The Mom Weekly Volume 119: November 18, 2025
You can read this, or any other previous Mom Weeklies, by going to the home page here.
Notes:
If I didn’t have a lot of my own ideas, the Mom Weekly could turn into a C.S. Lewis quote repository. There are just so many great Lewis quotes about so many things from his books, whether one of the Narnia books, or his other works. Three cheers for great authors! So my thought reminded me of a good C.S. Lewis quote, and so I’m sharing it.
Remember how much I love you,
Mom
We Are All Odd Ducks
Some time ago, I was mentioning a quirk about an acquaintance, and I said, “Well, he’s kind of an odd duck.”
I didn’t mean it in a derogatory way; just as a point of information. And it occurred to me at the same time: “We are all odd ducks.”
Everyone has quirks and interests and things that they find necessary, or horrible, or important. And to others, they may seem odd or weird. But there’s nothing wrong with that, and in fact something worthy and honest about sticking to our quirks and oddball loves.
It reminded me of a quote from C.S. Lewis in The Screwtape Letters. Recall that Screwtape is a senior demon writing letters to Wormwood, his apprentice, on ways to tempt a person (the ‘patient’) to tend towards evil. Screwtape calls God “the Enemy” so you realize everything is turned around. It’s kind of a long quote, but I think you’ll find it worthwhile, as he can say it better than I can.
“Of course I know that the Enemy also wants to detach men from themselves, but in a different way. Remember always that He really likes the little vermin, and sets an absurd value on the distinctness of every one of them. When He talks of their losing their selves, He only means abandoning the clamor of self-will; once they have done that, He really gives them back all their personality, and boasts (I am afraid, sincerely) that when they are wholly His they will be more themselves that ever. Hence, while He is delighted to see them sacrificing even their innocent wills to His, He hates to see them drifting away from their own nature for any other reason. And we should always encourage them to do so.
The deepest likings and impulses of any man are the raw materials, the starting-point, with which the Enemy has furnished him. To get him away from those is therefore always a point gained; even in things indifferent is is always desirable to substitute the standards of the World, or convention, or fashion, of a human’s own real likings and dislikings. I myself would carry this very far. I would make it a rule to eradicate from my patient any strong personal test which is not actually a sin, even if it is something quite trivial such as a fondness for county cricket or collecting stamps or drinking cocoa. Such things, I grant you, have nothing of virtue in them; but there is a sort of innocence and humility and self-forgetfulness about them which I distrust. The man who truly and disinterestedly enjoys any one thing in the world, for its own sake, and without caring twopence what other people say about it, is by that very fact forearmed against some of our subtlest modes of attack.
You should always try to make the patient abandon the people or food or books he really likes in favour of the “best” people, the “right” food, the “important” boos. I have known a human defended from strong temptations to social ambition by a still stronger taste for tripe and onions.”
So, what’s your “odd duck” thing? Be sure to keep it as part of “you.” It’s worthwhile, God loves you for it, and so do I!
Interesting/Notable:
Using Premium Credit-Card Rewards Is Becoming a Part-Time Job—WSJ gift link
I promise you, I did not write this headline, but I might have given them some ideas, from one of my “part-time jobs.”
An Action Item: Plan for Thanksgiving Fun!
Thanksgiving is next week, and so it’s time to plan to do some fun things. What games can those of us who are home play? Should we plan a family hike or walk? What show can we watch? (Other than having the Macy’s Parade on as we cook).
It’s worth a few minutes to think about this!