Sleeping

Monty,





I asked you if there was going to be any inspiring garden related programmes broadcast this winter - I was very impressed with the answer and the resulting programme.

I have just read an article in the Telegraph written as a result of an interview with you before your promo on The One Show. What strikes me is that your personal views of gardens and garden history are almost at odds with what you present on GW. I picked this up some time ago when listening to you speak at the Hay Festival. I just feel that you have a lot to give in bucking the trend of gardening in a particular style or formulaic way.

There are many influences on us as gardeners - and I agree that the more gardens we see, the better we are able to refine our ideas of what kind of garden we want.

Making a garden is a glorious way of expressing the creative seed that is in us all.

The trouble is when I listen to garden programmes I tend to relax so much I fall asleep.

Sometimes I think we are all sleeping - I just cannot deal with the stupidity of our species.

I watched Anthony Gormley's account of how his art has developed, it was very moving and visceral.
As a child he was birthed into the life and ritual of the Catholic Church. He said that one of the profound and motivating moments in his life was his time as an attendant at Lourdes. Undressing the weak, ill and disabled before immersing them into the waters with no outward effect or end to their suffering. This made Gormley angry and he saw his religion as a kind of lie. But what it did not do was extinguish his sense of the divine in terms of who we are locked in this body we inhabit.

I struggle with healing - I always have as a Christian and nurse. I have known people to be healed - and others who have had much prayer without any change. The truth is we are all dying. Gormley senses that there is much more to us than just the body - we have minds which can think and imagine beyond its boundaries. Despite the fact that we are bound by physical and biological laws - by cell growth and cell death - while living - we are far more than this. It is as though we have the seed of the eternal planted within us.

And yet we have but brief lives upon the earth - short lives which we seem bent on destroying - how we have lasted this long is a mystery in itself.



Paul

Comments

  1. Thought provoking post. I too enjoy the new programme and would love to meet and have conversations with MD as I am sure he is a really thoughtful and interesting chap who cares not a jot about appearances and sticking to the rules!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I would love him to visit Veddw and meet Anne Wareham and Charles Hawes !
      Because of the curse of celebrity however, the chances of us ever meeting him and having a conversation is slim - I completely understand why he does not open his garden and needs to rest from that role - when else can we be ourselves apart from within our family and in our private spaces ?

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