I'm sort of a perfectionist when it comes to writing. I wanted to be a writer for most of my life, and I have always expressed myself best through the written word, so getting things worded just exactly right is something that's fairly important to me. If I'm going to be sharing my experiences on a blog, it deserves a name that truly captures the spirit of all that I expect and hope for.
We're going to be spending our time as scouts in essentially unknown territory. Kind of like Caleb and Joshua. Maybe there's something (a phrase, a word or two) in the account of their time in Canaan (Numbers 13-14) that expresses their faith and hope. There's not. Turns out there's not a lot of faith and hope going on among the Israelites at the time, and that's kind of the point of the story. Go figure.
Well, then, what about something specifically related to Ireland? What about Ireland did I fall in love with last time? I first think of the sky.
Something about the vibrance and the speed and grace with which it shifts from splendor to splendor. I'm reminded of Psalm 19. "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork..." It was a constant reminder that I wasn't alone in this land. That there was always beauty to be found. The Lord was with me and working just as much in Ireland as He was at home. So... Irish Sky? This fell short for several reasons: Sky is a digital broadcasting network in the UK and Ireland, the Irish word for sky is spéir which doesn't exactly have a ring to it, Psalm 19 (while beautiful) has nothing to do with what we'll actually be doing, we'll be spending all of our time in the major city of Belfast and there's no telling how much of the sky we'll actually be seeing this time around, and some good friends of mine already have a blog called Irish Rain and I'd hate to impose on their ingenuity.
So, what then? Of course I love the people. But what makes someone Irish? What makes them loveable? Sincerity, generocity, love of artistic expression, an unexpected sense of irrational hope hidden just beneath a surface of cynicism and oppresion. It seems superficial to attempt to sum up all of that for the sake of some clever title. And perhaps a bit unnecessarily deep.
What about Belfast itself? The North of Ireland? I spent several hours researching the place to which we're submitting ourselves, searching for something unique that jumps out as a thing fitting both the area and the Spirit with which we go.
C.S. Lewis was born and raised in Belfast. Ethan and I, like most young (or young at heart) believers, have given Mr. Lewis a special home in our hearts. His is a place of light youthful energy and adventure... and yet also of the heavy depth that comes with the wisdom given through the hurt and longing of a man in search of truth in a fallen world. Perfect.
Did Lewis ever write anything specifically about his homeland? Yes and no. He mentioned it a good number of times in passing. He once described heaven as "Oxford lifted and placed in the middle of the County Down." In his autobiography, Surprised by Joy, he details the account of his childhood in Ireland without much reference to the place itself aside from the anecdote that when he finally left he missed it greatly. And in various letters to family and friends he refers to his great love for Ireland as "my Irish life."
Exasperated after hours of research, I informed Ethan of my progress toward naming our new blog. Ever the practical man, he was fine with calling it "Our Irish Life." That just didn't sit well with me. It seemed a great disservice to the trip if it were named in a manner I could see just as easily adorning the title area of a blog detailing just another stereotypically impersonal family vacation of tourists.
Finally, I just gave up. I shut off the computer, stretched my legs, and joined Ethan in the living room. Not a moment after I sat down, a ray of light desceneded from heaven and I knew what our blog would be called.
In Narnia, the land of Aslan is located across the Eastern Sea. From our position, so is Ireland. The name conveys both the notion that we're stepping out in faith out of our comfort zones and into the realm of God and that we are quite literally traveling east across the ocean. Adventure is gotten across with it's root in Christian mythology. Lewis would approve, I think.
Sometimes you just have to give up.
- Sam R. Franklin
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