something in us not temporal...

You say the materialist universe is 'ugly.' I wonder how you discovered that! If you are really a product of a materialistic universe, how is it you don't feel at home there? Do fish complain of the sea for being wet? Or if they did, would that fact itself not strongly suggest that they had not always been, or would not always be, purely aquatic creatures? Notice how we are perpetually surprised at Time. ('How time flies! Fancy John being grown-up & married! I can hardly believe it!) In heaven's name, why? Unless, indeed, there is something in us is not temporal.

CS Lewis to Sheldon Vanauken in A Severe Mercy

Just finished a keeper.  And unfortunately, it is not mine, so I have to return it. 

sigh.

But that gives me reason to find it and read it again.

and again.

In A Severe Mercy author Sheldon Vanauken tells the story of the relationship between he and his wife, of their growing Christian faith, and of how he comes to see the challenges and tragedy of this worldly life are used as part of the purposes of God.

Reading of the extraordinary relationship between husband and wife inspires, as does the correspondence between Vanauken and CS Lewis.  In one letter, early letter to Lewis, Vanauken struggles with the pull of the world.  Lewis' response is the quote above.

So many good and challenging words and ideas in A Severe Mercy.