Power of the Music of the Night

Yesterday took me once again to London. We went with our class and toured the Houses of Parliament and went to the British Library. Just as I had earlier this summer, I headed straight over to the Lindisfarne Gospels. I was immensely happy to find it on display this time. During the summer I was able to flip through a hard copy of the book and yesterday I saw the actual book. It is so beautiful and such and amazing work. I also spent a large portion of my time pouring over the Codex Sinaiticus, trying to make out the Greek words. I was once again struck by these amazing expressions of faith.

My Bible is sitting right here on my desk. I have another Bible tucked away inside of a drawer back at home. I do not treat my copies with the same sort of reverence afforded by those of past days. My Bible is not ornately illuminated as the Lindisfarne Gospels or the Gutenberg Bible are. Nor is it painstakingly hand-copied like the Codex Sinaiticus. This appreciation for sacred literature is evident when viewing the works of other religions as well. Sultan Baybars’ Qur’an and the Golden Haggadah represent painstaking efforts to record the works of a religion.

These amazing pieces illustrate the ways in which one person affects many and the roles that religion can play in creating and disrupting community. Many of these manuscripts were painstakingly hand-copied and illustrated. I can imagine a monk or some other scribe copying every word of the entire Christian Bible, praying not to make a mistake, and then lavishly decorating every page. The process is simply mind-boggling. However, it is in part because of these dedicated people that Christianity spread across the globe. One individual may have dedicated his life to the production of one book. One book which in turn benefited a community, indeed Christendom as a whole. How amazing!
After attempting to absorb the richness of the treasures in the Library we all met up at the Houses of Parliament to tour the Westminster Palace. The interior is beautiful and we were given a wonderful insight into the inner-workings of the British government. Security was strict and we even had to wear little badges with pictures of ourselves that were hastily taken by security.

Several of us walked through St. James' Park and by Buckingham Palace before heading to dinner. We continued the ACU tradition of going to the Texas Cantina. This is housed in the old Texas Embassy and their slogan is "Texas to Mexico via London". I was so happy to eat delicious Mexican food and sign my name on the map of Texas. There's even an ACU flag hanging up in the restaurant alongside the flags of other Texas Universities.

The evening ended wonderfully with The Phantom of the Opera. It was an amazing show, though the story really is fairly creepy. The set was amazing and the singing was beautiful. We had a wonderful time and I even sat close enough to the stage that I could make out the actor's expressions. The songs were overwhelming and truly filled the entire room, sweeping through the audience and rendering all speechless. Several of the people I was with were brought to tears (Lion King is still the only one that's impacted me like that). Nevertheless, there is something about the music of the night that draws one inescapably in. This scary story takes flight, in my opinion, simply because of the floating notes of each song. Thank you Mom and Dad for an awesome birthday present!

All in all, we had a wonderful day and today I am back to slaving over my homework. Not fun, but the wonderful experiences that I'm having are worth the sometimes intense workload.