A Good Friday Meditation
Apr. 7th, 2023 03:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
poliphilo Ailz was playing a medley of songs by various configurations of the Watersons- one of which was "There is a Fountain Filled with Blood" and I thought, "Of course, today is Good Friday: what a mercy I don't feel the need to observe it any longer."
Our mate, Keith- who like me is a former Anglican and an attender at the Meeting House but not a full member- said he might be going to the South Street Church today. The South Street Church- though they don't make a big deal of it- belongs to the Countess of Huntingdon's Connection- a rigidly Calvinistic off-shoot of Methodism. I expect they give good self-abasement on Good Friday.
Rather him than me.
The Watersons do a line in evangelical hymns- some of which are damn fine with damn fine tunes. There is a Fountain isn't one of my favourites, though the tune is nice enough. The words are by William Cowper. Cowper had a hard life and a pet hare- and wrote good comic verse when he wasn't wanting to cut his throat and suffer eternal perdition. When I was a kid I was introduced to his ballad of John Gilpin- the city merchant who gets on a horse he can't control and has a "diverting" adventure. I just re-read it and it made me smile. Cowper was a dear man and his taste for good-natured silliness combined with a depressive nature makes me think of that other dear man, Spike Milligan.
My favourite Waterson pieces are the ones that deal with dying syphilitics and colourful criminals- like William Kidd and Dick Turpin- who- just like Jesus- wound up on the gallows tree.
Our mate, Keith- who like me is a former Anglican and an attender at the Meeting House but not a full member- said he might be going to the South Street Church today. The South Street Church- though they don't make a big deal of it- belongs to the Countess of Huntingdon's Connection- a rigidly Calvinistic off-shoot of Methodism. I expect they give good self-abasement on Good Friday.
Rather him than me.
The Watersons do a line in evangelical hymns- some of which are damn fine with damn fine tunes. There is a Fountain isn't one of my favourites, though the tune is nice enough. The words are by William Cowper. Cowper had a hard life and a pet hare- and wrote good comic verse when he wasn't wanting to cut his throat and suffer eternal perdition. When I was a kid I was introduced to his ballad of John Gilpin- the city merchant who gets on a horse he can't control and has a "diverting" adventure. I just re-read it and it made me smile. Cowper was a dear man and his taste for good-natured silliness combined with a depressive nature makes me think of that other dear man, Spike Milligan.
My favourite Waterson pieces are the ones that deal with dying syphilitics and colourful criminals- like William Kidd and Dick Turpin- who- just like Jesus- wound up on the gallows tree.
