While preparing for a long day’s travel this morning, I was heartened by a report on the BBC World News at 5.00am. It showed George W Bush enjoying a drink last night with other delegates at the G8 summit – a drink with a very generous head of froth. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I know of no non-alcoholic beverage that holds a head of froth after the glass is half consumed. For a man reputed to be teetotal, it was a strange sight to behold.
It was not this that heartened me, however, but the news that when other delegates assembled this morning, George Bush was nowhere to be seen. Eventually, it was reported he was confined to his room with a “stomach upset”.
Apparently, his god was not amused by George’s night-time boozing.
On Friday, June 8th I set off on a long haul flight across the Atlantic to my home country. It’s a brief sojourn of only ten days, during which I will visit my elderly parents, my daughter and my grandson. The rest of the time I will occupy walking the Welsh hills and mountains, breathing the sweetly invigorating, fresh sea air, and rejuvenating my body and soul after a long sojourn in the stifling, fetid, and polluted atmosphere that is central Illinois.
Here, is where I will be spending most of my time – around the sensationally beautiful estuary of the River Mawddach in the county of Gwynedd, North Wales :
“When from our better selves we have too long Been parted by the hurrying world, and droop, Sick of its business, of its pleasures tired, How gracious, how benign, is Solitude; How potent a mere image of her sway;” ~ William Wordsworth.
My laptop is traveling with me, but internet access is sparse so bulletins will be infrequent. However, I will do my best to keep you informed of progress, maybe even post a few photos should the opportunity arise.
Thursday is for packing and preparing, leaving little time to pause and chat, so let me leave you, for now, with this thought:
Every year the Very Rev[olting] Pat Robertson dons his black gown, mortar board hat and dangly gold medallion, at Regent University, to exhort his graduating Christian students to “go forth and change the world.”
Bob Kerrey, President of New York’s “The New School”, says the university “……prepare[s] and inspire[s] its 9,300 undergraduate and graduate students to bring actual, positive change to the world……..”
America’s President George W Bush has been hellbent on changing the world for the last five years, convinced it’s his divine purpose.
Meanwhile, Paris Hilton sits in her lonely prison cell and says she is “working out ways to change the world.”
How much better the world would be if only they’d focus all that energy on changing themselves, and leave the rest of the world to do the same.
This week marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of perhaps the greatest English composer ever, Sir Edward Elgar (1857 – 1934). That he was born on June 2nd is a remarkable coincidence, given that most American graduation ceremonies occur around this time.
Elgar was the epitome of a middle class English gentlemen, a tradesman, risen to greatness through his art. He was most definitely not the devout Catholic others made him out to be, having rejected religion and any belief in an afterlife during his later years. Despite this, he wrote some wonderful oratorios – the essence of which caused many to consider him a religious man. Anyone viewing my music collection might well make the same mistake. A love of Handel, Bach, and the oratorios of Elgar is not evidence of a religious bent, merely a passion for good music.
But it is the military aspect of Elgar’s music that truly captivates most listeners, including myself. Incidentally, I regard myself as a pacifist. It is the sheer delight of his five “Pomp and Circumstance Marches”, truly capturing the epitome of all things British, that stirs my heart when all around me is the flat dullness of Illinois, or the brash cacophony of American life. Despite Tony Blair, the endless traffic jams, and often miserable weather, Edward Elgar never fails to remind me of all the good things about England, and being British.
Oh, and the link between Elgar’s June birthday and graduation? Some Americans may not realize it, but the rousing tune played at all graduation ceremonies was stolen from the British. Elgar’s “Pomp and Circumstance March No 1”, hummed absentmindedly in every American college, is best known by its other name – “Land of Hope and Glory”, Britain’s unofficial second National Anthem.
If you listen really hard as you read this, you might just hear it playing in the background on my sound system.
