getting a pint with Lewis.

With our guests over the last few weeks we visited two of C.S. Lewis's regular pubs. The first and more famous of pubs is in Oxford. The Eagle and the Child (known as the Bird and the Babe to locals) was the meeting place of the Inklings. This was a group of scholars who met regularly to discuss their work and literature. Lewis's good friend J.R.R. Tolkien was also a regular of the group. We went with Dan and Meg (Andrea's brother and his wife) and sat at the table where the Inklings used to sit. It was surreal to sit where these men who have been so informative in my life used to sit. We had a pint, dinner and read a little from some of Lewis and Tolkien's writings.

The other pub is the Pickerel Inn, which was Lewis's regular pub while he was at Cambridge. It sits across the street from Magdalene College (pronounced Maudlin), Lewis's college here (and in Oxford as well, although they drop the 'e' from the end). This pub also has the perk of serving one of my favorite real ales - Old Peculiar. It was nice to visit this place with good friends.

Lewis said in Four Loves:

Friendship arises out of mere Companionship when two or more of the companions discover that they have in common some insight or interest or even taste which the others do not share and which, till that moment, each believed to be his own unique treasure (or burden). The typical expression of opening Friendship would be something like, 'What? You too? I thought I was the only one'....

In our own time Friendship arises in the same way. For us of course the shared activity and therefore the companionship on which Friendship supervenes will not often be a bodily one like hunting or fighting. It may be a common religion, common studies, a common profession, even a common recreation. All who share it will be our companions, but one or two or three who share something more will be our Friends. In this kind of love, as Emerson said, Do you love me? means Do you see the same truth? - Or at least, 'Do you care about the same truth?' The man who agrees with us that some question, little regarded by others, is of great importance, can be our Friend. he need not agree with us about the answer.

On these visits, Lewis himself was our common interest. He is part of our friendship.