I have slept my fill; five hours after Wilson and Cleon's party at 'Escucha' on Friday, two hours after a cidery Saturday lunch and six hours last night.
Friday night was yet another confirmation of the wisdom of that closing sentiment in Angela Carter's 'Wise Children' - What a Joy it is to Dance and Sing'. Our Christmas and Epiphany music for Southwell is sublime (or at least it will be when I have bashed those chromatic notes accurately into my head and am able to watch the boss and attend to the line and the dynamics). After a brief drink with Andrew, Julie, Robin, David and Sue at the Hearty Good Fellow I headed for 'Escucha' in Nottingham and three hours dancing. So many cheerful and familiar faces; so many lovely dancing partners.
Dancing the bachata with Anna made me truly understand the meaning of Irving Berlin's 'Cheek to Cheek', for all that Berlin's lyrics probably refer to the embrace of a slow foxtrot and the tune usually accompanies a quickstep. What is more the bachata hold is more 'thigh to thigh' than 'cheek to cheek' but those words say it all:
'Heaven, I'm in Heaven - And the cares that hang around me through the week - Seem to vanish like a gambler's lucky streak - When we're out together dancing cheek to cheek....'
Anna is light and flexible to a quite magical degree, yet is possessed of a powerful engine that belies her slender physique....
The Christmas edition of the Spectator has a page full of 'celebrity' comments on the veracity of the virgin birth. So many of them, including the Archbishop of Canterbury and Charles Moore, see a belief in this strange tale as central to Christian faith. Albert Schweitzer, the 'rational, scientific, modern German Protestant' had thought otherwise 100 years ago. I warmed to James Delingpole's comment; his style of Anglicanism was concerned above all with singing the hymns to the right tunes and conforming to the 1662 Prayer Book; the Virgin Birth, like theology generally, was of no great moment in his religious practice.
The whole article called to mind, again, that 'Grill a Christian' session at Bilborough a fortnight ago. The main spokesman had declared the Trinity was an essential article of faith, without which Christianity falls apart. Had he not heard of the Arian 'heresy' and of Isaac Newton's dissent from this one of Anglicanism's 39 articles? Had he not noticed the Unitarian chapels which are spread all over the land, never mind the Christadelphian and Jehovah's Witness meeting halls?
Those last two, plus Newton, see the imminence of Armageddon and the Day of Judgement as central to their belief and practice. So many American Christians see support for Israel and the ultimate destruction of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem to make way for a restored Jewish Temple as the main aim of their movement. Then there are all those communists; true Christians must abjure private property, and not merely by delegating communal living to afew monks and nuns who are bound by vows of poverty. Hutterites, Winstanley, Pere de Lamennais and Wilhelm Weitling thought private property the Devil's work.
Make of the Gospels what you will. I look forward to seeing what Schweitzer made of Jesus' styling himself 'The Son of Man'. Before that I must bake some goodies for tomorrow's milonga, write my Christmas cards, distribute business cards at Calverton Car Boot, clear the desk and do the ironing.
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3 comments:
What's this about 'grill a Christian'
What is a Christian?
Many different creatures, insights, beliefs and/or branhces of general nuttery, I suspect.
Am I alone in finding this log on thorugh all sorts of methods where you have to register with Google and so on, an absolute bind?
At least this splendid blog allows the quicker annonymous comments
I like the Spectator, the way I like the Telegraph - they have a sense of humour. The Spectator, of course relaly remians the paper for old farts, while the Telegraph has its budget cut and seeks a younger readership
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