A Voice in the Wilderness In Defense of "Mere Conservatism"

G.K. Day: The Autobiography

By: A.E. Carnehl, Contributor

G.K. Chesterton dictated his own autobiography to his secretary just weeks before he passed away in June of 1936.  The Autobiography is fascinating to say the least, however, in typical Chestertonian fashion he has nothing to say about his accomplishments, successes, and even general events in his life.  Rather the book is filled with anecdotes of his friends and acquaintances, and through different (usually humorous episodes) he traces the development of his thought from childhood through his agnostic and Unitarian twenties and eventually from orthodox Christianity to Roman Catholicism.

Throughout the book a reoccurring theme appears as it does often appear in GK’s other works.  The theme is that of wonder or amazement at our unique and special world.  Chesterton was always quick to point out that the way things are in nature and life should never be taken for granted; we are truly living in an extraordinary "fairyland."  Orthodoxy can only be accepted when one accepts that all of this around us is truly worth living for.  Chesterton writes:

“No man knows how much he is an optimist, even when he calls himself a pessimist, because he has not really measured the depths of his debt to whatever created him and enabled him to call himself anything.  At the back of our brains, so to speak, there was a forgotten blaze or burst of astonishment at our own existence.  The object of the artistic and spiritual life was to dig for this submerged sunrise of wonder; so that a man sitting in a chair might suddenly understand that he was actually alive, and be happy”.