Postcard from Oxford

OXFORD, England – The day is appropriately gloomy for a train ride from London to Oxford. Light conversations seem to trend towards intellectual the closer we get to Oxford. From the station, buses head towards downtown, where buildings progressively gain character. Pretty soon, we are far from warehouses and immersed completely in edifices of a bygone time.

You are free to roam the paths, peruse the nesting cattle underneath willow branches. Further down, there is the Arboretum, as the bell tolls noon. Small posts mark the history of the land, where Jewish people once resided and doctors found penicillin as cures to bacterial infections.

Beyond the gates, various colleges sit. At Magdalen College, one pays to enter, unlike other colleges, so the air of expectation is a tad higher. Red carnations adorn the windowsill of the room where Lewis may have lectured. Harry Potter-esque banquets are just upstairs from the dormitory hallways.

One bus ride away sits the C.S. Lewis House, almost an innocuous house along a plain street that ends on another plain street. Just beyond are marts and neighborhood kids running by. Even further are ladies walking home from work, about as far from Narnia as you can get.

As one goes through Oxford, the potentialities unfold, multiplying, tearing one upon one’s return to London. It is definitely a place that holds the key to many infinite universes.

Oxford Book Recommendations:

A Brief History of Time, by Stephen Hawking, 1988.

Providing a better understanding of the universe for the general public.

The Screwtape Letters, by C.S. Lewis, 1942.

A satire of epic proportions.

Double the Stars, by Kelley Swain, 2022.

Of a female astronomer from the UK.

The Dictionary of Lost Words, by Pip Williams, 2020.

Coming of age story detailing the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary, challenging our notions of the words that are recorded.