Of Laborious Doing

In C.S. Lewis' "The Screwtape Letters", in part of the second letter, Screwtape wrote these ..

"Work hard then on the disappointment or anti-climax which is certainly coming to the patient during his first few weeks as a churchman. The Enemy allows this disappointment to occur on the threshold of every human endeavor. It occurs when the boy who has been enchanted in the nursery by Stories from the Odyssey buckles down to really learning Greek.
It occurs when lovers have got married and begin the real task of learning to live together. In every department of life it marks the transition from dreaming aspiration to laborious doing."

If you have read this book, you would know that "Screwtape" is one of the devil writing to "Wormwood", another devil and the "Enemy" here is God.

What I find fascinating here is the insight provided by C.S. Lewis .. the "transition from dreaming aspiration to laborious doing".
How many times have we talked about "Oh, I just love doing this/ Oh, I just love that"

Dreaming aspirations. When it's all talk.

When we talk about how much we like to do something .. for instance, I can say how passionate I am about investing, but if someone were to come and ask me about companies, about expected returns, about required returns, about dividend yields and what not, and I have not a single idea on how to reply or guesstimate a reply .. that's really  just dreaming aspirations isn't it?

To think about how fascinating it is to be "doing something you love to do" but not doing
Fantasize about how wonderful it is to be "doing something you really want to do" but not doing
When it comes down to the real, hard, dirty work .. the truth is, we may not be willing to put in the time and effort.

The transition from dreaming aspirations to laborious doing.
Yet, C.S. Lewis also offers a glimmer of hope in the next sentences ..
"Desiring their freedom, He therefore refuses to carry the, by their mere affections and habits, to any of the goals which He sets before them: He leaves them to "do it on their own." And there lies our opportunity. But also, remember, there lies our danger. If once they get through this initial dryness successfully, they become much less dependent on emotion and therefore much harder to tempt"

When we become much less dependent on emotion, and therefore much harder to tempt.
:)
Once we get into the groove of doing all the real, hard, dirty work .. and loving every seconds of it .. we get pass the initial stage of crazy dreaming and passion, and to the stage of sustainable passion.
Where we burn not so much like a big burst of flame, but perhaps like an ember.
Glowing or smoldering. When flamed, will burst into flames. When tamed, will burn slowly and surely.
Sustained passion in laborious doing.

Hahaha .. I think to many it might sound kinda weird what I am writing here.
It's all right.
This is really much more of a personal reflection to myself than an outward reflection :)