17 sept

Almost a perfect day. The temporary plastic held up. Thank God for ducked tape. There used to be a program on American public television about two guys who solved every problem in the world with ducked tape. Very inspiring show.

Started the day out with reading Georges Duby, the french historian, on Bernard of Clairvaux. Bouht his little book ‘art cistercian’ in french, just to realize that I had a already owned a dutch translation of the book. I read it even in a vacation some ten years ago. Not that I remember much of it. Rereading it is a pleasure. It is full of what I consider wonderful insights. I’ll share a few.

*art is an always present possibility to escape those things in daily life that are considered oppressive and humiliating

*These people lived by nature with their thoughts focused on the past, convinced that the world was deteriorating every day and would destroy itself one day and the past was always good, for sure better than the present.

*the eruption in building was the result of a release of a tension that existed between the old and new testament, between God and human being, between the frightened christianity of the past and the fraternical christianity of the future, between heaven and earth.

*He (Saint Bernard) had the right kind of blood line, the only thing that in those days really mattered to become a saint.

And on and on. I am scribbling these insights down on a piece of paper that I insert in the book. My handwriting has never been readable and gotten worse over the years and is practically illegible in the microscopic letter size that I use on these inserts. But I found out that I need to write things down in order to really remember them.

In the afternoon I made a drawing of the church across from the little square we’ve been parking on for the past few days. Free electricity, free wifi, free water and delicious croissants around the corner.

Julie and Claire gave me some books on ‘urban drawing’ for my birthday. It is my plan to make a drawing every day, so I already missed a few days. Like with most things, the drawing should improve with practice. The coming seven months should show that, but also in my french, my english writing, my knowledge of myself and my plan for the future.

Later I went to Chaumont to get us an internet connection. Come to find out that these things are just readily available, not too expensive and on our little square here we have an Orange hotspot. Vive la France.

Also went to the basilica of Chaumont. Julie and Claire had gone earlier and showed the picture of some real relics, being the skull of someone, they forgot who. Come to find out it is the skull of Saint John the Baptist. I read a great story about a pilgrim who was walking to Santiago and was impressed by this skull. He was a little surprised when he came into another church a few days later to find another skull of Saint John the Baptist. The priest there could explain this miraculous multiplication. His church had the real skull, in the other church they had the skull from the younger st JB. I like it that this was a completely satisfactory explanation for him. Now I can’t wait to see the other skull, no idea where to find it though. Not yet at least.