麻豆约拍

Good morning.聽

I love living out in the Scottish borders where I do but at this time of the year, I have聽 a bit of a yearning to be in my beloved Edinburgh, where the festival is in as full a flow as lateral flow tests enable.聽聽

In the earlier days of the fringe, when shows were cheap and my time was freer, it was possible to take in four or five shows a day and be entertained by the street artists in the meantime.聽

Sometimes the shows were more populated on the stage than in the audience, but I never saw anyone do anything other than give of their best.聽

Michael Parkinson once told a story of seeing Max Wall, the comedian, at the Bradford Alhambra, when only the young Michael and his family were there in that vast auditorium. And Max Wall gazed into the empty building and did his whole show, both acts, just for them.聽聽

There is at the root of all art, a sense of generosity. Of course there is ego, and a desire to succeed, but at the heart of the arts, be it painting or sculpture, music or comedy, theatre or literature, there is a desire to communicate, to touch your audience and make a connection with them. We are too good at finding our own space, finding solitude. The arts are a way of finding one another, and delighting in that community. And that is more valuable now I think than ever before.

Gracious God, we give thanks for all those who dedicate their lives to the arts, and who gather people together through music, laughter, theatre, or the many ways in which we express those things we cannot put into words. May we find one another in words and in silence, in story and in song, and by every means that love may choose, that we may know that what unites us is always stronger than what divides us. Amen.