accruing for others? During the career of a missionary many unusual and unacceptable things happen. How should they to be interpreted: Does the missionary always know God’s will? How should he respond to unacceptable behavior? There is no lack of cause and effect in cultures of PNG. There are no accidents: sickness and death (including old age) happen because of sorcery, magic can enhance a love relationship, and so on. In this instance Ransom has disobeyed what he was told to do and this has resulted in something wrong happening. But we have to be careful: when there is an accident, the missionary disobeyed God in some way? Are there accidents? A building collapses and the good and the evil people die. 

Philosophical questions like these do not seem to trouble Ransom as he continues to try and understand what he has seen and heard. As he journeys on he reflects on the nature of Oyarsa: is he an arch-sorn? Was he a real person? He is looking for Augray’s tower, unsure of what this might be or mean. 

I have already mentioned that missionaries are often confronted with the names of beings that they do not know or understand, living in places that they cannot comprehend. Should they enter new territory, according to some theologies, places likely to be ruled by the devil? How far does one go in the quest for cultural understanding? Ransom, it turns out, goes further than most missionaries would. Similarly, I once attended a garden ceremony where the head man cooked some pig parts over a small reflective pond as he chanted the names of certain spirits. It was an eerie feeling for me and when I reported the incident to some missionaries afterwards they cautioned me to be careful of what ceremonies I took part in. That may have been good advice, although it is difficult to learn about a cultural event without participating in it.

Eventually Ransom meets a sorn, one who decides that Ransom is from Thulcandra (earth), rather than Glundandra(Mercury?) Ransom in turn discovers that the sorn called Augray speaks a dialect different from the hrossa. Ransom describes how Augray looks and there follows a discussion on Oyarsa, who “is the greatest of eldila who ever come to a handra.” Augray and Ransom continue their discussion, although Ransom finds that he has insufficient vocabulary to find out much about the political and economic background of the Malacandrian people, in particular the pfifltriggi

Ransom’s interest in language contributes to his identification of dialect differences, but it also shows him how weak he is in certain cultural domains, such as politics and economics. Ransom seems to assume that the division of vocabulary and culture into economic, religion and so on are natural rather than an artifact of Western culture and analysis. Missionaries are just as likely to assume that their cultural domains are more reliable than those of another culture. In Kewa we found that there was no word for “religion” or “economics” or of course “psychology” because these have arisen out of our Western educational complex. Ransom is tied to his educational background and finds it difficult to communicate along the lines that the sorn do.

Travel is difficult for Ransom so Augray carries him across the landscape, a new handramit that is spectacular in beauty. Later Ransom goes by boat for a distance, then resumes walking. He sees pictures on stones that suggest an earlier evolution of the sornshrossa and pfifltriggi. It is the latter who turn out to be the sculptors, and one does a portrait of Ransom.

The picture of Augray carrying Ransom is symbolic of how in an unfamiliar place and culture, he must rely completely on the “natives”. Despite how observant missionaries and anthropologists may be, they must rely completely upon members of the cultures they study. Ransom is able to appreciate beauty–even when it is unlike that of his own world. He also is able to connect the relationship between groups of people from pictographs that he notices. 

Ever the linguist, Ransom makes another discovery: the sorns, hrossa and pfifltriggi can all speak the same language, despite differences in their speech organs. He is told that once they had their own languages but now everyone has learned the language of the hrossa. Ransom continues to stay and learn more of their culture until finally Oyarsa appears from the long lines of sculptured stones. Oyarsa has an inhuman voice, but unshaken, sweet and remote. From Oyarsa Ransom learns that he has been brought to Mars for a purpose and that he met sorns so that they could teach him the language. Oyarsa had not expected the strangers (Weston and Devine) to bring Ransom, although he knew from the sorns that Thulcandrians were mining on Mars. Oyarsa sent for someone of Ransom’s race so that he could find out as much as he could about Maleldil’s wars with the Bent One. 

Ransom finally discovers the purpose that took him to Mars. It has taken a leader from a culture not his own to make this clear. Similarly, many missionaries do not find out their true purpose for being in another land until they have deep philosophical and religious discussions with inside leaders. We should try to discover what God has in mind for us. Why are we in this culture? What does God have in mind? How can we communicate effectively without knowing both the language and the culture?

As Ransom is explaining what happened with Maleldil on Thulcandra, Weston and Devine arrive in a procession. They deposit three dead hrossa before Oyarsa. Weston then attempts to converse with Oyarsa by using a kind of Pidgin that is a condescending variation of the Malacandrian, which he learned from the sorns. He tries to intimidate them but in the end he is ignored. 

Talking down to people is common, even by missionaries. But when done in an inferior manner by using the language incorrectly, it shows a lack of respect. Weston and Divine are good examples of what missionaries should not be: condescending in both attitude and language, indicating their feelings that the inhabitants are culturally and linguistically inferior, subject to control and intimidation. Lewis obviously recognizes this when he has Weston using a Pidgin variation of the language.

Ransom listens to the songs of memory for the dead sorns. Because of his knowledge of the culture and his love for the creatures he begins, ever so little, to hear the songs with their ears. Oyarsa makes a sign and the pfifltiigg (plural?) touch the three dead sorns and they disappear.

When a missionary begins to understand and respond internally like one of the people there is hope that his message will be listened to and, perhaps, accepted and adapted within the culture. But the motive of missionaries should go beyond simply the salvation of the people. A missionary’s reactions and feelings need to be spontaneous and genuine. Funerals and mourning were not one of my favorite times with the Kewa. I can still occasionally hear the death wails during the night. But listening to the songs and dirges enabled me to understand the depth of feelings of the people. Ransom began to do this. Of course one does not have to be a missionary to have this kind of response, but a cross-cultural view of death can be terrifying.

Oyarsa has Weson’s head dipped in cold water with the hope that it will help him understand the ways of the Malacandrians, but instead Weston lectures them on their primitive ways. He claims that life is greater than “tribal taboos and copy-book maxims” and that she [Life] “has pursued her relentless march from the amoeba to man and from man to civilization.” When Oyarsa extols the benefits of Maleldil, Weston rubbishes the concept and, in his Pidgin version of the language says, “Me no care Maleldil. Like Bent One better: me on his side.” Oyarsa allows Weston’s party to leave, saying that the sorns and pfiftriggi will give them enough food and air for the 90 days it will take to reach Thulcandra.

Despite their most degrading speeches and actions, foreigners, including missionaries, are often given more grace and good will than they deserve. This is certainly the case for Weston and Devine. An inherent cultural view of hospitality in many cultures will often overcome the negative response that outsiders could expect. Of course this is not always true: James Chalmers went to the Gulf of PNG at the turn of the 19th century and was killed by the Goaribari people. The five martyrs in Ecuador were killed despite their good intention. Ransom and Weston could have expected retaliation and revenge but are allowed to return to earth instead. 

The three return to earth and it is at this point that Ransom’s friend takes up the story again, remarking that Ransom has abandoned his idea of a Malacandrian dictionary and telling his story to the world. The author remarks that this record, however, gives much of the story, even if it does not do justice to Ransom’s experiences.

Ransom, or Lewis as Ransom, clearly portrays a number of positive characteristics of a missionary. These include linguistic aptitude and cultural curiosity, coupled with empathy, friendships, and deep discussions about the important matters of sin, life and death. The whole story is not told to the world—no TV or DVDs in those days. Like many missionaries returning home, Ransom also realizes that he will not get some of the linguistic work done that he had planned. Many missionaries have shelves of data that they will probably never analyze.

There are a number of practical things that Ransom learns from his to Mars that are similar to what missionaries learn from their overseas experiences:

  • When we describe our experiences we learn more about ourselves
  • We learn from cultures and people that are quite different from our own
  • When we examine aspects of our culture we may be ashamed
  • We get uncomfortable or even frightened in new cultural situations
  • Traditional beliefs from other cultures may encapsulate truth and knowledge
  • The ultimate encounters we have are in the hands of God
  • Attempting to use the language is a way to make friends
  • Social organization is a universal aspect of cultures
  • Degrees of empathy come from cultural immersion and participation
  • Cultural imperialism is an aspect and sometimes a fact of missionary work

A Missionary to Venus?[3]

The sequel to Out of the Silent Planet begins with the thoughts and journey of a man (who, not incidentally, is named Lewis) who is summoned to go to Ransom’s home. He already knows that Ransom has been to Mars and met creatures called eldilaand their ruler, the Oyarsa of Malacandra. The man knows something of their physical characteristics as well: “They do not eat, breed, breathe, or suffer natural death, and to that extent resemble thinking minerals more than they resemble anything we should recognize as an animal.”

Like a missionary returning on furlough, Ransom has re-told his Mars experiences to Lewis. Lewis also recognizes that Ransom has come back from Mars a changed individual: he has met and communicated with the eldil, who now do not leave him alone. The narrator (Lewis) is even afraid that he might meet one and indeed as he travels to meet Ransom at his home he finds it difficult to think of any thing but the eldila. Lewis exemplifies the missionary-storyteller par excellence. He tells his bizarre stories with great effect. The missionaries who are sought for the banquet circuit and official functions are most often the storytellers, not the academics—unless they too can tell stories.

In addition to the eldila, Lewis knew of the sorns, giants that Ransom had met and described. Ransom had also told Lewis about the pfiftriggi and the hrossa, as well as additional named beings. All of this background information contributed to Lewis’ own cultural perceptions of haunted houses and superstition as he continued on his way to Ransom’s cottage.

Like a missionary, Ransom has made his stories so vivid that Lewis is terribly frightened in the dark on his way to Ransom’s house. These are Ransom’s snake and cannibal stories, themes that audiences always have in mind when they think of “primitive” cultures and the stories that missionaries tell. This kind of story can be either positive or negative, depending on the way the stories are told and the motives for telling them. What was Ransom trying to achieve by telling these tales to his friend? When missionaries tell a story, their motives and goals may not always be clear. Ransom needs someone with whom he can share his stories, and the same is true for missionaries. Ransom is fortunate that he has found someone interested.

Upon arrival at Ransom’s house Lewis finds a note expressing sorrow that Ransom will be late and that Lewis is to make himself at home. In the house he stumbles upon a long, open box and hears a voice calling the name of Ransom. He also sees a pillar of light with unusual colors, that he interprets as an eldil and is filled with terror. Just then Ransom returns and converses with the eldil in “a strange polysyllabic language” that Lewis had never heard before.

Missionaries know what it is like to be invited to a home when the host is absent. We note that when Ransom and the eldilconverse, it is a miracle to Lewis. When missionaries talk their learned languages the reaction is often similar: how did they ever learn to talk like that? Ransom undoubtedly knew the effect this language would have on Lewis when he heard it: awe, admiration, even a humbling effect. Missionaries have observed the audiences feelings of wonder when they talk or recite Scripture in an unknown language.

In the discussion that follows it is clear that Ransom would like to return to Malacandra (Mars) but that he has now been summoned to go to Perelandra (Venus) instead. The leader of the latter, a “bent Oyarsa” who resides somewhere in the Solar System, is going to attack Venus. Ransom has been selected to go to Venus because he learned the language Hressa-Hlab on Mars, which turns out to be Old Solar, Hlab-Eribol-of-Cordi, which is also spoken on Venus. The language was lost on Thulcandra (earth) and no human language is known to have descended from it. Additional facts are spelled out: how Venus has an outer layer of atmosphere that is thick, so the climate will be warm; the man Schiaparelli has studied the time it takes for Venus to revolve around the sun (Arbol). The conclusion is that there will be a perpetual day on one side of the planet and perpetual night on the other.

Here, like a scholarly missionary, Ransom has done his homework: he knows the linguistic history, the geography and the conditions surrounding any transportation needed for living in the new country. And like any missionary, Ransom would like to go back to Mars, where he had learned the language and was accepted by the people. However, the mission superintendent has a different and more important mission in mind for Ransom. “Going back” is a strange oddity and behavior of the missionaries. It reveals the deep feelings that allow them to refer to “our language” and “our people”. Ransom displays more knowledge about the history of the language than the average missionary, but he also shows its relevance to understanding what has  happened on the planet.

Ransom, in fact, will be sent to a place where there is a battle going on between good and evil. He will ride in the coffin by the power of Oyarsa to Perelandra. He has no idea of how this can be done but Lewis has been summoned to help launch the box. At breakneck speed Ransom is deposited in Perelandra, which seems to have an environment that is without land. As he describes it, “There is no moon in that land, no star pierces the golden roof. But the darkness was warm. Sweet new scents came stealing out of it. The world had no size now.” Then darkness, loneliness and sleep overcome Ransom.

Darkness and loneliness are two apt words for the feelings of missionaries who arrive in new countries. And, like Ransom, they believe they are involved in a battle that is going on between what is good and what is bad. The challenge is to decide what the cultural insiders consider as good and bad. (Missionaries may also feel like they have been transported in a box after 24 hours in airplanes and airports!).

After an interlude of rest Ransom awakes and realizes that he is naked and in an unknown planet. Presently he sees what seems to be a dragon-like creature that he unsuccessfully tries to engage in conversation. With considerable difficulty in communication, Ransom encounters what turns out to be a green woman. Eventually he talks to her in the ancient language of Venus telling her that he has come in peace. Her answer is as perplexing as his journey to this point. “What is peace?” she asks.

Missionaries assume that their vocabulary and viewpoint will be understood, indeed that it should be. But as surely as the green woman does not know what “peace” means (as well as many other assumed common concepts), many cultural groups do not understand the most basic points about the Gospel (redemption, forgiveness, repentance, for example). Lewis portrays this difficulty in cross-cultural understanding very well. An analogy is when translators are searching for key terms and attempt some definition from the “original” text, believing that this will explain a meaning. However, the meaning will be interpreted by the context of the message—written or unwritten, regardless of the Biblical history of the word or expression.

Their next conversation reveals that neither party understands the other’s point of view or reference. Ransom believes that when she says she is young she is referring to age. Rather, she is talking about the accumulation of wisdom. She calls Ransom “Piebald Man,” indicating the blotched nature of his skin and thanks him for the wisdom he is bringing. It turns out that she knows “that in your world Maleldil first took Himself this form, the form of your race and mine.” It is Maleldil that has provided all of the wisdom that the woman shares with Ransom.

Here Lewis is treading in deep theological water: people in other cultures are not supposed to know as much as the missionary about the purpose or nature of God. This is an important dialogue because it reveals that Lewis, now as author, appreciates some of the innate religious understanding that is present in another culture. Missionaries have to face the fact or possibility that God has been there before them. Many object to this point of view.

As Ransom’s dialogue continues with the “Green Lady”, it seems that many of his concepts simply do not make sense to her. “What is home… alone… dead?” reveal some of the terms that are unfamiliar. She wonders aloud if Ransom was sent to Venus to teach them about death. As their dialogue continues Piebald is also confused, and the Green Lady observes “little hills and valleys” in his forehead and “a little lift” of his shoulders. “Are these the signs of something in your world?” she asks.

When verbal language can’t be understood, people look closely at “body language.” What does a furrowed brow mean in another culture? People in other cultures may not only wonder what the missionary is talking about, but also why does he or she smile so much? What does it mean? What gives him such power, with goods, medicines and knowledge that is far beyond what our own ancestors had? The dialogue with the Green Lady illustrates some of the confusion and cross-assumptions that occur and shows Lewis’s skill in presenting them.

The next day they meet and talk again, this time of the Fixed Land, where Ransom lives. Ransom attempts to outline some of the laws of that land and of the people who live there, about the beasts on Venus and about what has fallen out of Deep Heaven. Ransom and the Green Lady ride on a fish she summons to the fixed land. Once there Ransom comments that he has seen no eldila, “the great and ancient servants of Maledil,” who neither breed or breathe and have bodies made of light. His questions and comments are based on his own cultural assumptions.

Ransom, like any missionary-in-learning, realizes that the laws of the land are different from his own. In PNG the world revolves around the land and water, not roads and shopping malls. But in order to understand another culture, missionaries must ask questions that make sense, observe actions and events carefully, then attempt to analyze what they find. Ransom is rightly puzzled.

Suddenly they see Weston exiting from a space craft and Ransom, knowing Weston’s evil intentions, tries in vain to keep the Green Lady from meeting him. Out of courtesy she meets him, despite Ransom’s wish for them to depart from Weston quickly. Weston and Ransom end up in a long philosophical argument in which Ransom admits that he is a Christian and Weston promotes his own view on the blind purpose of life. He sees this as an upward spiral toward spirituality, an outcome of his “biological philosophy.” Weston remarks on what he has learned from his new knowledge of the extraterrestrial language. As he continues his hostile arguments, he contorts and passes out.

Missionaries sometimes engage in philosophical arguments that have a philosophical and theological basis from the Bible and revelation. In contrast, secular anthropologists or others, may have assumptions about life and creation that are quite opposite. Some of the debates are therefore not unlike those Ransom had with Weston, so much so that the arguments are indeed often “hostile.”

When Ransom awakens he hears voices that turn out to be Weston discussing Meleldil and the fixed land with the woman. Ransom realizes that Weston sounds different because he is deceiving the woman in terms of what he is attempting to learn. It will all be for Weston’s own purposes.

Recognizing the intentions and motives of an enemy through their voices and writings is essential for missionaries. (Reviews of the writings of Lewis and his comments about the reviews indicate that he had to put up with this struggle throughout his academic career.) It takes wisdom and discernment for a missionary to determine what is deceitful in another culture.

Ransom, still alone, comes across a damaged animal, a trail of mutilated frogs, then Weston, who has been mutilating them. When Weston went to Perelandra his evil accompanied him and it is about this evil that Ransom attempts to warn the Green Lady. However, Weston gets to the lady first and is already in dialogue with her when Ransom arrives. Ransom tries to warn the lady of Weston’s intentions, but she is enthralled with his arguments on death and courage, forbidding and disobedience. The Green Lady seems to understand the implications when she exclaims, “Oh, how well I see it! We cannot walk out of Maleldil’s will: but He has given us a way to walk out of our will.”

Often missionaries have tried to protect their converts from the ways and arguments of the world, believing that they are too young and naïve in the faith to counteract temptations and evil. The motivations of the missionary may be misunderstood and unintended conclusions may result, but these are a part of cross-cultural communication process. This is the case with the Green Lady and Weston—she is enthralled by the arguments and what she is learning.

Weston is clearly the enemy, called the “Un-man”, and is intent on capturing the will of the lady. And the Un-man “showed plenty of subtlety and intelligence when talking to the Lady”,  but Ransom sees clearly that Weston is using his intelligence as a weapon. Weston continues with his arguments, clothes the lady with feathers of dead birds, gives her a mirror so that she can see herself and explains, “We call this thing a mirror”. He wants her to love herself and “to walk alongside oneself as if one were a second person and to delight in one’s own beauty. Mirrors were made to teach this art.”

In order to get someone in another culture to accept a different point of view the persuader may resort to bribery and flattery. Missionaries may not recognize this but they are aware of the greed that possessions and new items promote. Lewis sees the Un-man as a theological personification of the general sinfulness of mankind, something that any missionary would also recognize. 

Ransom realizes it is Maleldil who must has to ultimately capture the Un-Man and the darkness he projects. Ransom does not know what will happen, but he can no longer resist the conviction of what to do.

Although the missionary claims that God is in charge of each situation, especially evil ones, he performs certain actions to confront the evil. Lewis represents the point of view of a missionary—even when things don’t turn out the way they expect, they must believe that God is in charge of the situation.

There follows a long battle between Weston and Ransom, over land and sea, between a true man and an Un-man, one who eventually begs mercy from Ransom, who mortally wounds him. Even in this condition Weston argues with Ransom, about evil, about God, about the meaning of life. He extols the virtues of Spiritualism, how it has taken him beyond pleasant accounts of the dead that are traditional and philosophical.

As the long and vicious battle and adventure continues, Ransom eventually overpowers the Un-man. He then begins a subterranean journey through the mountains and difficult terrain in his attempt to reach Oyarsa. However, the Un-man appears again and Ransom finally crushes him with a stone in “the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost”.

Although allegorical, the battle between Ransom and the Un-man Weston is probably not unlike the battles that take place between good and evil in many cultures. The missionary is called upon to take part in the battle, just as Ransom does.

Finally Ransom reaches a cleared space near a cliff where he writes a sign in Old Solar to witness the remembrance of Weston, whom Ransom calls “A learned Hnau of the world which those who inhabit it call tellus but the eldila Thulcandra.” The notice also records more about the activities of Weston and the approximate time when he was born and died.

Even in the death of Weston, Lewis is kind and extols him as a person. Missionaries should also remember the contributions that non-Christians, including anthropologists and naturalists, explorers and colonial officials, have made to better understand other cultures.

After further difficulty and travel, Ransom comes across what is his own coffin. It is like a chariot waiting to return him to Earth from Venus. Near him are also two eldila who have been waiting. One is Oyarsa, representing Malacandra, the other represents Perelandra. Ransom is referred to as Elwin, the friend of the eldila who is “in the body of Maleldil and his sins are forgiven.” It is also Maleldil who has taught the two eldila to build the Fixed Island and perform other tasks.

The eldila reconstitute themselves so that Ransom can see them—they are taller than the sorns, “perhaps thirty feet high” and “burning white like white-hot iron.” The Oyarsa of Mars and the Oyarsa of Venus too have differences in their faces and bodies. “[D]o I see you as you really are?” asks Ransom. Oyarsa of Mars replies, “Only Maleldil sees any creature as it really is.”

The final scenes show Ransom with a king and a queen who represent and explain the end times of the earth. They are grateful to Ransom for explaining the nature of evil and about the people of the earth, with their desire to corrupt other planets as well. Ransom departs in his coffin and returns to earth.

Lewis shows the reader the accomplishments of Ransom through the testimonies of the people that he has met and lived with. Ransom is seen then as a Christ-figure, representing the will and purpose of God. Missionaries too are ambassadors for Christ in another culture and the testimonies of the people they serve often affirm this. Lewis provides a wonderful farewell for Ransom—missionaries would want the same, so it is easy to draw some parallels.

What can we say about Ransom and his so-called missionary voyage to Venus? How have his efforts been like that of a missionary? Here are some parallels:
  • He has made friends with the inhabitants to the extent that he can carry on deep and meaningful philosophical arguments and conversations, including those that portray symbolism and metaphor
  • He has provided a descriptive account of the people (beings) and their cultures and languages
  • He has acknowledged and encountered evil from people of his own race and culture
  • He has taken a stand against the evil represented by his race and culture
  • He has come to grips for the purpose of his life and what he was meant to do
  • He has told others of his experiences and enlisted their support and aid in returning to Venus. 

Missionary on Earth?[4]

The final story of the trilogy centers around Mark and Jane Studdock, who are having problems in their marriage. Jane reflects that marriage is something like solitary confinement and has “proved to be the door out of a world of work and comradeship and laughter and innumerable things to do….

Jane, somewhat to her consternation, has the qualities of a prophet, a person who sees things in dreams that foretell or forbid the future. But her first vision is more of a nightmare and is confirmed by a notice that she reads in the newspaper.

Mark is not a visionary; he is a position seeker—a climber—at a small university, where he has been a sociologist for five years. Mark wished to be elected to a Fellowship but needs connections to make it happen. Lord Feverstone, now so called, was Devine in the story of the voyage to Mars. He is the man who has helped Mark get his fellowship at Bracton, although Mark does not learn of this until much later.

The college is engaged in the business of selling part of its property which the N.I.C.E., the National Institute of Coordinated Experiments, wishes to purchase for experimental purposes. After some discussion, the board approves the motion to sell the property.

The first part of the story intersperses discussions between Mark and his colleagues at the university as they make plans for NICE to purchase its land while Jane and her friends try to understand what is happening to Mark, the university, and NICE. Although Mark has a fellowship elsewhere, he is being offered an unclear position at the university, but one that will compromise his integrity and eventually his marriage. Jane, on the other hand, is only vaguely aware of what is going on with Mark’s decision or the effects that NICE will have on her own life. Her friend,Mrs. Dimble, offers soothing advice like “Husbands were made to be talked to. It helps them to concentrate on what they’re reading.”

Mark and Jane are not missionaries—but they represent couples that are caught up in the affairs of the world around them to such an extent that they drift apart, incapable of mutual understanding and normal interaction. Missionary couples often live their own separate lives, so Mark and Jane can easily stand for such couples.

Jane continues to have dreams that foretell the happenings of NICE, as well as certain people, but she cannot tell Mark for she seldom sees him. Mark is trapped in the university setting and unable to discern what is happening around him because “his education had had the effect of making things that he read and wrote more real to him than things he saw.”

Many missionary couples have been put in the same situation. Their work becomes so important that it is the only thing that is real in life. They reveal this in their personal.

Mark is put in charge of writing PR articles that explain the position of the university in a positive light in regard to NICE, which the rest of the community sees negatively. This is necessary in part because of a riot that was allowed and supported by the university in order to gain credibility for the NICE program.

Often missionary agencies have their publicity agents, people who are in charge of putting a spin on stories that will entice benefactors. While it may be stretching the point to compare such missionary agencies with NICE, missionary agencies should continuously monitor and examine the information they give to the public, ensuring absolute—not relative—truth on all matters.

Mark comes in contact with Miss Hardcastle, a woman who is wise in the ways of the world and the university. She gives him advice on how to curry favor with those in authority by writing the information they want and in a way that will convince the public to have good will toward NICE. Mark has scruples, but his desire for inclusion at NICE and acceptance into the inner circle there overcome his moments of questioning and any conscience about whether he is doing the right thing or not.

There are always senior missionaries who have been around “forever” and know the ropes. Sometimes their advice should be questioned before it is followed. Missionary agencies have writers whose task it is (naturally) to convince the public of their good work.

In the meantime Jane is contacted when those at NICE learn of her ability to dream and foretell events. They see her as having a gift that will aid them in their future dealings to procure the properties that they need for NICE.

Those who have gifts and talents, including missionaries, are sometimes contacted by government authorities who would like to gain the information they have on cultures and then use if for their own advantage. I recall an instance in Papua New Guinea when I was the Director. An expatriate government person contacted me about having our missionaries use their radios to obtain and covey information for the government. I objected, even if some of the material might have been useful and legitimate.

[INCOMPLETE]


* First given as a chapel message in early 2007 at the Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics.


[1] In the name of political correctness, I declare to the reader that my ‘he’ hereby also includes ‘she’.

[2] The full story is found in C.S. Lewis, Out of the silent planet. London: Bodley Head, 1938; New York: Macmillian, 1943. [My copies are the Pan Books edition, 1952 and a re-issue of the 1938 edition by Scribner, 2003.]

[3] The full story is found in C.S. Lewis, (Perelandra). London: Bodley Head, 1943; Macmillan, 1944 under the title Voyage to Venus. [My copies are the Pan Books edition, 1953 and a re-issue of the 1944 edition by Scribner, 2003.]

[4] The full story is found in C.S Lewis, That hideous strength. London: Bodley Head, 1945, Macmillan, 1945. An abridged version prepared by Lewis was published under the title The Tortured Planet. [My copies are the Pan Books edition, 1952 and a re-issue of the 1945 edition by Scribner, 2003.] The website http://www.solcon.nl/arendsmilde/cslewis/reflections/e-thsquotes.htm, compiled by Arend Smilde, contains a full list and explanation of the quotations and allusions in That hideous strength.

FIGURES OF SPEECH IN JOHN’S GOSPEL

A metaphor is a figure of speech or a symbolic reference that refers to something else that is literal. For example, in the Bible L-thunder refers to a literal sound but it may also stand for the M-voice of God and, in that case, it is figurative, a metaphor. Other words in semantics that express figures of speech and are commonly used are metonymy and synecdoche. The latter is when the word for a part of something, such as “wheel” is used to refer to the whole thing, the car. Less commonly, it is when the word for a whole is used to refer to a part. Metonymy is when a word, such as “ride” is associated with the thing itself, the “car.” Metaphors “extend” the meanings of individual words and in that sense are descriptors intended to afford the original literal word a more formidable sense. For the most part, in this study I am going to concentrate mainly on describing something as literal (L) or metaphorical (M). without attempting to analyze the metaphors into subtypes.

A number of years (1980) ago two linguists, George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, published a book called Metaphors we Live By, demonstrating that metaphor is a tool, a figure of speech,  that people use commonly in speech as they go about everyday life. It is reflected in how they talk about activities, thoughts, and their feelings. One of the metaphors they discussed lies behind the phrase “time is money,” such that what we do with a literal object like money can be metaphorically represented in time. As with money, we can spend, waste, kill and manage time, although we can’t literally find the object called “time.”

The conceptual framework of Pike in tagmemics has also helped in my thinking: what does the item contrast with, how does it vary, and how wide is its use and distribution?

The Bible is full of metaphors and nowhere are they more represented than in referring to Jesus, as in the Gospel of John. In the very first verse Jesus is called the “Word,” a metaphor that represents God’s presence. It is a synecdoche because the M-Word refers to Jesus, who is a part of the trinity. It is Jesus who was with God, was God, and existed in the beginning of time and created everything. Literally, the Word was Jesus and I therefore refer to it metaphorically as the M-Word.

Jesus is also the M-light and because of that he can give spiritual and true light to anyone in the world. But he is not the sun or the moon or the stars, so he does not provide L-light for us in the world. That is why he created the sun, moon and stars.

From the beginning of Genesis, we see light contrasting with darkness and find variations of natural and miraculous light in the Bible. Variations of natural light are found in words like daybreak, sunrise, sunset, moonlight, and so on. An instance of miraculous light occurs when an angel of the Lord visits Peter in his cell (Acts 12:7) as well as in other instances when angels appear. Artificial light is the result of torches and other lights.

The perception of M-light is part of God’s defining nature and is inherent in his Word and wisdom. The M-light of the L-Trinity is meant to illuminate the M-world, showing God’s glory and transforming people from M-darkness into M-light.

The M-Word, who is Jesus and part of the Godhead, becomes a literal human (1.14) and lives among other humans. John says that we can see his glory, but that must be the M-glory because it refers to a particular splendor of Jesus. The only “glory” we can “see” is represented metaphorically in Jesus, God’s Son, not in some literal halo or cloud. We see God as Jesus and in Jesus because God is a spirit, and we cannot see spirits (except in our imaginations). We need help to see God, and Jesus is that literal help. In the culture of the day, and in our culture as well, people claim to see “ghosts” or ancestral spirits, but Jesus is not one.

The “world” did not recognize Jesus and here the M-world stands for all the people that came in contact with Jesus. Those who believed on him became his M-children and part of his M-family. The “family” has a M-Father and an M-Son, who are, together, “God,” whom no one has ever seen (1.18). Of course, God is “real” even though we cannot see L-him or the L-Trinity. Therefore, talking about God requires metaphors.

The world (L and M) contrasts with heaven and, strangely speaking, we can be “in the world” but not “of the world.” We live L-human lives in the world, but we do not have to follow the temptations and sins of humans in the world. In God’s kingdom, His will be done in earth, as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:10). Or as the CEV translates it: “Come and set up your kingdom.” There is an L-Kingdom, but referring to it as a M-Kingdom helps us understand how “the kingdom of God is among you.”

John the Baptist referred to himself as the M-voice of a person shouting in the L-desert and he referred to Jesus as the M-lamb—the one who would take away the sins of the world. It was the M-lamb who would be sacrificed for the sins of the world, our sins.

The L-voice of God was heard by Adam, Moses, the prophets, as well as by the apostles and Christ himself. To some bystanders, the voice sounded like L-thunder (“The God of glory thunders, Psalm 29), and in Revelation 14.2, like mighty ocean waves. In both cases, this is a description of a M-voice. Likewise, the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost was a M-voice that sounded like “the roaring of a mighty windstorm” (Acts 2.2).

John saw the Spirit come down “like a dove from heaven and stay on him [Jesus].” He could not see the Spirit; instead, he saw a L-bird representing the L-Holy Spirit. Nor could Nicodemus see the L-Holy Spirit later when the Spirit was exemplified as the M-wind. Although a dove is a real bird, it was not the Holy Spirit. It was a visible representation, a symbol standing for the Holy Spirit. We can say that the dove was a M-Holy Spirit.

Closely related to metaphors are similes, which use descriptive words, such as “like” and “as” to compare one thing with another. “He is as strong as a lion,” or “weak as a chicken” are examples. These are simply alternative ways of saying “He is a lion,” or “He is a chicken.” A simple lyric compares the two: 

Similes and metaphors
Are similar but nothing more
Than a comparison in different ways
Similes use “like” or “as”
And metaphors need none of that
They just say exactly what they wanna say.

A dove has become a a symbol, whereby it is used to refer to some feature that becomes related to it. The word “dove” may have various metaphorical meanings assigned to it, standing for peace or, in the example from John’s gospel, the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 3.16: “After his baptism, as Jesus came up out of the water, the heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and settling on him.” See also: Mark 1.10; Luke 3.22 and John 1.32).

The word dove has therefore become a symbol to represent love, purity, hope, peace, freedom and associated ideas. The symbol is found in Judaism, Christianity, Islam, paganism, as well as in military and pacifist groups. It is a well-known symbol and icon in Orthodox Christianity.

The Holy Spirit, also called the Holy Ghost, is the so-called third member of the Trinity and the study of it in theology is called pneumatology. Other names for the Holy Spirit in the Bible are Spirit of God (Genesis 1.1: And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters), Spirit of Christ (Philippians 1.19: “For I know that as you pray for me and the Spirit of Jesus Christ helps me, this will lead to my deliverance”), and Spirit of Truth (John 16.13: “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future.”)

With a synecdoche, as already mentioned, a word for a part of something refers to something itself. For example, “head” may be used to refer to the main leader or character, as in “She is the head of the company.” it can also refer to counting cattle or people. Another example is the word “trinity,” which refers to God in three persons or manifestations. In this case, the single word refers to the whole godhead.

Returning to the gospel of John, the famous verse of 3.16 says that God so loved the “world,” a name representing the people who live on this planet, which is often contrasted with “heaven,” referring to a place where God and his people and angels live. We cannot see either of these places but can refer to them as locations with inhabitants. Such references are metaphorical.

We read in John 3.19 that the “light” has come to our planet, obviously referring in this context to Jesus and the word contrasts with “darkness,” often used to represents evil and sin. The M-light shows what exists in the M-darkness,” namely the evil actions that are done in the “dark.”

In 3.39, John refers to the “Messiah” as the “bridegroom” and to baptized believers as the “bride.” The words L-bridegroom and L-bride refer to the male and female participants in a marriage ceremony, but in this context, they should be read as M-bridegroom and M-bride.

The term “Messiah” is loaded with meaning and is highly symbolic. He is the savior or liberator for the Jewish people, proclaimed by the prophet Isaiah (9.1) and referred to 24 times in the gospel of Matthew and 22 times in John. as well as in Mark, Luke, and Acts. The descendants of Jesus are referred to as descendants of the Messiah (Matthew 1.1) and Jesus himself is called the Messiah (Matthew 1:18).

Jesus has a discussion with a woman from Samaria at the well of Jacob and she is puzzled when Jesus says that he can give her “life giving water,” where the M-water is stands for L-eternal life. She thinks of L-water and uses the name of her ancestor “Jacob” to stand for all the prophets. Perhaps “ancestor Jacob” should be M-ancestor, semantically operating as a synecdoche. 

In verse 24 of chapter 4, Jesus tells the woman that “God is Spirit, and only by the power of his Spirit can people worship him as he really is.” God can be referred to as a L-Spirit, or as the M-Spirit, who has the power to enable people to worship Him. It is again the Trinity at work.

The disciples find Jesus talking to the Samaritan woman but did not question him about it. Instead, they believe he might be hungry and offer him L-food. Jesus replies that he has M-food that they know nothing about, but the disciples believe he is talking of L-food.

There are other instances of Jesus eating and when he eats with others, he blesses the bread as a reminder that not only is the M-bread from God but so is the L-bread, Jesus himself.

The contrast of eating is fasting, deliberately going without food in order to think about God and pray to Him. There is a L-fast, where a person goes without food, but there is also a M-fast, where a person waits for Jesus or the Holy Spirit in some manner.

Throughout the ministry of Jesus, and later the disciples and Paul, we read of L-miracles, in the form of physical healings, and the casting out of demons. A miracle is something that takes place outside of the normal physical and natural possibilities. Sometimes we refer to something outstanding as a “miracle,” when we mean it would unusual, like the Texas Rangers winning the World Series, or when a truck just misses us on the highway.

A hallucination, dream or vision is not a miracle: such things are often unnatural and surreal, but they do not actually happen. We read of people who “die” and got to “heaven” and come back to tell us about it. However, no one has ever seen a person who makes such claims ascend into heaven like Jesus did, or what Paul wondered about when he went to the “third heaven.”

In John, chapter 5, a man who had been L-sick for 38 years kept trying to get into the pool of Bethzatha, but someone else always beat him to it. We aren’t told if people are actually healed when they get into the pool, but Jesus saw the man and knew he had been sick for a long time. He asked him if he wanted to get well, surely a self-evident question. Jesus didn’t help the man get into the pool, he simply told him to get up and walk. Jesus performed a L-miracle—we don’t know that the pool could accomplish miracles.

Jesus completed this miracle on the Sabbath and the Jewish authorities were not happy about it. The L-Sabbath was symbolic of the whole law—all its prohibitions and promises. Jesus had equated himself with God, who established the Sabbath and informed them that he was doing God’s work. He was equating himself with God the Father and it did not sit well with the Pharisees.

When Jesus said, “I am the bread of life,” this is not a difficult metaphor to understand. He is proclaiming that he is, like bread, providing sustenance for us to live. But when he says that people should eat his flesh and drink his blood (6.53ff) it is a stumbling block to listeners. How can they possibly eat his L-flesh and drink his L-blood? Jesus explains, in a round-about way, that he does not mean it literally. He is talking about his M-flesh and M-blood, his life and death. Only be living with Him and through his power can we obtain real life on this earth and only by believing in his L-death and L-resurrection can we live with him in heaven. The ancestors ate real angel’s food—manna—in the desert, but it did not give them eternal life. Jesus alone is the “real food” because he is the living M-bread that came down from heaven. We M-eat him and live, meaning that we believe on him and L-live forever.

Many of his followers “turned back” when they heard this teaching. They could not understand the meaning of the metaphors. Indeed, “flesh and blood” referred to stand someone alive, not someone who was dead. We will see Jesus in the L-flesh and we believe that we now can live by eating his M-flesh. Strange?, but not if you keep the semantics straight.

John, Chapter 7, speaks of Jesus and his L-brothers, although Roman Catholics get around the literalness by claiming these are half-brothers or M-brothers of Jesus, and that they are not literal sons of Mary and Joseph. Only in this way can Mary remain a “perpetual virgin.”

When asked, Jesus says that his knowledge comes from God, who sent him. Again, a heretical claim as far as the “Jewish authorities” are concerned. Jesus has appealed to the authority of his M-Father and this convinces the religious specialists that he has a L-demon in him. Jesus refers them to L-Moses and notes the fact that circumcision can be done on the Sabbath. Then why not heal someone then as well. “Does that make sense,” he seems to say, and, of course, it doesn’t to the Jews.

Jesus continues to teach, and in the Temple, he again asks the religious leaders if they realize the authority he is using to teach—again a reference to the L-Father. They are incensed and try to seize him, but he slips away again. They send guards after him because he claimed that where he was going (heaven) they could not go (7.34). The Pharisees hear him literally and think he must be going to some Greek area to hide out.

In Chapter 8, verse 12 (and 9.5), Jesus tells the Pharisees that he is the light of the world. Should we interpret that as M-light or L-light? I think it has to be metaphorical because when people of that day looked at Jesus, they did not see a halo or a luminous body, like appeared on the mountain when he was transfigured before the very eyes of his disciples. The glory of God does produce L-light that transcends what one would normally see. But here Jesus is comparing the M-light that he provides with M-darkness of those who do not believe and follow him.

Jesus appeals again (v. 18) and says that he is speaking and testifying on behalf of the “Father” and the Pharisees interpret him literally and want to know where his Father is located. Jesus replies that if they knew him, they would also know the Father and he repeats that he only tells them what he has already been told by the Father. More confusion on the part of the Pharisees especially when Jesus says that he is “from above” (v. 23).

The Pharisees are particularly offended when Jesus says that his teaching will “set them free” (v. 32) because they interpret him literally and think he must be referring to Abraham and claim that they are his descendants, and therefore they are not slaves. 

Jesus turns the tables on them and tells them that their “father” is the L-Devil, who is a liar. This must really provoke them because they had claimed that Jesus has a demon in him and now, if the devil is their Father, they are with the head demon. The Pharisees reply with a further insult: that Jesus is a Samaritan with a L-demon in him and that although Abraham and the prophets died, it is heretical to say that those who believe the words of Jesus will never die.

Jesus also announces that Abraham saw the time of his coming, which is again interpreted literally by the Pharisees. You are not even 50, they say, so how could you see Abraham?

The problem of interpreting the words of Jesus literally instead of metaphorically occurs again and again in John’s writings.

In Chapter 9, Jesus heals a man who is L-blind. The Pharisees investigate the healing and are not willing to believe that the man was L-blind. Later (v. 39) Jesus explains to the man that he came into the world to heal those who are M-blind and do not believe. If they were L-blind they would not be guilty and judged. Instead, they are M-spiritually blind.

The great view of Jesus as the M-shepherd occurs in chapter 10. The M-shepherd calls the M-sheep by name and tends the gate for them. He is in fact the M-gate as well and looks after the M-sheep pen as well. He also has other M-sheep (v. 16) that he will allow into the M-sheep pen. Jesus is again accused by Pharisees of having a L-demon (v. 20) and he is rejected. However, the sheep hear his voice and recognize him.

We read about Lazarus, brother of Martha and Mary, in chapter 11. Lazarus L-dies and Jesus tells his disciples that he is M-asleep, but they take asleep literally and want to go and wake him up! Then when Jesus tells them plainly that Lazarus had died, Thomas wants them to go and L-die with him. Did the disciples expect Jesus to die then as well?

Jesus waits and then after four days leaves for Bethany where Lazarus and his sisters lived. Martha meets Jesus and rebukes him by saying that if he had been there Lazarus would not have L-died—Jesus would have healed him. Jesus reproves her by saying that he is the M-resurrection, and that Lazarus will L-live again even after L-death. He then brings Lazarus back to life, still wrapped in grave clothes.

We read of the anointment of Jesus at Bethany (12.12-19also recorded in Matthew 26 and Mark 14). A dinner had been prepared for Jesus at the home of Lazarus. Note that “dinner” stands for all that would be eaten so it is a metonym whereby the whole (dinner) stands for all the various foods that would be eaten.

Mary took expensive perfume and poured it on the feet of Jesus. Judas Iscariot complained and said the money for the perfume should have been given to the “poor,” a word that represents all the people who were lacking in some way. Again, the word is a metonym.

The triumphant entry into Jerusalem by Jesus upsets the Pharisees to the extent that they claim (v. 19) that the “whole world” (clearly a metonym and hyperbole) is following Jesus.

Some Greeks come looking for Jesus and find Philip, who finds Andrew, and the two of them go to Jesus. What follows from Jesus is a short parable about a L-seed of grain falling into the ground and M-dying before it can produce grain. He compares this with M-hating one’s earthly life in order to have L-eternal life. The picture is of a L-life here on earth that becomes a L-life that is eternal, but the physical death here is metaphorical—it doesn’t refer to a natural death while we are on earth.

Jesus, in speaking about his own death, is replied to by a voice from heaven—a metonym for the literal person of God. He also again refers to himself as the M-light (v. 35) and how those who do not accept and believe in his light walk in M-darkness. The unbelief of the people is highlighted by quoting the prophet Isaiah who said that God had M-blinded their eyes and M-closed their minds so that they could not understand.

In John 13.2, we read that the L-Devil had put into the M-heart of Judas Iscariot the thought of betraying Jesus. Did Judas “think” with his “heart”? No, but that was (and is) a common way of talking about thinking. Thoughts take place in the configuration of the “brain,” and it is metaphorically the “seat” of our thinking. We have idioms like “to beat one’s brains” when we are trying to figure out something that is difficult. A person can be referred to as “all brawn and no brain,” meaning they have lots of muscle but not much thinking power. If we “pick someone’s brain,” we want to find out what they are thinking and if we are trying recall something lost in our own thinking we might “rack our brains.” These are idioms, figures of speech, that show how we believe the brain operates in our body.

When Jesus was about to wash Peter’s feet (13.6), Peter objected, seeing it as only a literal act. Jesus said that “If I do not wash your feet, you will no longer be my disciple” (v. 8). Peter does not grasp the metaphorical significance of what Jesus is doing and wants his body L-washed. Jesus replies that it is unnecessary and that all of the disciples, except Judas, are M-clean.

When Jesus says that “I Am Who I Am” he is speaking both literally—he is the Son of God—and figuratively—he is the one who shares and is the Father. It is another way of saying “I have always been who I now am.”

The disciples press Jesus to know who will betray him and he performs a symbolic act: he takes a piece of bread, dips it in the wine, and gives it to Judas. The L-bread and the L-wine—his M-body and M-blood—are represented in this act.

Thomas questions Jesus, who has said that there are many rooms in his Father’s house. Is Jesus speaking literally about a house and rooms? Various translations seem to treat it literally, with words and expressions like “dwelling place,” “abode,” “places to live,” and even “rooms to spare.” It seems to me that the Father’s “house” is a M-house and it has M-rooms. It is not one that we can easily envision without using our own cultural images.

Jesus also says that he is the “way, the truth, and the life” (v. 6) and most translations leave it literally as stated, although a couple use “road” or “path” for “way” and one adds “only way.” Because Jesus is referring to himself, these words are metaphorical figures of speech even when it is he literally—as a person—who provides these features.

The Holy Spirit is promised in 14:15-31, who is referred to as a L-Helper, L-teacher and one with L- and M-power, all attributes that are demonstrated later, especially in the book of Acts.

Chapter 15 employs several figures of speech: Jesus as M-vine, the Father as M-gardener, and believers as M-branches. The Father M-prunes the M-branches so that they are M-clean and can produce M-fruit. They can then M-remain in the M-vine. Any M-branches that do not produce the M-fruit are thrown into the M-fire and M-burned. However, when Jesus talks of believers having “joy” in him and being his “friend,” he is talking literally.

We have already noticed the metaphorical nature of “world” and it occurs again in vs. 18-24 when Jesus tells the disciples that the M-world (people who are not Christians) will hate them. They will be expelled literally from synagogues (16.2) and they will become objects of scorn.

Chapter 17 is mainly a record of the prayer Jesus had for his disciples: that they would be kept “safe” from the “L-Evil One” (v. 15) by the M-power of the M-name of the Father and that they might have L-joy as they continued to L-live in the M-world. He wanted the truth of God’s word to be the resource for their “dedication” to the Father. Jesus wanted the disciples to somehow see the M-glory that the Father had given him before the L-world was L-made. The result would be that the L-love the L-Father has for his Son would be transferred to the disciples as well.

This is a chapter in which we see the “M-heart” of Jesus, his deep emotional feelings toward the disciples and his desire for them to be “faithful to the end.” He knows the “M-world” will hate them and he wants them to be prepared and to extend the L-message of the Father’s L-love.

The remainder of the Gospel of John tells of the arrest of Jesus, his so-called trial, the denial of Peter, the crucifixion, resurrection, and his appearance to Mary Magdalene and the disciples. These are literal instances of the last period of the life of Jesus. He appears before the Roman governor Pilate, is sentenced to death, and dies a horrible crucifixion.

Even on the cross, we can see some metaphorical scenes: Jesus sees his L-mother and tells her that a particular disciple is her M-son. Then he tells the disciple: she is your M-mother and the disciple takes her to live in his home.

Joseph of Arimathea asks for and receives the body of Jesus and Nicodemus anoints it for burial. Jesus is buried in a special unused tomb- but three days later he is no longer there. When Mary Magdalene does see and recognize him, she wants to hug him, but he tells her that he has not yet returned literally to the Father. What does this mean? Is he referring to his new and glorified body that he will ascent to heaven in?

Later on Sunday he appears to most of the disciples and shows them his L-hands and L-side, making sure they know that he is the person they knew and not someone else. He then L-breathes on them and the receive the L-Holy Spirit. Jesus provides a special and personal revelation of himself to doubting Thomas and Thomas acknowledges him as “My Lord and my God.” (20:28)

Finally, in the Gospel, Jesus appears to seven disciples at Lake Tiberias and while there he meets Peter, and provides him with a special revelation of where and how to fish. The result is a miracle: 153 L-fish and a net that did not tear with all their weight. It was still not clear to the disciples who Jesus was, but when he eats L-bread and L-fish with them, their eyes are opened.

When Jesus has his discussion with Peter, he wants to know how much Peter really loves him. He tells Peter to prove his love by taking care of his M-lambs and M-sheep. He also prophesies to Peter about how he will die—probably L-blind and being led about by others.

John summaries the activities and miracles of Jesus with a grand hyperbole: “If they were all written down the M-whole world could not hold the M-books.” (21,25)

[End]

The Nursery Rhyme Genre, with Examples

Introduction

According to Wikipedia, that venerable and revered source of all Internet and planetary knowledge, a nursery rhyme has its history in English plays that originated in the mid’16th Century. The publisher, John Newbery, issued a book of English collections before 1744 called Tommy Thumb’s Song Book, followed by Tommy Thumb’s Pretty Song Book. Newbery’s stepson, Thomas Carnan, is credited with being the first to use the term “Mother Goose” for nursery rhymes. Nursery rhymes comprise one sub-set of story genres.

Story Genres

A genre is a term used to classify kinds of literature and music. For example, “detective” stories comprise a genre that is different than “cowboy” stories. “Country western” music is different than “gospel” music, and so on. Of course, genres are often loosely defined, with overlap between them: a detective story genre may be mainly about cowboys and gospel music genre may include western themes. Literary genres include, for example, poetry, prose, fiction, non-fiction and drama, each with sub-genres as well. Nursery rhymes are a sub-category of literary fiction.

Within a given cultural tradition, as in language groups of Papua New Guinea, stories can be categorized generically and individually. For example, the Kewa (of Papua New Guinea) use the words iti and remaa to represent folklore on the one hand and history on the other.[1] Oral societies provide their history by means of folk stories and folk history, for example, by means of genealogies and classifications, for example—blood v. marriage kin (consanguine and affine).

Stories are live representations that impress listeners more with their images than with their propositions. For example, “Mary had a little lamb” is a proposition, but “Its fleece was white as snow” provides the hearer with a mental image.

Stories are also idiomatic, i.e. they are told in the vernacular with cultural analogies and background information. They are therefore often imaginative, not just in the sense of say telling my granddaughter a story, but also in her mind as she forms mental images of Mary and the sheep. They also include particular themes, plots, sub-plots—“and everywhere that Mary went the lamb was sure to go.”

Although stories may be historical and built on what the teller views or represents as things that happened, nursery rhymes are purely fictional. Nevertheless, they are dynamic and can be converted into drama or song to represent various aspects of the story. They are often short and pithy, accompanied by animation, drama, and so on. Nursery stories are generally for the very young, but can be adapted according to audience backgrounds, such as for ethnicity or gender, and are often instructive, either directly or indirectly, with particular cultural applications and morals.

Nursery rhymes[2]

Nursery rhymes were composed for children and include poems, lullabies, finger plays and counting. Many rhymes are classic and therefore old, for example: 1) Baa, Baa, Black Sheep, 1731; 2) Goosey, Goosey Gander, 1784; 3) Jack and Jill, 1765; 4) London Bridge is Falling Down, 1744; 5) Mary, Mary, Quite contrary, 1744; and 6) Three Blind Mice, 1805. 

Other nursery rhymes may involve counting or singing include, such as:  7) wheels on the bus; 8) Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe; 9) Little miss Muffet; 10) Row, row, row your boat; 11) Itsy bitsy spider; 12) Peter, Peter, pumpkin eater; 13) Little Bo Peep; 14) Four and twenty blackbirds; 15) Pat a cake; 16) Little boy blue; and 17) Hey diddle diddle.

Because nursery stories are entertaining, they are sometimes told by professional storytellers. Although the intended message of a nursery story is not always apparent and may require interpretation, it will probably spoil a nursery rhyme to provide detailed exegesis—so consider many of them “spoiled” by me. However, even as a linguist, I am mindful that a child is not interested in the story’s semantics, pragmatics or theology, noting such things as actors, agents, settings, background and deixis.

Nursery rhymes can be ad hoc and provocative, whereby one story leads to another—a chain of imagination, such that a story acts as a “trigger” for another.

In summary, nursery rhymes combine various elements:

art/drama/song/intonation
imagination
embellishments
variations
emotions
media, such as voice over, camera angle, and music scores

Such storytelling, by its very nature, gains various outputs:

confusion
discussion and consideration
decision and acting
replication or retelling
entertainment
perhaps honor 
identity with teller or characters

In my versions of the Nursery Rhymes that follow, I have messed with the interpretations, just for fun. Of course, no actual animal or person has been harmed in the transitions. 

A Black Sheep

Abstract: Most sheep are white, but this one was not and he (or she, we can’t be sure) was quite special and clever. I am assuming that it is not racist to refer to a sheep as black and, as the story will show, black sheep were extremely smart and generally in charge of the white sheep. I will refer to the main character of the story as Blackie—again intending nothing sinister or bad. Black is simply the darkest achromatic visual value, although it can have social values as well. For example, if you are “in the black” it is much better than being “in the red”. In addition, the Ovis or Ovis aries clan of sheep have been known to control the wool trade, including dying, shrinking and other complex jobs, for a long time.

Key words: sheep, Ovis, Ovis aries, wool, cotton, bag, baa, sir

Baa, Baa, black sheep
Have you any wool?
Yes sir, yes sir,
Three bags full;
One for the master,
And one for the dame,
And one for the little boy w
Who lives down the lane.

Some background of the story: Wool products were hard to get in the old days, that is, prior to 1733, so selling wool was a very good job to have. There is, however, a lot more to the story and my account will help to fill it out.

There were numerous merchants in those days trying to buy wool—they were known as Wooleys. When one of them would see a black sheep, it would immediately yell “baa, baa” because it thought that the words sounding like sheep language. And it was true that white sheep will stand around all day in the pasture saying just those two words.

In this case Wooley, wanting to get Blackie’s attention, yelled out “baa, baa,” thinking that the black sheep would yell “baa, baa” back and that they could then talk about wool and wool prices in Australia and New Zealand.

But black sheep are different, so Blackie did not say “baa, baa” back to Wooley. Instead it said “Yes sir”, twice, for emphasis, and Wooly loved what he heard because he loved to be called “sir.” In fact, he wanted to be called sir and would often say to the white sheep, “Stop saying baa, baa all the time and call me sir!” But the white sheep could not understand him, for he had never properly learned sheep language. Nor could they bring themselves to teach Wooley the language.

Blackie knew of course that Wooley wanted wool and he guessed that three bags full would be enough. So, he told him he had three bags for him and then he probably went too far—he stipulated who the bags were for. He said, paraphrased, “Wooley, you’re the big shot, the master, so you can have one bag, and your wife—the dame—she can have the other, but don’t forget that poor little boy that lives down the road, actually a small road, just a lane.”

Blackie should not have told Wooley who the wool was for. It upset Wooley because it made him feel selfish taking the first bag. And even though he would give his dame the second bag, he was not going to give that boy down the road any wool. Oh, he might have given him a sack full of cotton, but surely not a full bag of wool.

“Who do you think you are, telling me who to give the wool to?” said Wooley. “I have been buying wool for a long time and I should know who gets the wool and who doesn’t. My wife—OK—she will knit me a sweater, but that boy who lives down the lane throws berries at my horse and I wouldn’t give him a bag of wool. Like I said, maybe a sack of cotton, but not a bag of wool.”

This bothered Blackie, who had started out poor and on the other side of the lane himself. With luck and perseverance, he had become a wool seller. He wanted that little boy down the lane to have the same chance he had in life, so he said once again, “and one for the little boy who lives down the lane.” 

Wooley was mad—sellers are not supposed to tell buyers what to do with their money or products. He decided, according to legend, never to buy wool from Blackie again.

Blackie was not discouraged at all. He got to know the little boy down the lane and together they built a large wool shed and decided to pull the wool over Wooley’s eyes. They took three bags of cotton and waited along the road for Wooley to come looking for wool to buy. Remember that cotton was a lot cheaper than wool and if they could sell it at the same price as wool, they would make a lot of money.

And for the next few years that is what they did. How could they manage? Well, by then Wooley had so much wool over his eyes that he couldn’t tell cotton from wool, especially when it was packaged in wool bags. Without meaning to, he had helped Blackie and the boy down the lane become exporters of wool all over the world.

The moral of the story: Children should never say “baa, baa” to someone who might reply “yes sir.” And they should always examine their wool to make sure that it is not cotton.


[1] See, for example, my analysis of the classification of Kewa stories: “Two Kewa (Papua New Guinea) Story Genres” in Language & Linguistics in Melanesia 35:152-176, 2017.

[2] My main source has been: Best Loved Nursery Rhymes and Sons: including Mother Goose selections, with helpful guide for parents. Home Library Press, A division of Parents’ Magazine Enterprises, Inc. 1974 edition. There are 251 rhymes and songs in the book.

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