Meditation in a Toolshed

In this essay, C. S. Lewis provides extensive insight as to how we must go about learning.  He lays bare both the problems of learning by experience, as well as the problems of learning by observation.  He does this through his description of a dark toolshed in which one beam of sunlight shines through a crack.  If a man looks at the beam from the side and examines its contents, he sees the dust inside of the beam.  However, if the man stares directly into the beam, he sees the sun (and not the beam itself).  This is a brilliant way of demonstrating the two paradigms, experience and observation, but ultimately these lines of thought must merge for us to make righteous decisions.  As C. S. Lewis puts it, “…both accounts are equally correct in different ways, or …both are equally wrong.”  Relating this conclusion in my life will definitely affect my perception of others. For example, one member of my family is in a situation in which he tells me about frequently.  I tell him that he is in sin, but his response is, “You just don’t understand.”  I normally take this response as something ridiculous, because it is my perspective as an observer.  I will now consider my brother’s situation as if I am in his shoes.  Though this thinking is somewhat unfamiliar to me, I do now believe that learning by experience is acceptable in given scenarios.