Womb-like Place

The following is an excerpt of an email sent from Art to Will on 4 August 2014.

He isn't Tommy

"Womb-like place" makes sense.

I would bet that Arthur would pick up on his mother's issues as a teenager but like you said be fed by the charity. Kids trust their moms, and young Arthur wouldn't cause her much grief--she'd probably be affirmed in her works by the fact that her young son loves the Lord so much.

Incidentally, how could Lena make Will vow to make Arthur a star on her deathbed?

Because she can't stand to see Arthur suffer and without realizing it puts her family's security ahead of her relationship with God. Her relationship is in so many ways about protecting the family. That's the issue that has to be worked off in Purgatory. And the oddest thing about Arthur in the family's eyes is that family doesn't seem like that big of a deal to him. That's partially because his eyes are on God, not his home, and partially because he loves everybody--even people who abuse him. Somehow this self-made immigrant family had a kid with seemingly no survival instincts at all! He's intensely generous but not philanthropic because worldly wealth is worthless to him, and he loves everyone but can barely communicate with anyone without music because his vision of reality is so different than everyone else's--there's very little common ground.

Still, he isn't Tommy or a high functioning autistic. He's a mystic.

I never made the connection between Augustine and Kierkegaard, but it makes a ton of sense. I'm not sure if the world we're creating has any of those noble Romans in it! But I do see how lots of people I would characterize as living in the moral are probably closet aesthetes. I've probably just let too many of my Catholic educational experiences harden my appreciation for the moral.

I think the most important thing we can do in Catholic education is lead kids to the Eucharist, but instead we work like crazy to mandate good behavior. The result seems to be a lot of kids who don't get caught doing bad things frequently and don't have much interest in a personal relationship with Christ. Parents want us to help raise good kids, but are terrified that we'll raise Jesus freaks. People fear the scandalous side of Christ. But I think there might be some adventure in following the scandalous Christ that would appeal to the aesthete.