One of my mother's oft quoted sayings is this:
Two men looked out from prison bars
One saw mud, the other saw stars
It is quite probably a misquote, though you can find this exact form in Google, so who knows the true origin?
I was reminded of the saying last night when I went to visit Florrie (not her real name) in hospital, where she is waiting for her broken hip to be pinned after a fall at home on Saturday. Florrie is fiercely independent (even by my standards) and often says very little. In recent months she has begun to come out of her shell a little and has revealed a mischievous side which is a delight to behold. At the time of the visit, she was in a side room (the only available bed) on the fifth floor (6th if you're American) of the city centre hospital. She told me about the porridge she'd had for breakfast - suitable it seems for hanging wallpaper - and the noise of the overnight deliveries when lorries parked and disgorged their contents immediately below her window. Suddenly she paused, and said 'look at that sky.' I turned and looked out of the window, past the concrete chimney to the streaks of gold piercing the clouds of the dusky sky, and beyond to the streetlight jewelled cityscape spreading out befor eus. Somewhere in all of this was the balance missed in the extremes of the saying, mud and stars are equally part of our experience and whilst extremes of repsonse can be valid, more typically it is a mix of the two. No-one at church would see Florrie as a deeply holy person, she has steadfastly spent a lifetime refusing baptism and church membership, yet in this moment between porridge and sunset was something sacred, a glimpse of glory from ward 17 on the fifth floor.
On the left is the sign that was attached to the baptist heater (sic) that I've just collected from a church in Nottingham which warns you of the dangers of leaping into the baptistery whilst it is still electrically live - sadly my understanding is that this does sometimes happen with tragic consequences.