The Importance of Longing

C.S. Lewis puts it awfully well in his famous BBC radio talk. Most people, if they really learned how to look into their own hearts, would know that they do want and want acutely something that cannot be had in this world. There is always something we grasp that in the first moment of longing that just fades away in the reality. The spouse may be a good spouse. The scenery has been excellent. It turned out to be a wonderful job, but it has evaded us. I am not speaking of what would ordinarily be called unsuccessful marriages or trips or so on. But there is something deeper. Then success or family is deeper than a fireplace. What is it? The