I went to the one man play on the ideas of G.K. Chesterton that Catholic Campus Ministry sponsored at the Johnson Center Cinema. It was a lot of fun. It reminded me of many good points, and [re]introduced me to a few that I had either forgotten or have not read as yet. He wrote long ago, it seems to me, though not so long in terms of the long sweep of human history, and yet his points are as pertinent today as they were then. I did not stay to try to pick the brains of the students, few of which I know even by face or name any more, and none of whom would know how to respond to me. I do however wonder what they made of it, they were presented with a view far from the common one you see today. He did not at all try to soften the views of Mr. Chesterton, but presented a wide range of Mr. Chesterton's most controversial views. He looked at politics where Mr. Chesterton comes down hard against humanists, universalists, socialists and communists. He looked at the differences between the sexes, men and women are intrinsically different. Mr. Chesterton went somewhat farther than I would dare to do today. He came down against having given women the vote. His logic is that in doing so, we have removed one unintended check on government, it is now taken seriously by all, whereas before, our wives and sisters might well have scoffed at us men for taking it so seriously. I do not know, I think that at this point we could not justly go back, even if he is right that we would be better off had women not been given the vote. He takes on contraception, tolerance, and evolution. Always with common sense arguments that I fear people would be far too quick to dismiss today, for all no one has refuted them. He takes on women working. He clearly points out much of the illogic of the early feminist arguments. That it is utterly ironic and illogical to say that motherhood is a small job, or a meaningless one, but that teaching is a larger. That it is ironic that one would refuse to be dictated to, yet take a job as a secretary or stenographer, or in a typing pool. Some of his arguments here have lost their weight: typing pools are largely if not entirely a thing of the past, and women are in far more fields and career paths than they were in his day. Still, as I look around me at this world, I cannot help but wonder, what has been the cost of the working mom? Greater than those who go to work would ever dare admit. It is a question that has no answer, because for a guy like me to ask it is to be accused of being sexist and dismissed, and no working woman would, for she would have to question her own motives. Does she go to work because its best for family and society, or because she wants to? And he points out the freedom and joy that come from following the Catholic precepts. Surprising joy, paradoxical joy, but more real than any other. Joy that he is not alone in finding, Scott Hahn and other protestant converts find the same. Joy that takes the previous controversies and stands them on their heads, for the argument is that we should all do what makes us happy, but this shows that we do not always know what will best achieve that end.
