It was the first tragedy in my young life.

The President was shot and killed in Dallas.

For the first time, I experienced death, albeit at a distance. It was a death and a funeral and a National suffering seen for the first time on television, some of it live television.

I never saw my Mother cry until that afternoon coming in from school. She sat in front of the television with my younger brother and cried.

Seeing her emotion, I knew, even more, the gravity of the event.

For three days the country was drawn to the events on television…the stumbling live broadcasts by the network news anchors, the stark image of the hearse at the Washington airport, the awkward words of mourning by the new President, the backward placed boots on the back of an unridden horse in the funeral procession, and then the live shooting of the presumed assassin in the garage of the Dallas police station.

It was the first time in my ten year old life that life seemed to stand still while we watched sadness and grief played out on the television.

It has occurred again since then…

…the assassinations in 1968

…the World Trade Center in 2001

I do not want to see another occurrence.

There was another death on 11/22/63.

It was not heralded.

It took place in England.

Clive Staples Lewis died in Oxford.

C. S. Lewis was the most influential Christian writer of the 20th century.

He did not have the adulates that President Kennedy did, but he was instrumental in the lives of many Christians and those who came to know Christ as Savior.

Lewis came to know Christ as Savior after a young life of atheism.

The Screwtape Letters, The Chronicles of Narnia and Mere Christianity are three books he is best known for.

He might not have been the first to say something similar…. but Lewis’

“liar, lunatic or Lord” trilemma is one of the best know Apologetic comments on the divinity of Christ.

Dallas saw an ugly dramatic event as a young President was murdered.

England saw an older Professor died of kidney failure.