'Turning Darkness into Light' — A visit to the Book of Kells

A hedge of trees surrounds me
A blackbird sings sweetly
Above my well-ruled book
The birds sing far and wide.

In a green cloak of leafy branches
The cuckoo sings her lovely chant
Protect me Lord on Judgement Day!
Happily I write beneath the trees.

—Irish monk at St. Gallen, Switzerland, mid 9th century.

It almost seems that this monk might have penned his thoughts right beneath this ancient tree on the campus of Trinity College where the Book of Kells is on exhibit in the Library there. No photos are allowed inside, but the "lavishly decorated" manuscripts of the four Gospels are truly remarkable, not to mention the lives of the monks who labored in devotion to their mission to scribe and illustrate the Christological message. The monks weren't without humor. One writes about his cat, Pangur Bán, who seems to have kept him company. "Hunting mice is his delight, / Hunting words I sit all night. / … / Practice every day has made / Pangur perfect in his trade; / I get wisdom day and night / Turning darkness into light."

The pigments are rich: brownish iron-gall ink from crushed oak apples and sulphate of iron or black carbon ink made from lamp black and soot. Lapis Lazuli from Afghanistan, indigo, woad (love that word!), white lead, orpiment (a kind of yellow), organic mauves, maroons, purples, red lead, malachite, azurite, chalk. Heavenly vellum—the skins of 185 calves— folded into bifolias made into gatherings with single leaves for decorated pages. Pocket books of individual gospels so chunky that they must only have been able to fit in the voluminous pockets hidden among the folds of a monk's robe. All of it reminds me that there is an art in communicating, in putting forth ideas, no matter it be sublime or mundane. We would do well by slowing down. Crafting our thoughts, grinding the pigments with which to paint our vision of the world.

We are staying north of the River Liffey that flows through the center of Dublin. We walked across the Half Penny Bridge and wandered as far as our tired legs could take us today. Tomorrow is another day. As darkness turns into light, my camera is already sensing an infinity to trees, doorways, and ancient faces.