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366 unusual things: days 274 – 278

30th Sep – Listened to a beautiful voice singing ‘What a friend we have in Jesus’ to the tune of Bette Midler’s ‘The Rose’.  This can also be done with ‘Amazing Grace’ and ‘House of the Rising Sun’ and the theme from Gilligan’s Island.  Keep the tunes, change the words.

1st Oct – Watched one of many episodes of a documentary about the Amish.  It’s unusual that so many thousands of people manage to remain separate from the rest of the Western world.  But for a safe and healthy life, the price is living with motorless transport and gas lanterns and fetching water.  Not to mention hands-off courtships.

2nd Oct – After watching several episodes about the Amish, I chose not to drive my car today because I have a perfectly functional pushbike.  I didn’t regret riding it.

3rd Oct – An author I work for always closes the door to the room where we work in her house, even though no one else is there.

4th Oct – Read about King Solomon’s 1000 women.  ‘Solomon held fast to them in love,’ the writer of 1 Kings tells us.  For a thousand nights he could hold fast to a different woman each night, then start again.  Wonder what the Amish think about him…

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Weekly photo challenge: Mine

I’ve been reluctant to respond to the theme of ‘mine’ – it struck me as a request to show how self-centred and unsharing we can be sometimes.  However, I’ve just realised that I have something I’m pleased to call ‘mine’ because I’ve been using a borrowed one for 15 months.  I don’t need to hang onto it very tightly:  it’s one of those things that no one else would ever want!

In June last year I began working on the translation of a story, reading from a library book which I was the first to borrow since the 1980s.  The story was so good that I soon tried to buy my own copy.  But it’s such a peculiar title and edition that my worldwide search turned up nothing.  Until 2 weeks ago.  I was reminded that persistence pays.

Here’s the library book I’ve been using, printed in 1980:

‘Un Hiver à Majorque’ in ‘Oeuvres Complètes’, George Sand, printed 1980

And here’s ‘mine’, the edition which rewarded my relentless searching.  It came from a bookshop in Geneva complete with an old folded 1920 invoice between its pages.  I was thrilled to find that the book is the original of the library version, meaning the page numbers are the same and I don’t have to rearrange my notes.

‘Un Hiver à Majorque’ and ‘Spiridion’, George Sand, printed 1867

My book is so fragile that page shards are appearing on every surface where I work with it.  But it’s mine and I don’t have to return it to a library.  Every one of its readers from the past 145 years is inspiring me as I translate its words for a new century of readers.