11 August 2010

Modern Music and Ancient Conversion Stories



I quite enjoyed this music video by Regina Spektor.  However, and this may just be cause I have Bede on the brain, did the windows and the birds remind anyone else of the conversation from Book II of the Ecclesiastical History where King Edwin is debating conversion with his advisors?  One of his advisors offers this rationale for converting.
The present life of man, O king, seems to me, in comparison of that time which is unknown to us, like to the swift flight of a sparrow through the room wherein you sit at supper in winter, with your commanders and ministers, and a good fire in the midst, whilst the storms of rain and snow prevail abroad; the sparrow, I say, flying in at one door, and immediately out at another. Whilst he is within, he is safe from the wintry storm; but after a short space of fair weather, he immediately vanishes out of your sight, into the dark winter from which he had emerged. So this life of man appears for a short space, but of what went before, or what is to follow, we are utterly ignorant.
I love this passage because it is so Germanic in its outlook, and now we get it paired with spunky music!

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