Monday, January 10, 2011

thinking, beautiful, bible


Posted by PicasaHand clasped in thought.

Today's beautiful thing is the baby of Clare Grant, now Clare Law, whom I meet with his parents in The Grove.  His name is Alexander, which has already been abbreviated to Alec. He is two weeks old.  I am no connoisseur of babies, but this one looks good to me, small and sleeping peacefully tucked up in his pram, snug as a bug in a rug, as the cold wind whistles around us. Clare devised the three beautiful things formula, which has now been  copied all over the world. It is good to note that the new person in her life has not impeded the production of daily posts on her blog, even though the majority of them are  now understandably baby oriented.

When you turn on the radio at the moment you invariably seem  to hear someone reading from the King James version of the Bible. It is to celebrate the four hundredth anniversary of its  publication. Along side the works of Shakespeare,  the King James Bible  is  woven into the English language and among its greatest treasures. As far as I am concerned the more of these readings the better, and the longer they are the better. There can be few things more beautiful than rhythms of the wonderful words and phrases and the memories, tracking back to childhood, which they evoke. To say nothing of the stories and images so deeply imprinted in our imaginations.

My answer to Lucy Kempton's question "what do you see in the flames?" has now been posted on Compasses.

2 comments:

Roderick Robinson said...

Also the way domestic detail can be transmuted. I love the way this bit proceeds from the semi-mysical to the mundane without breaking stride: "Before the silver lace be taken away, and or the golden band be broken; or the pot be broken at the well, and the wheel upon the cistern;"

Unknown said...

Oh yes. And so down to earth and practical. And cheerful: "...and also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labour."