Recipes and Recommendations for Imbibing Beauty through Books and Beverages
By Annie Nardone
THE PAGES: THE FOUR LOVES BY C.S. LEWIS
“Affection is responsible for nine-tenths of whatever solid and durable happiness there is in our natural lives.” —C. S. Lewis, The Four Loves
I was once asked to explain what I loved about C. S. Lewis’s writing. I replied that the first quality that made me a lifelong Lewis reader is his brilliant way of explaining difficult concepts in a “conversation while sitting in a pub with a pint” kind of way—plain spoken, simple examples, and a bit of humor. Readers might begin to connect with Lewis via his popular works like The Chronicles of Narnia, Mere Christianity, and Screwtape Letters, but I believe that The Four Loves deserves high ranking as well. His study on one of life’s essential emotions is applicable to all relationships throughout life. To rightly love, we must know love better.
Love is a term that is blithely tossed around, reducing its meaning to watered-down affection. We say that we love chocolate, grandma, a pet hamster, and a favorite T-shirt with equal fervor. When considering the true meaning of love and the nuances of the term, Lewis says, “We had better not follow Humpty Dumpty in making words mean whatever we please.”
Love has many aspects, and Lewis introduces us to them in The Four Loves, published in 1960. With his characteristic clarity, wit, and theological insight, he unpacks the four loves of affection, friendship, eros, and charity, and connects them to the foundational elements of what he called “Gift-love and Need-love.”
Contemplating the perfection of God’s agape love for His creatures and the human loves in our lives must also include an understanding of their distortions, which Lewis posits can be a slippery slope of unhealthy affections.
Is love of any kind worth the struggle? Lewis informs us that “to love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. . . . The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell.” The Four Loves is a wonderfully approachable guide to the complexity of life’s great gift.
By the way, I highly recommend listening to the actual recordings of Lewis’s lectures on “The Four Loves,” from which the book was developed. It’s fascinating to hear his voice.
“Friendship arises out of mere Companionship when two or more of the companions discover that they have in common some insight or interest or even taste which the others do not share. . . . The typical expression of opening Friendship would be something like, ‘What? You too? I thought I was the only one.’”
—C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves
PINTS AND POURS
C.S. Lewis was known to enjoy a daily wee dram of his favorite Scotch, Vat 69.[1] This 19th century blended Scotch whiskey has a storied history which you can read about here: https://scotchwhisky.com/whiskypedia/2547/vat-69/ Vat 69 is the perfect Scotch for this original cocktail that was first created at Trader Vic’s in London’s Hyde Park Hilton. I created the Pevensie as a tangy mocktail version of the London Sour.
LONDON SOUR
½ fresh orange
½ fresh lemon
1 dash rock candy syrup (simple syrup)
1 dash orgeat (almond syrup)
2 oz. scotch
Fresh mint leaf for garnish
Squeeze orange juice into 10-ounce double old fashioned glass over a half scoop shaved ice; save orange shell. Squeeze lemon juice into glass; drop in spent shell. Add syrup, orgeat, and scotch. Add shaved ice to fill glass ¾ full. Shake. Decorate with fresh mint and with American and British flag sticks on orange shell. [1]
THE PEVENSIE
1 orange
½ lemon
Dash of almond (orgeat) syrup
Seltzer or ginger ale
Juice the orange and lemon and pour over ice in tall glass. Add the orgeat syrup, stir, then add seltzer or ginger ale to fill the glass. Garnish with mint leaf.
Annie Nardone is a lifelong bibliophile with a special devotion to the Inklings and medieval authors. She is a Fellow with the C.S. Lewis Institute and holds an M.A. in Cultural Apologetics from Houston Christian University. Annie is a writer for Cultivating Oaks Press and An Unexpected Journal. Her writing can also be found at Square Halo Press, Rabbit Room Press, Clarendon Press U.K., Calla Press, and Poetica. Annie is a Master Teacher with HSLDA and Kepler Education and strives to help her students see holiness in everyday life and art. She lives in Florida with her husband and six cats, appreciates the perfect cup of tea, an expansive library, and the beach with family.
[All quotes from C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves (Harcourt, 1991).]
[2] According to Lewis’s secretary, Walter Hooper, via personal email to Andrew Lazo, who shared the detail in a conversation with me. Andrew also reported the information on the Pints with Jack podcast (S3E18).
[3] Official London Sour recipe from 1972 Trader Vic’s Bartender’s Guide (Doubleday, 1972).
