Good-bye, Mr. Chips

Good-bye, Mr. Chips is a book.  My Dad gave it to me to read a few days ago as a quick poignant read.  Bowing to my father's superior knowledge of literature, I began to read, and was wonderfully surprised at what I found.

Good-by, Mr. Chips, by James Hilton, is not a famous classic.  It is not a sweeping epic full of flowery language and tumultuous problems wrapped in a bombastic ending with a bittersweet moral.  It is simply a good story about a good man remembering his good life.  How often do we come across a story like that in fiction? 

We have become addicted to cynicism and troubled psyches in our effort for realism.  While realism is admirable, when I want facts, I look to non-fiction.  We come to fiction to either escape from reality or to find a different view of the world.  The latter is true especially for fiction that falls outside of the fantasy and science-fiction categories.  Fiction can help open our eyes to the world that could be, instead of the world that is.  It can let us see our world through the eyes of another.  Too often, the viewpoint chosen shows a world full of hatred and bereft of forgiveness. 

James Hilton has chosen to let us see the world through a latin professor at a boy's school in England, Mr. Chipping, known affectionatly as Mr. Chips.  The book, only 126 pages, details the highlights of Mr. Chips career, from a well respected teacher to a beloved legend of the school.  Mr. Chips admits to himself that he is not a great academic, but he easily accepts his scholastic mediocrity.  Here is a man who merely wishes to carve out a corner of the world and leave it better than he found it.  There is no doubt that Mr. Chips accomplishes his goal.

Good-bye, Mr. Chips is a joy to read.  It doesn't ask anything of you but a few hours of your time; however, it offers a wonderfully human story in return.  I am not ashamed to say that it moved me to tears, and I haven't been that moved by a piece of literature in far too long.

So, read it, if you have the inclination.  Hopefully, it will make your world brighter than it was.

What's with the Darkness?

And no, I don't mean how the sun runs away faster now and night falls a bit harder.

I mean this odd fascination with all things dark.  I'm not saying that people shouldn't look at dark things; I enjoy a jaunt into the crazy creepy world every now and then.  It's fun, amusing, and sometimes really educational!

The problem comes when it's your only diet.

People always remark on how awful it is when a person only looks at the sunshine and bubble aspects of life, but it's just as bad to stuff yourself down it the dark crevices of the world.

So people who refuse to look on the darkness: Don't be afraid.  Just because you look inside yourself and face the inevitable darkness of humanity doesn't mean that you'll never be totally happy again.  You can't be completely happy with yourself until you've discovered and accepted everything about yourself.

And people who roll their eyes at the lightness:  Don't.  Just don't.  Simply because you travel the shadowy roads with ease doesn't make you better than others.  It doesn't mean you have a better grip on reality.  Light has just as much substance and layers and Darkness.  Learn that, and.... you learn something!  That's always a good thing!

This has been Wonderland Junkets waxing philosophy junket-style.  Tune back in sometime for something else.