The Big Smoke
Quite a few times lately I've been down to London for meetings of one kind and another, and twice just for fun. I moved to South London when I was twenty and lived there for most of the next thirteen years, until I moved to Cambridge. Mostly I lived south of the river, apart from one year in Ladbroke Grove, just near the famous Portobello Road, a prime location for finding myself slap in the middle of the amazing Notting Hill Carnival.
From time to time I admit how much I miss London, and still find it fills me not only with energy and life, but especially on the river, with a kind of centred feeling of calm and wellbeing. Sometimes people tell me how appalling it would be to live there, how I must have forgotten about the terrible traffic, and that kind of thing. They may be right, of course. But I think I'm still with Wordsworth on this one:
Earth has not anything to show more fair:
Dull would he be of soul who could pass by
A sight so touching in its majesty:
This City now doth like a garment wear
The beauty of the morning; silent, bare,
Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples lie
Open unto the fields, and to the sky;
All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.
Never did sun more beautifully steep
In his first splendour valley, rock, or hill;
Ne'er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!
The river glideth at his own sweet will:
Dear God! the very houses seem asleep;
And all that mighty heart is lying still!
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(Composed upon Westminster Bridge, 3rd September, 1802)
(photo: Sylvain Deleu)
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Maggi has kept a blog since September 2003, writing about theology and faith, the arts and literature, and a little about life and random nonsense...
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Good quote, and good former blog post – I clicked the link and read it.
I was posting on something similar recently as at our church we have used that sort of approach in recent years and – guess what – it actually works!
http://annedroid-annedroid.blogspot.com/2008/09/what-web-sight.html
I’m not sure I’m so good at applying that advice to myself though.
Maggi,
Thanks for sharing this post.
It reminds my of my own thoughts on Why Clowns Make the Best World Changers.
http://beplayful.org/why-clowns-make-the-best-world-changers/
Hi Maggi!
Amazing – I’ve been thinking about a quote similar to that this week!
I do know what he means and it’s a great quote but something about it has been bugging me. It assumes that it is an action that makes us come alive, but wouldn’t that just be a recipe for striving? “Do this and you will be alive and then the world will be alright.” How does grace fit in with that?
Isn’t it about meeting the God-man Jesus who makes us alive? Then alive in him we’re freed to take our place in His plan? That would seem to be a whole different kettle of fish!