Sunday 1 June 2008

FAME

'"Her name on earth was Sarah Smith and she lived at Golders Green."
"She seems to be ... well a person of great importance?"
"Aye. She is one of the great ones. Ye have heard it said that fame in this country and fame on Earth are two quite different things." ...
"And who are all these young men and women on each side?"
"They are her sons and daughters."
"She must have had a very large family, Sir."
"Every young man or boy that met her became her son - even if it was only the boy that brought the meat to her back door. Every girl that met her was her daughter."
"Isn't that a bit hard on their own parents?"
"No. There are those who steal other people's children. But her motherhood was of a different kind. Those on whom it fell went back to their natural parents loving them more."'
CS Lewis, The Great Divorce, p.98.