Meditations on London

Meditations on London




            London is big, boisterous, and vibrant. My first impression was, “It feels smaller than I thought, but looks bigger than I imagined.” The air was perfumed by petrol. The sound of cabs and busses provided a chorus to the conversations on the streets; provided by people just going about their daily routines.

            Behind all of this is a splendor that is both urban, and organic. St. James Park is a green oasis, just mere meters away from Buckingham Palace. Yet, the city seems to disappear once you’re among the trees.

           
Then of course there’s The Great Westminster Clock Tower (better known as Big Ben) and the Houses of Parliament. The first time I saw these was as child, when Nickelodeon (an American cable network) would show Danger Mouse, and Count Duckula. I wondered, “What is Thames?” The network logo would present itself with fanfare, and mirror images of London landmarks reflected onto the surface of that iconic river. It swerves through London like a big serpent, and then empties out into the North Sea.

            As I stood on Westminster Bridge, and took photos, I tried to recreate the Thames logo. I discovered that you can’t exactly recreate it. I got close though. Still, The Thames is very impressive. It’s the vein that flows through London, and brings it life.

            When I heard of the terror attack on March 22nd I was shocked. I was on my way to class, when I saw a BBC news report on a telly in the media center window. The sound was off, but the crestfallen face of the bobby, and the news ticker below, told me everything. I had stood in the exact spot where that attack happened. I visited for the first time in August of 2016. To me, Westminster is the image of grandeur. I couldn’t think of it as anything less than regal. So much so, that I felt I was a bit under-dressed to even be walking there. I wore a red, short-sleeved dress shirt, with navy blue trousers. I looked very patriotic, indeed (for both sides of the Atlantic.) Peggy Carter would have approved.



            I wasn’t the only one that mulled about in short sleeves that day. It was a hot day in London! The city was alive with people everywhere. It wasn’t just tourists either. Even everyday people were about the major landmarks. The monument to Victoria was occupied by Londoners having their lunches. People just sat there to get some air. Not one person was glued to their mobile. Everyone was either talking to a person that was there, or they were observing the world around them. Why wouldn’t they? How could one go to London, and not see it with both eyes open?


            While I found the country town and smaller cities charming. I still found London impressive. Big, loud, but very impressive. It looked how I thought I major city should look. So, when I saw that report about the attack, I honestly did feel heartbroken. I couldn’t picture something like that happening in that area of London. Crime can happen anywhere, but still, it seemed out of place.

            London is a city that can survive anything. It has endured plague, fire, the Blitz, Thatcher (okay, that last one may have been a cheap dig), and now this. It will always endure. I have this funny feeling that even if the rest of the world melted, Britain would be okay. It would just lift off the surface of the Earth, and continue to exist as its own planet. London would just rebuild itself into some sort of space-age capitol. It sort of has done that already. It hasn’t away, and never will. It’s the city that cannot fall, because the people who love that city will not let it fall. An attack like the recent one can’t break the spirit of Londoners. If Nazi bombs in WWII couldn’t do it, nothing can. The resolve of the British public has always been one of, “We don’t know how to quit.” It’s one of the things I love about England. Surrender just isn’t an option.

            If Londinium could be translated accurately, it would mean, “resilient.” At least I like to think so. It’s a city that breaths. It wakes up each morning, and faces the day—good or bad—and then does it all over again the next day. It can’t stop, and no one can stop it.
            There’s a lesson in there for all of us.

            Hold fast.

Text and Photos: copyright Riley Joyce 2017





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Eulogy for Lonnie

Image
This is the eulogy I delivered for my Mom. Her funeral was today, July 29th, 2016.  A wise man once said, “Dearly beloved, we are gathered to get through this thing we call life.” How does one summarize a life? I'm not sure. So I won't attempt to summarize sixty-nine years in only a few minutes. Instead, I will give some highlights from Mom's life. Her favorite books were Lonesome Dove , and The Thornbirds . She loved the music of The Bee-Gees, Hall and Oates, and Prince (hence the reference). She drank more tea than the entire population of Great Britain. Her favorite movies were The Deer Hunter , Gone With the Wind , and The Bishop's Wife . She loved Tom Selleck. Anything Tom Selleck. We used to watch Blue Bloods together, and the Jesse Stone movies.   And Mom had a fondness for knicknacks and any food that contained sugar—believe me. She could also cook a mean steak, and taught me the secret of great pork chops; which my vegetarian friends wi...
Read more

House of Jane Part III: Meeting Mr. Knight(ly)

Image
Meeting Mr. Knight The House of Jane Part Three             Jane didn’t call it, “Chawton Great House” for nothing. It is great.             I stood at the end of the long path that lead to Chawton House. It seemed so distant, and yet so close. I snapped a photo, and then walked up that long runway of tan-coloured earth. Once I arrived at the front door I paused and made note of the Knight family crest. It’s etched in stone, with the motto, “In the steps of St. Peter,” inscribed across a banner at its base. It felt odd to enter without knocking first, but I stepped inside anyway.             I arrived at the ticket office, only to discover that the last tour had concluded five minutes ago. A lady who worked there asked, “Would you still like to look around the house?”     ...
Read more

The Long Walk--Thoughts on Lockdown

Image
The Long Walk  The Lockdown for Covid-19 hasn’t been a time of side-hustles, Netflix binges, and acquiring new skills for all of us. If you’re an “essential worker” like myself then you still have to work. They say if you’re self-isolating you should perform daily routines. I don’t have that luxury, so my routine hasn’t changed too much. No, it’s not been a grown-up summer camp for me. Instead, it’s long hours of people frustrated that I can’t solve their problems in ten seconds or less. God forbid that during a crisis people would give a damn about the things that really matter. And certainly, God should forbid that anyone would have to wait on a phone line for more than three minutes.              We are both short-staffed where I work, and overwhelmed. But, surprisingly, most of the calls we receive aren’t about the economic impact of the virus itself—layoffs, loan deferments, etc. Instead, most of the calls are about petty squabbl...
Read more