My Precious (a Lesson from Golem)

C.S. Lewis remarks in, The inner ring, about a phenomenon that each of us can find examples in our every day lives. This phenomenon is that of, what C.S. Lewis calls, the Inner Ring or more commonly known in High Schools throughout the United States as the In crowd. This is a group of people that band together and spend lots of time together.

The concept of an Inner ring is not a new one nor is it a bad one. As a matter of fact it is perhaps one of the most natural things for a person do to in that a person will always tend to spend time with people that are most like that person. The Inner Ring can be quite good when it is used to protect the members involved from persecution or to protect other people. For instance, the early church was like an inner ring in many respects, especially during the Nero's persecution of the Christian church, because to allow people who were not part of the church to know all of it's members would be much like signing a death warrant for all who were there and would destroy the church.

However the Inner ring can also be used for bad purposes. This most often, at least in Lewis's mind, occurred when the purpose of the exclusivity of the ring is to intentionally make it hard for new people to join the ring. This begets a cycle of remorse and false or undeserved privilege toward or for, respectively, the members of the inner ring. In this type of inner ring, the focus is control and vying for power, neither of which are satisfying or permanent.

Still we humans have an innate desire to be part of the inner workings of all things and be an integral part of whatever we are a part of. Perhaps this is a sign of our design according to God's plan. For indeed as C.S. Lewis says in the "Weight of Glory" that the ultimate thing that can happen to us humans is that God recognizes us and thus we are an ingredient, a necessary part of the divine happiness.