Musings.

This is just a posting about thoughts - so if you would rather just skip it that's OK with me. This morning Joseph and I went for a walk across to the old racecourse. Its only about 5 min from where we live but you have to negotiate a narrow 'tunnel' hemmed in on the left by an iron fence to keep locals out of the student accommodation, and on the right the River Irwell. Its a well used haunt of dog owners so you have to watch where you are putting your feet, and this morning was like walking through a cloud of midges. But when you emerge at the other end, out into the light you are faced with a great big open green, a precious emerald. I was hit anew with the sense of peace and quiet ( well relative quiet, as you could still hear the traffic droning away like the irritating buzzing of a wasp). I was thinking back to last weekend, wondering what life was like beyond the reach of the motor car. As a kid I spent much time rambling through woods and where we lived was a quiet backwater, car wise, but can't really appreciate just how much our lives are affected by the constant hum. I fear we shall loose this open space when the new student accommodation opens, sold off for housing no doubt. They are building on the other side of the river ugly modern thrown up monstrosities.

This led on to contemplation of another area of fascination for me at the present time. The Quakers. The search for inner silence is quite appealing. At the moment I am reading a book called "Quaker Annals of Preston and the Fylde" by Dilworth Abbatt. It was written in 1931 and is kept in the bowels of Manchester library - you have to fill in a paper slip hand it over to the librarian and then wait for it to come up in a 'dumb waiter' (I think that is the correct name for it). They then stamp the book, so you can see how many times it has been consulted before - there are only about a dozen stamps and the one before mine was in the 1960s, imagine that book has been sitting inside that building waiting 40 odd years for me to call it out into the light of day once more. How many other books are hiding down there in the gloom, forgotten unloved, what secrets do they hold. You are not allowed to borrow it and take it home. You have to sit in this awe inspiring room - round with a domed roof, but completely impractical for studying as every little sound is amplified and one hardly dares to breathe and disturb anyone else. The librarians seem quite immune to this and hardly whisper their conversations ! tut tut. I have spent three hours already on this book and I am still only on page 15.