Commentary: CS Lewis is known for his works such as the 'Chronicles of Narnia'. Many people struggle to understand the message in his works. Yet, most know that he was a Christian Philosopher. Recent discoveries shed light on th genius behind his works. There is a message for leadership in Lewis's works.
The Genius
Many of you may know that I read alot. In my reading, I have read a lot of C.S. Lewis's works. Recently, I saw a fascinating literary review that 'unlocked' the mystery in Lewis's fictional works. As it turns out Lewis was intrigued with the Medieval view of the cosmos and had studied it in great detail. He was a noted scholar on the Medieval. While he recognized that it was mechanically incorrect, he saw something deeper. He saw a beauty in creation in which complexity was built upon complexity in a tightly interwoven fabric.
The Genius
Many of you may know that I read alot. In my reading, I have read a lot of C.S. Lewis's works. Recently, I saw a fascinating literary review that 'unlocked' the mystery in Lewis's fictional works. As it turns out Lewis was intrigued with the Medieval view of the cosmos and had studied it in great detail. He was a noted scholar on the Medieval. While he recognized that it was mechanically incorrect, he saw something deeper. He saw a beauty in creation in which complexity was built upon complexity in a tightly interwoven fabric.
He took the Medieval cosmological view and layered that under parallel Biblical thread lines then layer that under parallel fantasy thread lines. Each fantasy story as it turns out is fundamentally built upon Medieval symbology for each of the seven planets. In Lewis's mind this was representative of peeling back the onion in our own universe in which complexity is layered upon complexity then layer with even more complexity has the Creator interwoven amidst it all. The reason he wrote Narnia was to communicate the idea of a "meaning drenched Universe". The example was given that science may report that heat applied to water causes it to boil at 212 degrees but the purpose or meaning of that is to prepare a spot of tea. This is antithetical to authors like Richard Dawkins of "The God Delusion" who conclude there is no purpose or meaning. Yet, I am confident that Dawkin's has purposefully boiled water for a spot of tea. Was that purpose to enjoy the taste of tea, or just to quench a natural thirst without enjoyment? If to quench a natural thirst, why make tea when naturally occuring water serves the purpose?
Anyhow, I read "The God Delusion". Dawkins is often factually incorrect in histories and distorts or ignores well established scientific truths. At the other extreme end of the spectrum is the current day Creation Museum with poor logic and distorted context. We seem to have many people today with odd ideas and poor reasoning holding entire communities of practice hostage. Whereas Lewis's works were so deep that even philosophers such as Tolkien failed to grasp the literary genius in the works. Interestingly, Lewis's works are revealed whereas others such as Dawkin's works and the Creation Museum are insisted upon.
The more I learn of Lewis, the more I am fascinated by the complexity of his mind. He certainly ranks near Leonardo Da Vinci who had extreme breadth as opposed to Lewis's focused genius. Lewis's fantasy stories are artfully crafted in a beauty no longer considered by the world at large. What a shame.
As leaders, we have to be cautious about the stories we receive. We must learn to peel the onion back in order to get ot the truth which is often buried in a complex web of demogoguery and information to obfuscate the truth. For example, I was running 7 shops one time in an maintenance, repair, and overhaul environment. One of the artisans was laid out prone in the shop, hands behind his head, with his eyes closed. The boss discovered him and sent him to me to be dealt with. Upon entering my office the individual announced that the boss had sent him to advise me how hard he was working and that his eyes needed a rest. I knew the issue was more complex than hard work and resting eyes then began to peel back the onion. The individual felt he needed time off to fully rest up since it was obvious hard he was working. That did not happen. In the end, we both knew he individual was a hard worker but we had to deal with the appearance of sleeping in the shop. While humorous this example demonstrates how the truth can be obfuscated and the right questions need to be asked. Even once the truth was exposed we had to work to save face and softly word things in order to deal with the situation and promote returning the individual to productive work. All this complexity.
As leaders having a grasp of systems of systems thinking or being able to deal with complexity upon complexity is invaluable. This means seeing the bigger picture and realizing the importance of each connecting dot.
As leaders, we have to be cautious about the stories we receive. We must learn to peel the onion back in order to get ot the truth which is often buried in a complex web of demogoguery and information to obfuscate the truth. For example, I was running 7 shops one time in an maintenance, repair, and overhaul environment. One of the artisans was laid out prone in the shop, hands behind his head, with his eyes closed. The boss discovered him and sent him to me to be dealt with. Upon entering my office the individual announced that the boss had sent him to advise me how hard he was working and that his eyes needed a rest. I knew the issue was more complex than hard work and resting eyes then began to peel back the onion. The individual felt he needed time off to fully rest up since it was obvious hard he was working. That did not happen. In the end, we both knew he individual was a hard worker but we had to deal with the appearance of sleeping in the shop. While humorous this example demonstrates how the truth can be obfuscated and the right questions need to be asked. Even once the truth was exposed we had to work to save face and softly word things in order to deal with the situation and promote returning the individual to productive work. All this complexity.
As leaders having a grasp of systems of systems thinking or being able to deal with complexity upon complexity is invaluable. This means seeing the bigger picture and realizing the importance of each connecting dot.
No comments:
Post a Comment