I've decided that what I am most fond of in Jack's writing is how he could point out a feeling, characteristic, or behavior that is so very universal throughout the human race but yet we still don't realize that it even exists at all until he points it out. I came to appreciate this afresh when I was reading the account in The Screwtape Letters wherein Screwtape advises Wormwood not to try to influence his "patient" to give in to temptation and do things he ought not, but rather instead to influence him to whittle away his time doing things that really don't do much for him at all. For instance, spending all night just staring into the fire while not doing or thinking anything productive or therapeutic.
Until I read this passage, I hadn't realized that this was a common behavior of humans. I simply figured I was among a small group of time-wasters who happen to be prone to being busily engaged about doing many things and, after its all done, really accomplishing nothing. Little did I know it was a more widespread problem and that I wasn't terribly odd at all (well, at least in this respect).
It makes me wonder how many other self-labeled "oddities" that make up my person really aren't that odd after all.
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