more contrasts today

My Facebook FSU image for today is a picture I also took in color, here.

Thoughts?

Speaking of which, our guide to the Bodleian (yes, I was IN the BODLEIAN library today-shiver) pointed out the myriad details which librarians have considered in the conservation of that library‘s precious works. (SOMEONE actually came up with the idea to shelve volumes vertically, to save space.) The books had been chained at one point, but as a matter of practicality, in order to maintain a fully functioning, circulating (gulp) collection for students and scholars, the chains were removed…VERY carefully. Apparently, at least one was not professionally done. I completely blanched when I saw that it was a copy of the First Folio – can you imagine?!?

I saw another copy of the FF, opened to the Shakespeare play I am going to see next Friday, Macbeth. I don’t use that title in some circumstances, and as this display was part of a special exhibit about Magical Books by the Bodleian I felt sufficiently superstitious to ask others not to do so either. 

I am always taken aback when people protest. Sometimes these small personally held beliefs…quirks even…are enough to spark deeply felt resentments. I believe that there is magick in theatre, and I try to respect precedents which are established in any given circumstance. It’s that simple. I believe in magic. Some people don’t. THAT IS FINE! And that’s all that happened today, because I am among peers who                        are both intelligent and sensitive. 

It got me thinking, though, that it is precisely the type of small-mindedness of some people who go out of their way to deliberately provoke someone by NOT respecting a simple request that so easily translates into full scale war. I am not religious. However, I do not denigrate others’ religious affiliations. I’m not a fan of organized religion, but that needn’t interfere with my relationship with the Pope himself . . . UNLESS I intentionally project that discord between us. I choose not to; when asked to please be silent in the Sistine Chapel (or in Hogwarts), I do so, because I was asked to.

What terrifies me is the realization that this kind of insignificant difference of opinion can spread so rapidly and cause such great suffering and discontent. I follow the Golden Rule, although I am not religious: Do unto others . . . .

I think the world would be a lot less complicated if more of us chose to keep to this precept.