The Hunted

A comment to this post by Andrea Harris -- where she reacts about the way I would to some over-the-top, sentimental goopiness written by an Episcopal priest -- has the following quote by C.S. Lewis from The Screwtape Letters:

"She's the sort of woman who lives for others -- you can always tell the others by their hunted expression."

I can't tell you how often I've worn that hunted expression.

Some have wrongly accused me of "not caring" or being too aloof. It's not that I don't care...I just don't want to become the one who causes others to get that hunted expression. I don't want to, "Be there for them with a vengeance," as the sentimentalist Episcopal priest suggests. Because the "them" in question often end up feeling smothered and resentful.

And hunted.