The Inner Ring

In his piece "The Inner Ring" C.S. Lewis addresses a concept that is well-known to all of us. Everybody has, at one time or another, envied a certain group of people. It is not the people themselves that they so deeply care about. It is not the cause that unites the group about which they feel passionate. It is simply that they desire to be included an to feel the safety and security of being on the inside. Of course, sometime there are situations when belonging to the inner circle of a particular group can provide benifits besides just that feeling of acceptance. Priviledges and opportunities can be opened up by this association. However, I think that the most basic reason any of us has wanted to belong to some inner circle is nothing more than the desire to fit in- to not be an outsider.

I have an experiance with an inner ring in my life that I would like to share. It is nothing spectacular, but it is what I first think of when I consider the idea of an inner ring. I went to a small school from kindergarten through ninth grade. There were twelve girls in my class and we were all very close. We promised eachother that when we got to highschool nothing would change. It did though. Almost imediately, one of these girls became part of an inner ring of 'cool kids' and the rest of us felt excluded. By the time we graduated from 12th grade. We had all drifted apart and made new friends. Five or six of us still get together every once in a while, but we certainly arent as close as we used to be. Our lives have just taken different paths. As for the girls we never see any more, no one has anything negative to say about their absence, with one exception. I hear the resentment in my friends voices when they talk about that first girl to leave our group. Why do we still hold her leaving against her when we respect the fact that almost all of us have branched off and found new interests, new friends. Personally, I think it is because we were all a little jealous of her. She stopped hanging out with us to join an inner ring of which the rest of us remained outsiders. We saw her on the other side of an invisible line we couldn't cross and we resented her for it. For the rest of us, going our separate ways was just the natural thing to do, but we held it against her as an act of betrayal. I think by now, we could all look back and laugh at ourselves for letting that inner ring get the better of us, but at the time, we definately felt the pain of being left on the outside.

C.S. Lewis points out the power of an inner ring to pursuade people into any course of action. People will do a lot to avoid the feeling of being left out or left behind that my friends and I felt at the begining of high school. They will do even more when the possiblity of being included in the elite group of insiders is dangled in front of their face. Lewis puts it like this "Of all the passions, the passion for the Inner Ring is most skillful n making a man who is not yet a very bad man do very bad things." Of course, inner rings do not always motivate people to do bad things. They simply hold them to a certain standard for admittance. However, this standard can be a negative one and one that is very hard to resist with the promise of inclusion atatched to it.

After talking about how much man will do to be part of an inner ring, Lewis tells us that we should NOT be willing to conform to any ring's standards simply to be part of an inner ring. He points out that wanting to be in an inner ring for the sake of being an insider cannot satistfy. The inside is not as glamerous once you experiance it as you thought it would be before you had. Lewis says "By the very act of admitting you, it has lost its magic." Lewis goes on to explain that to be part of an inner ring that will actually benefit and satisfy you, you have to forget about looking for rings altogther. You simply need to be passionate about what you are interested in, diligent in the work you do, and associate with people you like. You will find that your friends, hobbies, and vocation are satisfying to you, and that you are surrounded by sincere people that you are comfortable with.

I think Lewis gives some great advice and insight into this topic. He has deffinitely given me something to think about and something to watch out for in my own life, especially when I am facing a new situation where I would be tempted to live up (or down) to someone elses standards for the sake of acceptance.