The Shoddy Lands of our Lives
Why is it that one minute the world can appear to be so cheerful and inviting and the next minute it can seem so boring and vague? We could be at work, enjoying our day and a person could easily say something that can quickly change our perception of how we see the world. Many times we let other people and their unhappiness change our attitudes toward our day. All because the way they look at the world is different.
C. S. Lewis had something to say about this strange event. Using the theme in his short story, The Shoddy Lands. A man was forced to see the world through the eyes of a shallow, conceited woman. While at lunch with a man and his wife, the narrator of the story was able to see in the mind of the …show more content…
In the last paragraphs, the narrator attempts to explain his experiences. Trees and grass were ugly in the woman’s mind because she doesn’t care about them or nature. “People as well were smudges, except for men whose faces were radiant because she thought they were cute. (Lewis 9)” Jewelry and other fashionable items were also beautiful in her world because she was a woman who liked jewelry. He sees the world through her eyes. And doesn’t see much. “Everything is shoddy. The trees had no real shape, even no real branches; they were more like painted blobs of green. (Lewis …show more content…
The things he saw through the woman’s eyes were ugly. But, what he saw was so different from his eyes. This strange episode the man in Lewis tale went through is not different from what we go through on a daily basis. People draw us into their own shoddy lands that reflect a different reality. With a sad tone, a frown or a word, we are brought into having a different mindset about our day. (Walsh 3) Your attention and interest create your world. On the negative side, we can have someone to come into our life and words or actions could have us to feel different. It’s like we co-create whatever we see in our life. Or re-craft it in our own minds. In some mysterious way, paying attention to detail and thinking about things makes us more alive and aware.
The lesson is that we should be mindful of the things, people, and ideas in which we invest our time. I was fascinated by the idea that I might not see some things like they should be seen. Imagining Lewis’s idea in my life, I think his point of view in the Shoddy Lands were the things that we see in our lives without really seeing them. Do we really know what a forest looks like? Flowers? A person? The shoddy lands makes you question how does the way you see the world differ from
Why is it that one minute the world can appear to be so cheerful and inviting and the next minute it can seem so boring and vague? We could be at work, enjoying our day and a person could easily say something that can quickly change our perception of how we see the world. Many times we let other people and their unhappiness change our attitudes toward our day. All because the way they look at the world is different.
C. S. Lewis had something to say about this strange event. Using the theme in his short story, The Shoddy Lands. A man was forced to see the world through the eyes of a shallow, conceited woman. While at lunch with a man and his wife, the narrator of the story was able to see in the mind of the …show more content…
In the last paragraphs, the narrator attempts to explain his experiences. Trees and grass were ugly in the woman’s mind because she doesn’t care about them or nature. “People as well were smudges, except for men whose faces were radiant because she thought they were cute. (Lewis 9)” Jewelry and other fashionable items were also beautiful in her world because she was a woman who liked jewelry. He sees the world through her eyes. And doesn’t see much. “Everything is shoddy. The trees had no real shape, even no real branches; they were more like painted blobs of green. (Lewis …show more content…
The things he saw through the woman’s eyes were ugly. But, what he saw was so different from his eyes. This strange episode the man in Lewis tale went through is not different from what we go through on a daily basis. People draw us into their own shoddy lands that reflect a different reality. With a sad tone, a frown or a word, we are brought into having a different mindset about our day. (Walsh 3) Your attention and interest create your world. On the negative side, we can have someone to come into our life and words or actions could have us to feel different. It’s like we co-create whatever we see in our life. Or re-craft it in our own minds. In some mysterious way, paying attention to detail and thinking about things makes us more alive and aware.
The lesson is that we should be mindful of the things, people, and ideas in which we invest our time. I was fascinated by the idea that I might not see some things like they should be seen. Imagining Lewis’s idea in my life, I think his point of view in the Shoddy Lands were the things that we see in our lives without really seeing them. Do we really know what a forest looks like? Flowers? A person? The shoddy lands makes you question how does the way you see the world differ from