Art, Life, and the Difficulty of Drawing Cows

I've been keeping reasonably busy of late, even if it is mostly with such trivia as working the hall closet slowly away from the Fibber McGee model. Therefore, in the interest of getting something readable up, here's my favourite Chesterton essay. I doubt it is the absolutely deepest thing he ever wrote, but it's one I have returned to time and time again. For one thing, I have a hard time ignoring any topic which the author (I mean any author, not just GKC) is enjoying wholeheartedly--even if the topic includes brown wrapping paper. Here you get a veritable stream-of-consciousness, ranging from the inspiration of pre-Wordsworthian poets, to the solid existence of virtue, to a firework-like explosion of colours and shapes that leave one's head spinning.

And Chesterton confesses cows are hard to draw. This is very comforting. If a man who went to art school insists that he has trouble drawing a cow's hindquarters, it is balm to the wounded pride of those (I wouldn't name any names) who have artistic difficulties with any part of the cow past the ears.

So here is A Piece of Chalk.