Words Worth Noting - December 25, 2022

“But even if ‘escape’ is the right word [for various rural wanderings], we will throw in our lot with Tolkien, who pointed out that escape of a certain type may not be such a bad thing: ‘Why should a man be scorned, if, finding himself in prison, he tries to get out and go home? Or if, when he cannot do so, he thinks and talks about other topics than jailers and prison-walls? The world outside has not become less real because the prisoner cannot see it.’”

Mark Johnson in Gilbert: The Magazine of the Society of G.K. Chesterton Vol. 25 #5 (May/June 2022)