Kevin Rudd, resurrected as the national political leader, appealed in Parliament for our elected representatives to be a “little kinder and gentler” with each other. Fat chance! The Opposition swiftly resumed its snarling attacks and the argy-bargy attitude that mars our seats of power was on again with barely a pause.
It’s just a pity they all couldn’t seek a quiet place where they could ponder their errant vocal ways – such as in the hallowed, tranquil pews of an old church, a place ideal for a rethink.
This gives me an opportunity to return to Nina Murdoch’s She Travelled Alone in Spain ( TT here ). She wrote of visiting the Cathedral in Malaga and although she had just a day in Malaga she stayed quite a while in the Cathedral:
“Why? Because in these great and ancient buildings, if you stay awhile, there steals upon you a quietude, a serenity of mind the secret of which is almost lost nowadays. You sit in a spacious and immense safety unlike anything else I can think of. In the woods, in Nature’s quiet places, always some last primitive corner of the mind, some ancient instinct against ambush, remains alert, on the qui vive. But in these great old churches humanity has lingered peacefully so many hundred years, the very stones seem companionable without crowding upon you. You remain very much an individual without being isolated.”
Nina Murdoch’s feelings led me to think of my old friend Percy from the Pews, who has been absent from this website for a long time. Perhaps he has taken a vow of silence, probably saddened by the behaviour of certain clergy.
