Meditation on the Trail/Toolshed (Outside Reading 3)

     In his essay "Meditation in a Toolshed" from his book God in the Dock C.S. Lewis discusses the difference between definition and experience.  A concept from the chapter that stuck out to me is when Lewis says, "A physiologist, for example, can study pain and find out that it 'is' (whatever is means) such and such neural events. But the word pain would have no meaning for him unless he had 'been inside' by actually suffering (Lewis 214).  This example transfers very clearly to nature for me being that someone can look at nature objectively and instrumentally as just a mountain or a bunch of trees but when one looks at nature with intrinsic value and a lens of experience they can gain a far better appreciation for it and also open themselves to experience the wholly other through creation.

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