The prophet and the uncomfortable mirror

4 The Council called this a misunderstanding of the spirit in which questions had been invited.

5 But the visitor said: I understood the invitation very plainly.

6 Then a clerk proposed that the minutes record unanimous agreement, for the remaining disagreement was making the page untidy.

7 The keeper refused, saying: A neat page is not an accurate meeting.

8 They recorded the objection, the reasons given in response, and what remained unresolved.

9 A second visitor agreed with the Council after hearing both sides.

10 No one accused her of lacking independence.

11 A third preferred not to argue and went outside for a while.

12 No one interpreted his departure as a confession of error.

13 The Council still had work to do, and decisions for which its appointed members were responsible.

14 But it ceased reporting every operational decision as a revelation binding upon all consciousness.

15 And the minutes ended with a sentence no less useful for its lack of grandeur: This is what we decided, and these are the questions that remain.

1 And I shit you not, the Society honored C. S. Lewis as a Prophet of the Uncomfortable Mirror.

2 For in reading his account of a tempter, the readers sometimes recognized an excuse they had prepared for themselves.

3 The Office of Excellent Intentions offered immediately to print a notice explaining that the book exposed the errors of everyone outside the Society.