American Chesterton Society president Dale Ahlquist, host of EWTN's "Apostle of Common Sense," surprised me when I finished my talk at the Chesterton conference earlier this month — giving me the society's prestigious Outline of Sanity award.
Dale just sent me the above photo of the occasion, along with an explanation of the honor: "Past winners include Joseph Pearce, Prof. Ralph McInerny of Notre Dame, Hon. Race Mathews (former Australian MP and cabinet minister), Robert Royal (director of the Faith and Reason Institute), and the late Heywood Cirker (chairman of Dover Publications). I hope you feel you're in good company. What they all have in common is that they've done something important to make Chesterton better known and therefore have promoted sanity in an insane world."
Good company indeed! Many thanks to Dale and all the American Chesterton Society. The award, which I believe is for my Chesterton references in The Thrill of the Chaste as well as the mentions I've been making of the author in interviews, means more to me than I can say.
"In the end it will not matter to us whether we wrote well or ill; whether we fought with flails or reeds. It will matter to us greatly on which side we fought." — G.K. Chesterton
My talk at the Chesterton conference is available for purchase on the American Chesterton Society's Web site. All proceeds go to the society.
