I was yanked by the hair by this passage from The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis. It’s hard to read without the uneasy feeling that Lewis looked down his nose at the working classes and the uneducated, but grappling with that feeling is part of the joy of reading and marveling at it. Above all he is calling for us to become individuals, just as Sardello does, and to allow the same in others.

I think this has great implications for our politics as well as for our spirituality. It makes me sad that so much of what Lewis suggested could happen is happening today, when, as Yeats wrote, the best lack all conviction and the worst are full of passionate intensity. At the same time, to see the situation summed up so well by such a masterful devil as Screwtape is a treat. I’ve abridged this while reading, so please find the book and read “Screwtape Proposes a Toast” through for yourself.

‘Round this part of this neighborhood of this city, the City Slackers are pretty widely known characters. They’re a well-married couple, and though they have no children, their friends and relations substitute quite well. Sure, Slick and Slack have their peculiarities (as you may detect in this episode), but what’s a little mess among good friends?

{Featuring the talents of Anne O’Saunders, JB, Nan Fontaine, M. G. Lovebody, P. Janewoody, Kris Gardner, and Slick and Slack}

Well, friends, let not it be ever said that we, your hosts, were cursed by lack of courage or surplus of talent. Treading the ground trod by Shakespeare and probably a bunch of other people before us, we pay humble tribute to stage drama and the radio shows of old with this presentation and a few more to follow. We hope therewith to plumb the depths of human emotion and cast a glowing light on the hidden caverns of the heart.

This play features Barry Veganham and JB and is narrated by Slick. We look forward to your comments.

Dipping back into Love and the Soul by Robert Sardello. This reading has many things, including bone-chewing by the dogs and me doing my best Michael Toms voice (stuffy and nasal). If you can get past those features, you’ll hear about individuality—a sense of the I; how a sense of purpose can well up from within; the heart as an organ of perception; and a bit of Strange Boat by The Waterboys. All this for free!