12.11.08
C.S. Lewis: Let Your Heart Be Broken
My current day job (as of 12/1) is at a brand-new experiential travel magazine. Someone sent this in as a response to our direct mail package, but it perfectly captures some thoughts and feelings I’ve had recently:
“There is no safe investment. To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one… Wrap it carefully around with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket–safe, dark, motionless, airless–it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The only place outside heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is hell.” — C.S. Lewis
jane said,
December 11, 2008 at 10:08 am
guilty as charged, and so soon too…
so i’m planning my big heartbreak to occur next summer. i’m so silly. haha
sanityinthenorthwest said,
December 11, 2008 at 10:19 am
As a finance professional, I understand that there are no “safe” investments. However, investments can be managed. With careful monitoring and good management, investments can grow and be quite profitable.
As much as I love C.S. Lewis, investments can’t be compared to matters of the heart. First of all, most people pay more attention to their investments than they do to their relationships (and that isn’t saying much). Second, no investment manager will put all their eggs in one basket. Diversification is key to a successful investment strategy. When it comes to love, we do exactly the opposite.
Nicole said,
December 11, 2008 at 10:33 pm
I have to say, I feel that he drops the investment metaphor after the first sentence. But you’re right, people pay far more attention to their investment portfolio than, say, their families. Scary.
I like how, in the ominous language in this quote, Lewis gets right to the heart of it. It’s scary to let yourself be open and vulnerable to getting hurt. Yet it feels like there’s no greater risk or reward. I hope to never wall myself off like that, yet I know that I’ve been stockpiling bricks lately (to torture the metaphor a bit more).