Friday 2 November 2012

An ordered life


Dom Bruce contemplates the garden of the priory he shares with three other monks. Just this side of 70, he is the the youngest. There are Zimmer-Frames lying about the living room and decanters of sherry and Port wine on the sideboard. The whole place has the feel of a care-home for the elderly, which - in a way - I suppose it is.

Except that the brothers see themselves as taking care of the needs of others, even though a young Polish man comes in every day to do the cleaning and sort out their toothbrushes into the correct order.

Born in the USA, Bruce seems to have turned his back on the benefits of being a member of a family which owns and controls a massive power-tool industry which sells it's products all around the globe, and he also seems to have passed up an opportunity to make a good living as an actor's double - he is the spitting image of Donald Sutherland, even down to his soft, North American accent.

Often - and especially in times of crisis - I find myself wistfully thinking that the proscribed life of an Anglican monk must be a very carefree one but, of course, things are never as simple as they might appear from the outside.

They still have their fights with each other, fights with the planning authorities, fights with the Diocese and fights with their own inner demons.

I hope that they will want me to make a fountain for them in their little garden, and hopefully soon in the New Year, before it is too late. His parting words to me on the doorstep were, "These things cannot be rushed" (he gestured behind him as he said this, indicating his elderly brothers from whom decisions must be extracted, and I could hear the frail voices of the brothers chanting in Latin in another room). "Art cannot be rushed. Artists like you cannot be rushed."

I left with his blessing and email address, still carrying the age-old curse of all stoneworkers - the gift of procrastination.

16 comments:

  1. The church in all its manifestations always makes you sweat for the money...

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  2. Tom, I adore these "soft" posts of yours. The way you take the time to look with care and concern into others around you. My mother entered the convent for 5 months until a certain short Irishman, me da, convinced her life with him would be better. After 6 kids and a life of not enough money I wonder how often she missed the cloistered life. It does beckin does it not.? (Don't wory about John and Cro. I won't tell them you've gone all mushy)

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    1. These priests are Anglican Catholic - everything except the Pope, as far as I can make out. Have you ever seen that fillum about the Chartreuse monastery called The Great Silence? (Die Grosse Stille, I think). It is very attractive, especially as they brew a great drink.

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  3. I think that making that fountain in the little garden of the Priory would be a lovely job to do and that the elderly monks will get an awful lot from it and enjoy gazing at it from that large window, port or sherry glass in hand.
    You have something very special about you Tom ..... you can be funny, outspoken, challenging, truthful, a beautiful writer and a very kind side all wrapped up in one. We never know what we are going to get when we visit.
    Hope that they wont take too long to give you the job.
    Procrastination is like a credit card. Its an awful lot of fun until you get the bill ! XXXX

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    1. I wish I was using my credit cards for fun, and not simply groceries right now. When I say 'too late', I mean for myself as well as the brothers.

      Those men get everything between tramps and royalty visiting them on a daily basis. I hope that my next visit will be a business one, and I know that it would also enhance their spiritual existence, but I don't know if they know that. Certainly this work would increase the chances of enhancing mine.

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    2. I have everything crossed for you Tom. XXXX

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    3. But hopefully that doesn't include your legs?

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    4. Never the legs, especially when I've had a few green Chartreuse, but only the green not the yellow. XXXX

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    5. I totally agree - it has to be the green.

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  4. I did consider becoming a monk, but on my third birthday I discovered sex, drugs, and Matisse.

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    1. It took the advent of my 20th before I discovered any of those.

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  5. Peace seems to exude all round that room. I hope you get to make the garden fountain for them too. They'd like that.

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    1. It's not so much peaceful as sleepy, but thanks, Moll.

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  6. I like that last little paragraph Tom - I am sure it is true and also very frustrating. I would have thought once you got an idea you would want to start on it straight away - but of course if they take too long then probably all your sketching etc. would be in vain - or could you use it somewhere else?

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    1. All that stuff goes on in my head - day and night - Weave. What I need is someone to pay for it to be written in stone.

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