Driving, Writing, and Living On the Wrong Side of the Road

 "One road leads home and a thousand roads lead into the wilderness." CS Lewis

I'm a little giddy as I joyfully relaunch the Oxford Creative Writing Master Class for Spring, 2022. Boris Johnson just announced the lifting of travel restrictions to the UK (for we unvaxed, all we need is a negative Covid test, but no ten-day quarantine, and mask mandate ending).

I've been asked, what is the OCWMC? I love that question! Here's an inside peek at just what transpires on this writing and literary tour of middle England. (click on OCWMC to learn more about joining me this spring)."Drive left. Look right! God, help me to do this right--I mean, correct!" So I tell myself and pray in the days and hours before leading another group of aspiring writers on the Oxford Creative Writing Master Class. At Heathrow, I warily circle the nine-passenger rental van and then lunge into the driver's seat on the right side, murmuring to myself to keep the vehicle on the left side of the road and a weather eye to the Bentleys, Minis, red buses, and black cabbies bearing down on my right side. Though it is not my first rodeo (not to be construed as a cliche; it is a metaphor chosen precisely to reflect how it feels swerving around about every frantically encircling roundabout intersection), I have driven in the UK on the wrong side of the vehicle--and the road--over many years now. But I still pray earnestly before loading the van with precious human cargo and braving the blaring streets, curvaceous back roads, and bustling motorways of Britain.

And then there's the matter of my talking--while driving (whilst motoring, to be more colloquial). One previous OCWMC participant, her hand trembling, passed me an almost illegible note on which she had scrawled out a plea for me to stop using hand gestures as I talk--and drive. "Please, please, keep both hands on the wheel," she implored me (I nodded, looking down at the clutch and gear shifter, wondering just how I was supposed to do that when every vehicle in the UK seems to be equipped with a manual transmission). As I teach my master class writers the evil of exaggerating language, I will avoid pronouncing it "miraculous," but it is a significant answer to prayer, with many instances of divine intervention, that I have never had an accident whilst motoring in Britain (okay, a few close calls; every one of them, I am morally certain, not my fault, like the one en route from London to Oxford opening day of the master class when a raven-colored Peugeot nearly strafed the side of us on the M-40, clearing my arteries, invigorating my vocabulary, and making me still more grateful).

Though our culture persists in shrieking the mantra, "There are many roads," or in effect, "Take whatever road feels good. There is no wrong side of the road." Imagine driving or writing that way. Made in the image of God, we all know at the deepest level of our being that there is only one road that leads to heaven. "One road leads home and a thousand roads lead into the wilderness," as CS Lewis put it. Left or right, O the pain of those thousand roads. No one gets to heaven by scrupulously following the right path, the path of self-improvement and good works; or from swerving left, following his heart and doing what he feels.

If not to the right or the left, where are we to keep our eyes? If there's only one way, The Way, how are we to get on--and keep on--the road? There's no equivocation. Nor is there any alternate route. The Word of God makes the path of life plain. Abandon all hope in ourselves and "Gaze upon the beauty of the Lord." It is precisely what we were made for. We are designed to keep our eyes straight ahead, to "Fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith." We do this because by his finished work on the cross in place of sinners and his righteousness imputed to those same sinners' specific account, Christ is alone the path to life; in his presence there is fullness of joy; at his right hand their are pleasures forevermore (Psalm 16). God alone places us by his grace on the right road--and he alone keeps us on it. It's a gloriously wonderful road. All other roads lead into the wilderness.

Aspiring writers, Lewis and Tolkien enthusiasts, Anglophiles, lovers of church history, of architecture, of music, of beauty of all kinds--join me on the OCWMC in March 2022! Space is limited and there's not much time. You will not regret this. One recent writer/graduate put it this way, "The Oxford Creative Writing Master Class was above and beyond my wildest dreams. I learned so much about writing, history, and theology. OCWMC has truly changed my life."

Douglas Bond, author of more than thirty books, directs the Oxford Creative Writing Master Class, and he is copy editor for authors and publishers. Contact him at bondbooks.net@gmail.com