Pictures in My Mind

The rainbow arc seemed almost endless.
Ruminated on the wondrous effect a rainbow must
have had on Early Man.

Seen from the Abbey Gardens early 

Wed 21st December 2022.

 

The Abbey Gardens during the recent icy weather.

A picture taken [unknown to us] of
my sister and me in Brugge.

Autumn in Bury St Edmunds.

My sister's grand-children with a 
touch of Halloween about them.
Their mother i/c make-up and costumes.

A favourite poster.

My admired fake Lowry.

My handsome new clock.

A popular pigeon fancier distributing largesse.

A favourite Matt cartoon.

Now, where did I find this? Probably sent to me
by Irish friend, Betty.

Not a 'proper' blog this week. Instead, a selection of photographs and other images which have pleased, entertained, amused, beguiled. 

Sister's Other Grandson and I, deep in
conversation at a family wedding in May.

Son and friend conferring along the Pyrenean Way in September

.

An Eye on the Street. Glasgow 1968.
Pinterest.

Random Acts of Kindness

                                                     

 

William Wordsworth
April 1770-April 1850

  

 feelings too
Of unremembered pleasure: such, perhaps,
As have no slight or trivial influence
On that best portion of a good man's life,
His little, nameless, unremembered, acts
Of kindness and of love.

Tintern Abbey by William Wordsworth

1798.

The memory of this lovely Wordsworth quote was sparked this morning as I walked home from shopping. A young woman overtook me, with a small child in a pushchair and, as she passed, her open coat swung behind her and caught my eye. It was a modern version of the Afghan coat I wore in the 70s, embroidered with traditional patterns; they were all the rage in the 1970s and I loved mine!! Without thinking, I called out,, “Love the coat!” and she strode on, looking briefly but so happily round, mouthing, ‘Thank you’ . Clearly she too loved her coat and was equally touched at the unexpected called-out compliment! As she strode on, she shot a second, delighted look back at me which was when I remembered the Wordsworth!

This little encounter delighted the recipient of my compliment and also me, the giver; I pondered on why it had occurred. The memory of a favourite coat years ago, had undoubtedly sparked my delight and my spontaneous remark had obviously pleased, and flattered the girl. An example of unplanned altruism I think; everyday life is probably filled with similar small acts of kindness like this. Psychologists have long debated whether some people are just born with a natural tendency to help others, a theory that suggests that altruism may be influenced by genetics. Altruism, like empathy and co-operation, activates the reward centres in the brain as neurobiologists have found and the positive feelings activated by exercising empathy or altruism, serve to reinforce the belief that compassionate behaviour can inspire a halo effect in others. Certainly, relationships and interaction with others have a major influence on altruistic behaviour and one study showed that children who observed reciprocal acts of altruistic behaviour, were far more likely than their peers, to exhibit altruistic behaviour themselves. Thus, modelling altruistic actions can be an important way to foster prosocial and compassionate actions in children who have observed this behaviour in others.

Psychologists have identified several different types of altruistic behaviours. These include:

1. Genetic altruism. This sub-set identifies those who engage in altruistic behaviours that benefit family members. This kin selection is an evolutionary theory that proposes that people are more likely to help those who are blood relatives because it will increase the odds of gene transmission to future generations thus ensuring the continuation of shared genes. The more closely people are related, the more likely people are to help others.

2. Reciprocal altruism. This mutual give-and-take relationship involved helping another person now because they may one da

y be able to return the favour.

3. Group-selected altruism. This involves engaging in acts of altruism for people, based on their group affiliation such as others in the same social or religious or political group, or in supporting social/religious/political causes that benefit a specific group or agenda.

4. Pure altruism. Moral altruism involving helping someone else when it is personally risky and without personal reward. Pure altruism results in behaviour which is motivated by internalised values and morals.

One thinks of Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish diplomat who saved thousands of Jews in Hungary during the Nazi holocaust, exhibiting pure altruism in his sustained campaign to rescue Jews. He was subsequently imprisoned by the Soviets as part of a post-war Soviet campaign of menace against Sweden, and died at an unknown date in Russia. After Stalin’s death in 1953, thousands of German PoWs were released and stories of chance encounters in the late Forties, with Wallenberg, surfaced, despite Soviet denials. It is now assumed that he was probably executed in the Lubyanka in 1947.

Clearly, a sustained operation to save the lives of Jews in the Holocaust, was motivated by strong internalised values at the far end of a continuum with performing tiny random acts of kindness at one side, to the distant but related acts of prolonged courageous risk-taking to save many threatened lives at the other end.

At the Swedish Legation, Budapest, 1944, with Hungarian
Jewish co-workers. Wallenberg provided thousands of 
Hungarian Jews with Swedish protective passes.**

**The Swedish humanitarian, who managed to save thousands of Hungarian Jews from the Holocaust by employing hundreds of them in various office locations throughout Budapest, delivering a wide range of services from shelter and food rations to medical care, as well as issuing thousands of protective documents and security patrols, is remembered the world over for the heroism of his selfless courage. A supreme deadly irony that it was not the Nazis who killed Wallenberg, but the Russians, allies, who had bravely fought, and hugely suffered at the hands of, the Nazis.

1945 Jewish children who survived Auschwitz.

There are also other possible ‘incentives’ for altruism such as we might help others to relieve our own distress, or because being kind to others upholds our view of ourselves as kind people. I always admired my mother, who did not have an easy life, for her unfailing, spontaneous kindness and I notice that my self-image is of a kind person. Almost certainly this self-image is why I give £5 a month to a lovely Romanian woman who sells The Big Issue on Abbeygate Street. She has seven children in Ipswich and struggles to make ends meet. I don’t experience the rush of pleasure I felt with the compliment to the girl in The Coat but I do have the quiet pleasure of helping another                                                                                              while sustaining my self-image.

The Big Issue is bought by each seller for £2 and then
sold for £4.

 

The Bury Bible Up Close

Matthew Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury.
1504-1575
His outstanding collection of Anglo-Saxon 
manuscripts and other rare volumes
became the Parker Library housed in
Corpus Christi, Cambridge.

 On Saturday last I Zoomed in to St Edmund’s Cathedral, Bury, the Zoom hosts, AND Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, to join around 200 people to listen to illustrated talks on various aspects of the famous Bury Bible, now kept at Corpus Christi in the Parker Library. We heard wonderfully detailed commentary and insight into this large format Bible, created in Bury St Edmunds Abbey in 1130, although it is estimated that the considerable task took around two years to complete. It is in Latin Vulgate, the standard text in Europe at that time, and is an important example of Romanesque illumination from Norman England, bearing comparison with other famous monumental bibles such as the Dover Bible, [also kept in the Parker Library], Lambeth Bible, Rochester Bible and the Winchester Bible.

The Bury Bible.

The Bury Bible is a hand-written and lavishly illustrated bible of the type used in England before the Reformation. It was originally bound in two volumes of great size, each page measuring 52.5cms by 35cms which represented the ultimate double page size possible to create from one whole calfskin. The entire original Bible will have used about 350 skins in total.

Edward Cheese, Conservator of
Manuscripts.
who spoke on parchment.

Suzanne Reynolds who spoke on 500 years
of illustrated manuscripts in the Fitzwilliam
with reference to the Bury Bible.

Paola Ricciardi who spoke on the 
study of artists' materials
and techniques.

An illustration from the Bury Bible.

What remains today is just the first volume of the great bible ending at the Book of Job.

It has been rebound several times over the centuries, the last time in 1956 when it was sub-divided into three volumes. There are 357 pages remaining in all. The second volume is lost, almost certainly destroyed during the Protestant Reformation and the Dissolution of the Monasteries under Henry V111. Henry wished to divorce his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, at the same time as proclaiming his intention to rid the Church of widespread corruption. In reality he wished to marry Anne Boleyn and acquire the wealth of the Church for himself. The second volume of the Bury Bible was almost certainly destroyed during this period when it was already a venerable four hundred years old. Also in the Parker Library is the Hirsh fragment [50cms x 240cms] from Luke, Chapter 13 in the original second volume, discovered in 1984 by a book dealer! Apparently, small pieces or strips of discarded mediaeval pages were commonly used to repair damage in volumes of mediaeval texts in libraries.

Baldwin, a French monk was 
appointed Abbot in 1065 and became
physician to Edward the Confessor
and William 1.

1100 Bury St Edmunds Abbey at the height of its powers.

The Abbey had successfully survived the travails of the 1066 Norman Conquest chiefly due to its
leadership by Baldwin, the reforming Norman French abbot who had skilfully garnered the wealth engendered by the gift of Edward the Confessor conferring the right for the Abbey to rule West Suffolk on behalf of the Crown and retain the income such a privilege brought. By 1100 Bury Abbey was one of the largest and wealthiest of English religious houses. In 1046 there were no fewer than 51 books in the Scriptorium, impressive by early mediaeval standards, and book production with, increasingly, illustration in-house, was stronglyT
encouraged by the 1080s arrival of monks from Bec, in Normandy. Anselm became Abbott in 1121 when the Scriptorium was expanded bringing a major advance in book production. During his tenure, until 1148] it was considered essential for a well-run

A striking image from the Bury Bible.

 Benedictine monastery to house a wide repertory of volumes for study, and over 100 books were copied during his time. Among the great books of particular

The Bury Bible

splendour produced in Bury Abbey, as well as the Great Bible of Bury St Edmunds in 1130, there were, notably, the Libellus Vitae Sancti Edmundii, now in the Pierpoint Morgan Library, New York, around 1125 and the Pembroke College New Testament in 1150.

Illuminated initial from the Bury Bible.

The Great Bible [opere manifico; wondrous work] was created in the Abbey in Bury St Edmunds by Master Hugo, almost certainly a secular professional artist and not an employee of the Abbey although it is now estimated that he probably spent up to twenty years in the Abbey, working on various projects. It is unlikely that Hugo completed the whole work single-handedly though the entire main script is by one hand, almost certainly his and he, equally certainly, was the main artistic force behind the huge project. He was referred to as Magister rather than scriptor or illuminator, suggesting a contemporary reverence for his genius. Two other unknown scribes undertook the display script and were self-evidently gifted artists.

The idea for the Bible came from Hervey, the Sacrist brother of Prior Talbot of the Abbey and he, Hervey, funded this prestigious enterprise. The history of the Bury Abbey, the Gesta Sacristarum states: “This Hervey, brother of Prior Talbot, met all the expenses for his brother the Prior to have a great bible written, and he had it incomparably illuminated by Master Hugo. Because he could not find calf skins that suited him in our region, he procured parchments in Scotia.”

12th century painters/illuminators depicted in
the Bury Bible.

From the Zoom images the colours of the truly complex decorative images and lettering can be seen to be brilliant and jewel-like; clearly sophisticated decisions were made as to the range and quality of colours used by Hugo. The designs are extraordinary; Master Hugo demonstrated a huge talent for
originality, clearly under Byzantine and Greek influence. One of the Corpus Christi speakers, Paola Ricciardi, highlighted a doodle on one page showing a sketch of the head of St Edmund in the margin, uttering the words, “Hic! Hic! Hic! [Here! Here! Here!], the supposed cries from the severed head of St Edmund to the wolf who located him in legend. This would have been scribbled in during some repair subsequent to the Bible’s creation in 1130. She also identified tiny holes on one illustration which she said confirmed that certain special illuminations had been protected originally by a tiny silk curtain covering each.

Another tiny hole, identified by Paula Ricciardi.
Perhaps, wear and tear, showing page below.

Confessions of a Flaneuse.

Portrait of Lord Riddesdale
by Singer Sergeant; le flaneur
par excellence.

 Flaneur: a person who walks around, apparently aimlessly, but keenly observing urban society in a cool, aloof way. An honourable activity.  Flaneuse: the presumed female version of Flaneur. 

Although I walk every day, routinely, early, through/around/beyond the gorgeous Abbey Gardens, I am truly less of a flaneuse these days, more of a slow, stick-assisted, walking-for-my-health, ancient kind of person who, nonetheless, adores the walk and glories defiantly in the flaneuserie. Perhaps, being a flaneuse, if frailer and slower, underpins not only physical health, but mental well-being too. And the intellect is certainly stimulated by The Daily News, especially politics, read as I wander in and out of the Internet! I tend to veer between the BBC, CNN, Al Jazeera and MSBNC. Obviously I avoid Fox. I also allow myself one newspaper a week; at present, The New York Times. Alas I have not yet discovered a word for flaneuserie of the mind but that, too, is what I do.

No title needed! Trump, MAGA posters AND 
besotted followers in the act of worship.

So, this week’s blog is about things or sights that have caught my eye; maybe locally; maybe online; maybe nationally. Number One has to be the magisterial essay in the New York Times [an occasional treat] by Matthew Walther [19/20 Nov, 2022] which popped up to surprise and delight. Whenever the sudden reaction occurs, “I never thought of that interpretation!” then it is because a revelation occurs. I can see that Trump has backed losers in the recent elections; that he is clearly unfit for office; that he has, in effect, lost his mojo, but still, mysteriously, he continues to ignite vociferous support from millions, content to wear silly MAGA hats and proclaim clamorous approval for him. His policies and character seem almost irrelevant to his supporters because he carries the promise to 'clear the swamp'; 'stop the steal'; he promises the total destruction of the political ruling 

Napoleon Bonaparte in Emperor mode.
Two hundred years ago.

elite and the re-making of the legal, political, administrative and tax systems. He will make America great again. And THIS is a leader promising implicitly, as did Bonaparte, that lies, destruction of norms, rule-and law-breaking; tax evasion; vague notions that the world order is there to be ignored or damaged, are all to be embraced, not just changed, by his omnipotence. This is what your Leader will bring you because he can and you want it. Walther suggests that Trump sees himself, as do his devoted followers, in a quasi-religious light, as the embodiment of the nation; the Emperor, no less, with the throne as his birth-right. And the expectation of continued Emperor-ship!

And for an observation on the everyday; my favourite watch stopped so I popped up to the Wednesday market watch stall and left it for a new battery. When I returned to collect, the lady said it didn’t need a new battery, her ‘man’ had just given it a blow of air and it was fine. I couldn’t then believe there was no charge. AND the sun was also shining!! Such tiny courtesies do restore faith.

Roman grandsons and Birthday Boy as Zeus.

Then came my son’s 60^th birthday party with guests in various interpretations of togas a la Rome. It was an amazingly open-hearted, good-natured celebration and the abundant goodwill and kindness on display, struck me as a tribute to a good life being affirmed and lauded by friends and family, rather summed up in the entire crowd almost harmonising in the robust chorus of “You’re so fucking special” Sadly I only caught this tribute on video as I was abed watching Netflix by the time the singing erupted! But I continue to enjoy it hugely!

Today en route to a photographic exhibition in the Apex, discovered a splendid roundabout, a proper carousel, featuring dappled horses, no less, with the familiar hurdy-gurdy music alongside a small Christmas market which I hadn’t realised was continuing from the weekend. Shades of Brugge and its often magical Christmas market. A very satisfying discovery indeed! And the exhibition by local amateur photographers, proved to be remarkable in images and moods re-recreated. SO impressive I couldn’t resist a lovely photo of a kingfisher with a 
fish in his beak, sitting on a wooden notice which said, “No fishing.” Not only superb photography but, as always, embellished by the humour. How long did the photographer await that shot?!

Bury St Edmunds Camera Club.

At my usual Friday afternoon Mah Jong session, with four of us playing, I was ridiculously excited to win one game with a very rare combination indeed. It is rare because it is difficult, but amazing luck favoured me in a Goulash game. For me, winning is never the goal, though it is pleasant to stumble into it. It is finding a difficult combination of tiles that one might accomplish. Simple as that really! No more details as the uninitiated will be yawning!! Enough to say that minor, totally unimportant victories like this DO cheer a person on her way!

Nothing here for the uninitiated.
BUT for Mah Jong players, evidence of great luck +
All Winds and Dragons.

Post Script 

Baudelaire, a 19th century poet, is credited with identifying the flaneur in his essay, "The Painter of Modern Life", 1863, as a dilettante, but one who observes modern life with curiosity and panache.

Two elegantly-dressed participants in the London
Grand Flaneur Walk 14th July 2019.

Noughts and Crosses

 To the New Wolsey Theatre in Ipswich with a bus load of other members of the U3A Theatre Group on

Malorie Blackman

Saturday afternoon to see Malorie Blackman’s Noughts and Crosses. This production was part of the theatrical umbrella enterprises of Pilot Theatre, a York-based touring theatre company committed to creating high-quality theatre for younger audiences. As an integral part of its endeavour to create a cultural and theatrical space for the young, it offers school workshops and outreach work alongside its productions.

Malorie Blackman has written over 70 books for children and young adults, including the Noughts and Crosses series [six books so far!], receiving a number of awards for her work including the Eleanor Farjeon Award for distinguished contributions to the world of children’s books [2005]; an O.B.E. for services to children’s literature [2008] and honoured as Children’s Laureate between 2013 and 2015. This new production in Ipswich was adapted for the stage by Sabrina Mahfouz and had been previously adapted for the Royal Shakespeare Company by Dominic Cooke.

Noughts and Crosses is about forbidden love, set in a world where young people, full of dreams and
potential, are yet powerless to make changes against overwhelming societal and racial structures. The world portrayed is very similar to our world now but yet with crucial social differences. All power is in the hands of those with black skins, the Crosses, while the Noughts, the whites, are totally deprived and marginalised. There are special, inferior, schools for Noughts who may not own property or passports, who must live in inferior housing in poorer areas and may only do menial jobs for low income. They must remain, and are kept, servile and separate and uneducated; inter-marriage is impossible, forbidden by law. They have virtually no normal human rights in a society based on entrenched discrimination. One is reminded, with a skin-swap, of South Africa fifty years ago, or of the plight and status of Dalits or Untouchables in the Hindu caste system in India, officially, legally mitigated, but still largely there after 2000 years. Today, within three groups officially designated as Scheduled Caste or Tribe or, [even more breath-taking] Other Backward Classes, 39% have no formal education at all. India’s population numbers 1.38 billion.

Sephy and Callum

The Ipswich stage set was brilliant; there was a simple abstract space with a chequerboard of squares which could be used as doors, windows, walls or simply remain as static background. Furniture was minimal and occasional. This enabled the short, fast-paced flowing scenes, often high-octane and emotional; poetic and fleeting, to command the complete attention of the audience. The drama and relationships demanded centre stage attention and the onstage landscape effectively underlined and provided that.

This book is a G.C.S.E. set book and one can see why! It was interesting to me to note that Saturday’s [12/11/2022] audience was chiefly half and half; one half, exam. candidates enjoying a riveting and

memorable exposition of one of their set books; the other, elderly theatregoers fascinated by the quickly moving stage narrative and struggling with the feeling of watching contemporary life portrayed onstage, almost recognisable, almost familiar, and yet strangely, movingly, different. Interesting indeed to see how well each half-audience valued the theatrical altered reality on offer and so rewarding to see so many teenagers in the audience of live theatre. As we left, people were buzzing with appreciation and critical opinion. I rather think that this is what theatre should be about!

James Arden as Callum

Effie Ansah as Sephy