For the past 6 weeks, I have been studying Common Sense 101 - Lessons from G.K. Chesterton. G.K. was an old acquaintance of mine that has turned into a great friend. I was going to spend some time introducing him, but since he is here today I have decided to do a quick interview with him.
Mrs. Bill: "Mr. Chesterton, the name of my blog is Hearth and Home. I have tried to present the home as the center of life. Do you have anything to say to that?"
GKC: "The place where babies are born, where men die, where the daily drama of mortal life is acted, is not an office or shop or a bureau. It is something much smaller in size, yet much larger in scope. And while nobody would be such a fool as to pretend that the home is the only place where people should work, or even the only place where women should work, it has a character of unity and universality that is not found in any of the fragmentary experiences of the office or the shop or the bureau."
Mrs. Bill: "I know from experience that this is true, but I seem to be in the minority. Our culture is in disarray and now the government is stepping in with all kinds of assistance and programs that don't really seem to do any good."
GKC: "Human culture is handed down in the customs of countless households; it is the only way in which human culture can remain fully human. The households are right to confess a common loyalty to some king or republic. But the king cannot be the nurse in every nursery, and the government cannot be come the governess in every schoolroom."
Mrs. Bill: "You mention the schoolroom. In our society, we hear endless talk about the importance of education - public education, that is. But I think we somehow manage to forget that the primary place of education is the home. What do you think?
GKC: "If education is the largest thing in the world, what is the sense of talking about a woman being liberated from the largest thing in the world?"
Mrs. Bill: Thank you Mr. Chesterton.
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