{"id":7714,"date":"2025-07-04T09:37:01","date_gmt":"2025-07-04T16:37:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/?p=7714"},"modified":"2025-07-04T09:37:01","modified_gmt":"2025-07-04T16:37:01","slug":"thoughts-on-this-fourth-of-july","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2025\/07\/04\/thoughts-on-this-fourth-of-july","title":{"rendered":"Thoughts on This Fourth of July"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Four Loves by CS Lewis<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

<\/em>Some of us are read\u00ading through C.S. Lewis\u2019 The Four Loves this sum\u00admer for the Chi Alpha Sum\u00admer Read\u00ading Project<\/a>. Every oth\u00ader week I\u2019ll post some reflec\u00adtions on the read\u00adings. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I laid out the read\u00ading sched\u00adule for The Four Loves<\/em>, I did\u00adn\u2019t real\u00adize that we would read Lewis\u2019 remarks on patri\u00ado\u00adtism on the fourth of July. How delight\u00adful!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve actu\u00adal\u00adly writ\u00adten about this chap\u00adter of The Four Loves <\/em>before<\/a>, so I\u2019ll take a slight\u00adly dif\u00adfer\u00adent direc\u00adtion today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lewis cel\u00ade\u00adbrates the love of coun\u00adtry as one of the most basic of loves. He points out that the love of your nation is an indis\u00adpens\u00adable part of lov\u00ading all of human\u00adi\u00adty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As the fam\u00adi\u00adly offers us the first step beyond self-love, so this offers us the first step beyond fam\u00adi\u00adly self\u00adish\u00adness.\u2026 those who do not love the fel\u00adlow-vil\u00adlagers or the fel\u00adlow-towns\u00admen whom they have seen are not like\u00adly to have got very far towards lov\u00ading \u2018Man\u2019 whom they have not.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

This wor\u00adries some peo\u00adple, because does\u00adn\u2019t lov\u00ading your coun\u00adtry lead to a dis\u00adlike of oth\u00aders? Not at all! One of the virtues of healthy patri\u00ado\u00adtism is that it allows you to love and respect peo\u00adple from oth\u00ader nations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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[This kind of patri\u00ado\u00adtism] becomes mil\u00adi\u00adtant only to pro\u00adtect what it loves. In any mind which has a pen\u00adny\u00adworth of imag\u00adi\u00adna\u00adtion it pro\u00adduces a good atti\u00adtude towards for\u00adeign\u00aders. How can I love my home with\u00adout com\u00ading to realise that oth\u00ader men, no less right\u00adly, love theirs? Once you have realised that the French\u00admen like cafe com\u00adplet<\/em> just as we like bacon and eggs\u2014why, good luck to them and let them have it. The last thing we want is to make every\u00adwhere else just like our own home. It would not be home unless it were dif\u00adfer\u00adent.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

By con\u00adtrast, a dis\u00addain for your own nation will lead to dis\u00addain for oth\u00aders. Part of cel\u00ade\u00adbrat\u00ading diver\u00adsi\u00adty is real\u00adiz\u00ading that you con\u00adtribute to it. Your cul\u00adture can enrich a for\u00adeign\u00ader just as much as their cul\u00adture can enrich you, and so to deny them by pre\u00adtend\u00ading there is noth\u00ading good about your cul\u00adture is cru\u00adel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This does\u00adn\u2019t mean that you need to ignore the flaws of your nation. Lewis devotes sev\u00ader\u00adal pages in this chap\u00adter to help\u00ading peo\u00adple sort through the fact that \u201cthe actu\u00adal his\u00adto\u00adry of every coun\u00adtry is full of shab\u00adby and even shame\u00adful things.\u201d Much of what he says reminds me of the way G.K. Chester\u00adton talked about patri\u00ado\u00adtism in Ortho\u00addoxy<\/em> chap\u00adter 5, \u201c<\/span>The Flag of This World<\/span><\/a>.\u201d Chesterton\u2019s point is that patri\u00adots see the flaws of their nation and grieve them. It is because peo\u00adple love their nation that they want to fix it. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fol\u00adlow\u00ading from the afore\u00admen\u00adtioned Chester\u00adton chap\u00adter is one of my favorite quotes of all time \u2014 I beg you to read through it slow\u00adly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Let us sup\u00adpose we are con\u00adfront\u00aded with a des\u00adper\u00adate thing\u2014say Pim\u00adli\u00adco [Glen\u2019s note: Pim\u00adli\u00adco is part of Lon\u00addon]. If we think what is real\u00adly best for Pim\u00adli\u00adco we shall find the thread of thought leads to the throne or the mys\u00adtic and the arbi\u00adtrary. It is not enough for a man to dis\u00adap\u00adprove of Pim\u00adli\u00adco: in that case he will mere\u00adly cut his throat or move to Chelsea. Nor, cer\u00adtain\u00adly, is it enough for a man to approve of Pim\u00adli\u00adco: for then it will remain Pim\u00adli\u00adco, which would be awful. The only way out of it seems to be for some\u00adbody to love Pim\u00adli\u00adco: to love it with a tran\u00adscen\u00adden\u00adtal tie and with\u00adout any earth\u00adly rea\u00adson. If there arose a man who loved Pim\u00adli\u00adco, then Pim\u00adli\u00adco would rise into ivory tow\u00aders and gold\u00aden pin\u00adna\u00adcles; Pim\u00adli\u00adco would attire her\u00adself as a woman does when she is loved. For dec\u00ado\u00adra\u00adtion is not giv\u00aden to hide hor\u00adri\u00adble things: but to dec\u00ado\u00adrate things already adorable. A moth\u00ader does not give her child a blue bow because he is so ugly with\u00adout it. A lover does not give a girl a neck\u00adlace to hide her neck. If men loved Pim\u00adli\u00adco as moth\u00aders love chil\u00addren, arbi\u00adtrar\u00adi\u00adly, because it is THEIRS, Pim\u00adli\u00adco in a year or two might be fair\u00ader than Flo\u00adrence. Some read\u00aders will say that this is a mere fan\u00adta\u00adsy. I answer that this is the actu\u00adal his\u00adto\u00adry of mankind. This, as a fact, is how cities did grow great. Go back to the dark\u00adest roots of civ\u00adi\u00adliza\u00adtion and you will find them knot\u00adted round some sacred stone or encir\u00adcling some sacred well. Peo\u00adple first paid hon\u00adour to a spot and after\u00adwards gained glo\u00adry for it. Men did not love Rome because she was great. She was great because they had loved her.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

When a lot of us tru\u00adly, sin\u00adcere\u00adly, and earnest\u00adly love Amer\u00adi\u00adca over time, our love (and the efforts that spring from it) will trans\u00adform Amer\u00adi\u00adca. That\u2019s what has hap\u00adpened in the past, and God will\u00ading it will con\u00adtin\u00adue into the future. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lewis writes about more than patri\u00ado\u00adtism in this chap\u00adter, and I com\u00admend the rest of it to you. But today is the Fourth of July, and love of nation seemed like the right theme to focus on. So from me, from C.S. Lewis, and from G.K. Chester\u00adton: hap\u00adpy Inde\u00adpen\u00addence Day!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some of us are read\u00ading through C.S. Lewis\u2019 The Four Loves this sum\u00admer for the Chi Alpha Sum\u00admer Read\u00ading Project. Every oth\u00ader week I\u2019ll post some reflec\u00adtions on the read\u00adings. When I laid out the read\u00ading sched\u00adule for The Four Loves, I did\u00adn\u2019t real\u00adize that we would read Lewis\u2019 remarks on patri\u00ado\u00adtism on the fourth \u2026 Con\u00adtin\u00adue read\u00ading \u201cThoughts on This Fourth of July\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[14,8],"tags":[230,169,344,232],"class_list":["post-7714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rants-opinions-and-general-contrariness","category-resources-reviews","tag-c-s-lewis","tag-patriotism","tag-summer-reading-project-2025","tag-the-four-loves"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Ded-20q","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7714"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7714\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7730,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7714\/revisions\/7730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}