{"id":2850,"date":"2013-06-06T14:57:03","date_gmt":"2013-06-06T18:57:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/?p=2850"},"modified":"2026-02-11T10:43:23","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T15:43:23","slug":"church-bells","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/?p=2850","title":{"rendered":"Church Bells (by faust)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Summary: <\/span><\/em>Adam muses about church bells. Or about his family?<\/p>\n

730 words, rated K<\/p>\n

My Story Index and reading order for the Art-Universe<\/a><\/p>\n

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Church Bells<\/strong><\/h2>\n

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Church bells. You would think church bells sound the same all over the world, but they don\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Westminster Abbey\u2019s bells sound deep. Full and rich, they wake you rather smoothly from your peaceful slumber. You feel rested, not as if you\u2019ve been hauled out of Morpheus\u2019 arms, more as if your body has concluded a contract with the bells so they only wake you when you\u2019re ready. You can get up quickly, make yourself presentable, and go out, to that lovely little restaurant where they serve a full English breakfast by which even Hop Sing would be impressed. I wonder what Hoss would have said about it. Hoss, who\u2019s eating ambrosia now. I bet he\u2019d rather had beans and bacon. But then again, if God Almighty ever made exceptions, He\u2019d make one for Hoss.<\/p>\n

Church bells, right, I was talking about the bells.<\/p>\n

Milan Cathedral. I\u2019ve never seen a bigger church, but the bells…. They sound clear, like ice or crystal; not high, don\u2019t get me wrong, but like a very well tuned instrument. You can hear them from very far, and somehow they sound as if La Madonnina<\/em>, the golden statue on the bell tower, were calling up the believers. You can\u2019t help but follow the sound, then watch the congregation flock into the sacred halls. The cathedral\u2019s square remains empty when the bells have chimed out, and you can enjoy the sun and the quiet, and the width. I\u2019m not sure if God is in there or out here, but maybe he\u2019s at either place. I\u2019m sure the Monsignore<\/em> would tell me He was in the frankincense smothered air in the Duomo<\/em>, but I know someone I trust more, and he would tell me otherwise. He\u2019d say, \u201cGod is in you, Adam. You only have to find him.\u201d Well, I always thought Pa would have made a good priest \u2014 better than many others.<\/p>\n

The bells of St. Mary\u2019s Church in L\u00fcbeck sound like a song. Lightly, melodic, nearly playful. Not what you\u2019d expected from a church built by merchants \u2014 the mightiest merchants the middle ages had seen \u2014 but pleasant to the ear and to the soul. There\u2019s not much space around that church, the medieval houses stand close, as if the rich Hanse<\/em> traders had been seeking shelter here from whatever might befall them. And what they had feared, oh, what they had feared so much, you can plainly see inside of St. Mary\u2019s: death. There\u2019s a Danse Macabre<\/em> hung up on the walls, a canvas showing pictures of people from different classes, all dancing with skeletons impersonating Death Himself. Dated from the fifteenth century, it was installed in the aftermath of yet another onset of the black plague. As if death could be stopped by drawing pictures, by reciting odd verses, by praying. How long, I ask myself, had Joe prayed, when he had seen the smoke from his house? How long had it taken him from first seeing the catastrophe on the horizon to getting there? Had he prayed the whole time? I bet he had. But just like those strange people labelled \u2018noblewoman\u2019 or \u2018farmwoman\u2019 on the old canvas, Death has taken Joe\u2019s wife and their unborn child with him. Danse Macabre<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Church bells. You would think they sound the same all over the world, but they don\u2019t. Wherever I have gone, I never heard one chiming like that old brass bell here at St. Paul\u2019s in Virginia City. It may not be a wonderfully tuned bell, or one that can be heard far and wide, but it sounds like home<\/em>. My home, where I belong and to which I always will come back.<\/p>\n

__________<\/p>\n

Home is the wallpaper above the bed, the family dinner table, the church bells in the morning, the bruised shins of the playground, the small fears that come with dusk, the streets and squares and monuments and shops that constitute one’s first universe. ~ Henry Anatole Grunwald<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0*** fin ***<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
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With many thanks to Sklamb, for the considerate beta-read.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author.\u00a0 The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise.\u00a0 No copyright infringement is intended.<\/em><\/p>\n

My Story Index<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Adam muses about church bells. Or about his family? <\/p>\n

730 words, rated K<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":15230,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"template-full-width-post.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[1005,7,23,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adam-cartwright","category-a-u","category-drama","category-short-stories","wpcat-1005-id","wpcat-7-id","wpcat-23-id","wpcat-8-id"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/church-e1578396675733.jpg?fit=150%2C231&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2850"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2850\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}