QUIET WORK OF AN ENGLISH DAY

Quiet work is the sound of silence.

It’s the sound of fingers on a keyboard, pages turning.

Not so much with guitar practice and a dog.

But those get palm muted.

In this dour land of England, quiet work seems to be the rule.

Get out and do what needs doing, then go back in.

No muss, no fuss, all very practical as it should be.

Good manners and proper acknowledgments applied in good measure makes the day an English day.

It was an English day for the memorial of a local giant in the community.

A large group gathered in a crematorium for speakers, along with a large group in a local rugby club, to watch the proceedings on large screens.

It was all quiet work, sad work, saying goodbye for the last time together kind of day.

I was there with family members.

When both groups gathered at the rugby club the quiet work was finished.

After that it was friends and family and teammates paying their respects, raising a pint, and reflecting on times passed, making plans for the future.

It was honor to be in such a group. The conversations rose in volume with the crowd, and dropped as it thinned out.

An English Day With A Quiet Family

Twenty years after this photo many of the same people gathered in Barrington for a family lunch.

From a memorial one day to a reunion the next, a few people were missing.

We traveled with our kids back then so they’d know their roots. It sunk in.

Times change, but people keep connections.

Then new people arrive.

For me, it was a beginning of a new day.

This family is more comfortable with each other than any I’ve been around.

Not waiting for a shoe to drop, the wrong word said, they are bound by blood and memory.

For all the changes they’ve endured, they’ve grown stronger and carried on. It’s a lesson worth learning.

Call it the best part of an English day.

Try and add some of that to your day.