Author Archives: markdowe1

Arts, Literature

A Prophetic Ray?

THE BEST REASSURANCE

LORD BYRON’S The Bride Of Abydos is a tale of frustrated love set in Turkey. There are a few lines we might take to heart even if we don’t live in a Turkish palace.

Deciding that their love will be for ever unrequited and the world will be a darker place because of that, the young man urges his beloved to rise above the sadness and be a blessing to the world:

“Be thou the rainbow to the storms of life

The evening beam that smiles the clouds away

And tints tomorrow with prophetic ray.”

We might be a rainbow or even a smiling beam, but a “prophetic ray” for tomorrow? Sometimes the best reassurance we can give is the “prophecy” that there will be another day tomorrow.

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Arts

Persevering with a smaller solution

PRACTICAL SOLUTIONS ARE ALWAYS POSSIBLE

LATE one evening, during the War of Independence, the American ship Constitution dropped anchor outside what was thought to be a safe harbour. Overnight, the wind died away. When the sun rose, the Constitution’s crew saw five enemy ships staring at them.

Out of sight of the enemy, the captain sent a boat out with the anchor. Those in the boat rowed until they reached the end of the anchor rope and dropped the anchor overboard. The sailors on the ship wound it in, pulling the Constitution a rope’s length out to sea.

They did this for two days and two nights! When the wind picked up, the Constitution had a good head start and escaped.

If the problem requires a big solution and you don’t have one, try a smaller solution and persevere with it!

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Arts, Books

Book Club: Open Water

SYNOPSIS: INSIGHT

AT a birthday party in the basement of a south London pub, a young man meets a young woman. “You’re both artists,” says a mutual friend. “She’s a very talented dancer …he’s a photographer.” The man is there to take pictures.

When his work is complete, he looks around for her and soon realises she’s gone; however, he knows they will meet again.

Caleb Azumah Nelson’s Costa Prize-winning debut novel charts the turbulent course of a love affair between two complicated and creative individuals.

“You joked as a photographer that you spent time chasing light,” the unnamed narrator reflects, “but you should’ve also said you bent darkness as well.”

The author brings a fierce emotional intensity to his elegant love story. It unfolds amid a richly detailed depiction of the light and darkness of living and loving in London.

– Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson is published by Viking, 160pp

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