Immortals We Are

There are no ordinary people.

You have never talked to a mere mortal.

Nations, cultures, arts, civilization--these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit--immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.

This does not mean we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, take each other seriously--no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption.

-- C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory