Some people see the world as boring, as nothing more than drab monotony. Others—including writers like C.S. Lewis, G.K. Chesterton, Annie Dillard, and Frederick Buechner—see whim all around them; the enchantment constantly penetrating our world.
These latter types take seriously Jesus’ admonition to ‘be like children’. Their child-likeness, their openness to amazement at what the world offers, is their ticket to full life. These are people who truly believe the world is magical at its core and who are captivated by the God who created it.
I’ve come across another writer who fits right in with the group above. His name is N.D. Wilson—whose abbreviated initials, as I’ve mentioned before, presume brilliance—and he has recently released a book titled “Notes From the Tilt-A-Whirl: Wide-Eyed Wonder in God’s Spoken World” (Thomas Nelson, paperback, 201 pages, $14.99). In my quest to be enchanted, I was grateful to receive a review copy from the book’s publisher.
Wilson, whose blog can be found here, is primarily an author of children’s stories; this is his first book on spirituality for adults. But in my mind, the chasm between Wilson’s two prime genres isn’t particularly wide. Where some see the “Christian” and “Children’s” sections far apart in bookstores, I see no fundamental difference in content between the two. At their cores, both genres speak to the same longings. The elements of a good children’s tale are the same elements of a good book on spirituality. For God is in everything.
Good children’s books pull you into another world, at least until you are too old—and seemingly ‘too smart’—to believe that the world doesn’t exist. Good books on spirituality help you rediscover that same new world—a new kingdom—that you had, in fact, already believed in early in life. This world is what both genres breathe into; it is an invisible world full of wonder, of excitement, of imagination, of love.
Yet though this world may be invisible, it is no less real. Wonder, awe, and imagination should not be relegated solely to kid’s book or stigmatized as fantasy. They should be central to people of all ages, and therefore central to all books. Our society does a great disservice to itself when it quenches the flame of wonder in life and seeks to banish real enchantment into children’s books.
“Notes From the Tilt-A-Whirl” aims to infuse our adult world with wonder once again. In the book, Wilson marvels at a world created by a marvelous God and tries to make sense of it all. The ‘structure’ of the book is lightly based on the four seasons of the year. Other than those thin guidelines, Wilson’s book is a chaotic swirl of images and incredibly beautiful prose that explores how humans throughout history have tried to make sense of this crazy world we live in.
Where Chesterton painted apologetics with whim in the twentieth century, Wilson does so for a postmodern generation in this book. Like Chesterton, Wilson jumps from idea to idea as he tours a vast array of times, places, and people. “Notes From the Tilt-A-Whirl” left me feeling like I had just watched an epic tennis match—my attention was directed back-and-forth and to all sorts of directions. His sentences are often short and pithy, and there are few filler phrases. But this only added to the wonder I felt through reading. I felt like I was following a little kid who was in a toy store and kept pointing excitedly while exclaiming, “Hey! Look at that! Oh! Check that out! Wow! Did you catch that?”
In his writings, Wilson splashes around in all sorts of theological puddles; from Creation, to philosophy, to atheism, to the problem of Evil, and everywhere in between.
Referring to the German philosopher Karl Marx, Wilson states, “Marx called religion an opiate, and all too often it is. But philosophy is an anesthetic, a shot to keep the wonder away.”
Wilson probes many of the great questions from history but seems to come at them through the back door; instead of detailing systematic theological proofs, he instead interprets the issues as art. This approach is often more satisfied with the beauty of existence itself rather than the question of its meaning.
The book also repeats the theme of Story again and again, which seems to be pretty popular these days. Wilson sees God as the divine Author, which would of course make Him an artist as well, for all story is art. God has written us into His tale, which when fully understood packs a deep significance into each of our moments. Or, as Wilson puts it, “We are always on stage. We are always in a novel, and even when no other characters are around, the art continues. The Triune audience watches.”
And while Wilson is surely a great thinker, he is a poet at heart. He is gifted at taking routine scenes, like waves ebbing and flowing along a seashore, and injecting life and character into them:
“The ocean spreads to the horizon, and while the wind gusts and the waves crash, they are nothing compared to what this beast can do. The ocean is playing, licking the feet of a continent, itching to play rougher….The tide is always rising. Every day it rocks back on its heel to build momentum, to get another run; every day it crawls, slipping, up the beach. The ocean can never forget the Flood. It has tasted mountains. Waking and sleeping, it chews.”
Wilson expands on the last few words in the book’s subtitle—“Wide-Eyed Wonder in God’s Spoken World”—by asking, “But why would any Christian claim that God has stopped talking? Did He speak the world into existence? Does matter exist apart from Him? Is it still here? Are you still here? Then He is still speaking.”
Wilson also offers some advice on raising children which I consider quite valuable, especially coming from his experience as a writer of children’s books:
“The world is rated R, and no one is checking IDs. Do not try to make it G by imagining the shadows away. Do not try to hide your children from the world forever, but do not pretend there is no danger. Train them. Give them sharp eyes and bellies full of laughter. Make them dangerous. Make them yeast, and when they’ve grown, they will pollute the shadows.”
The publisher describes the book as, “A visual, poetic exploration of the narrative nature of the world and the personality of the Poet behind it all.” If it seems like that description is overloaded with artsy lingo, that’s because it is. So is Wilson. And so is this book.
In fact, this book is in many ways similar to Rob Bell’s latest book, “Drops Like Stars”, in that both books are not so much read as they are experienced. By reading Wilson’s book you will not learn about enchantment; you will be enchanted.
If you need to be injected with a dose of wonder, Wilson’s book is definitely the prescription. To rediscover the enchantment that was natural in your childhood, have your eyes changed by Wilson’s book so that you once again see wonder everywhere you look.
(Below is an interview with N.D. Wilson that really reveals the character of the man behind the book. I mean seriously, who else responds to “Nice to see you” with “It’s nice to be seen.” other than an outside-the-box thinker with an overactive right brain.)