The novel, Good-Bye, Mr. Chips, was published in the 1930s. It is set in pre-World War II England, a place and a time that seems far remote and foreign to young people today. But at its core is a romantic theme, a story as old as time itself, and a recurring, real-life drama for anyone who has experienced both deep love and loss.
I was reminded recently of a striking parallel between Chips and what happened in the life of a world-renowned author, C.S. Lewis, famous today as the author of the "Chronicles of Narnia" series, many books defending the Christian faith, and one of the clearest creative thinkers and scholars of the mid-20th Century. Lewis was nearly 60 when he married a young woman, Joy Gresham. They lived and loved a brief four years of marriage when she died of bone cancer.
Gresham, like the young Kathie in Chips, was a fearless woman of great intellect, strong conviction, and deep emotion. Gresham grew up in America, an atheist and a communist in an era when communism seemed to hold the promise of helping all the down-trodden of the world. She was also a writer and a poet who once shared an award with the great poet, Robert Frost. She converted to Christianity in the 1940s, and started reading Lewis' books. He had traveled the same road from atheism to faith. At that time, Gresham was married to an abusive drunk. They divorced, and she took her two small boys to England, where she met Lewis.
Lewis was captivated by this young woman who, while sharing similar intellect, rocked his world by her radical thinking. As with Mr. Chips, Lewis was comfortable in the safe circles of the academic, debating great ideas, writing and teaching in the secure setting of the Oxford classroom. But her very being challenged Lewis to the core. Their friendship grew deep.
His sense of Christian charity led him to marry her in a civil ceremony so she could remain in England, but they did not live together as husband and wife. Then Joy was diagnosed with bone cancer. Lewis faced the reality, both of his deep love for her and the nearly paralyzing fear of losing the one person in the world that mattered most. He still suffered the pain of losing his mother when he was ten, and never wanted such anguish again. Love conquered, and they were married while she was in hospital. Her cancer briefly went into remission, and they enjoyed four years together of the deepest devotion and happiness before she died.
Chips' marriage with Kathie lasted two short years, but the mark of her life continued to work a wondrful change, a change that she seemed to foresee when she said, on the eve of their wedding, "Goodbye, Mr. Chips." In contrast, Lewis knew that he would lose Joy when they married. For him, the change came when he faced the certainty of unbearable pain and married her anyway, knowing that he was saying "goodbye" to comfort and "hello" to real life.
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