It was C.S. Lewis who first pointed out to me the difference between first and second things. His article, entitled "First and Second things," first appeared in a British periodical in 1942, and was later reprinted in a C.S. Lewis book that bore the same name (pictured). It's a wonderful little piece because it places writing (any writing, including my own) in its proper position. It therefore sems a good article to muse upon as I look out—in this first week of 2015—upon another year of my writing life.
C.S. Lewis covers a lot of ground in just a handful of pages. But the bit I want to focus on is this: the arts, including writing, are not (says Lewis) primary. It was only in the Romantic era—that heady period at the end of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth centuries—that "the arts" began to be taken seriously in their own right. Before that time, the arts were almost always considered secondary to some other, greater thing. Writing is not a "first thing". It was a "second thing".
Now, Lewis makes a very interesting observation, which, he suspects, may even be a sort of universal law. It is this: that if second things (like writing) are put first, they not only cannot deliver as one of the primary-level things in the universe, but they lose the enjoyment they would have had if they had been kept in their rightful secondary place. The more I think about this, the more I think he is right. I have occasionally come across the sort of writer—and have been tempted to be one myself!—who considers writing to be everything. "Being" a writer defines them. It is who they are, rather than simply what they often do; in other words, their raison d'etre for existence in the universe is to "be a writer".
But the sad thing is, whenever writing is put in this primary place, it doesn't seem to be much fun any more! It becomes all-consuming, compulsive, self-absorbing. It becomes, somehow, less human, and less real. This is ironic, since the writer is trying to make more of their writing. But it seems that such writers are pushing writing beyond its natural limits. Writing, it appears, is meant to serve other, greater things in life. And when it does (and only then) it can be enjoyed for what it is.
This of course, as Lewis himself notes, raises the question: well, what then are the "first things", if writing and the arts are not? "Ah, now" as Lewis would probably say, "we're asking the right questions." Many people, I guess, would put "our common humanity" in first place, or something similar, like love or relationships or human dignity. Lewis, being a convinced Christian, would want to push deeper and further than this. The primary-level things have to do not only with humans but with God, and I, as a Christian, would want to argue along the same lines. But that is an issue we can discuss separately. The point I want to make here is that we are wise, in any case, to relegate writing to a secondary position. And, as writers, we will be far happier and more real when we do; and we will be free to explore what really are the "first things" in life.
