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Good morning.

The 16th century French philosopher and essayist, Michel de Montaigne, looked at the world carefully.  He recorded and reflected on what he saw.  Virginia Woolf was fascinated by his writing.  His rule, she said, was ‘Observe, observe perpetually’.   It’s true: he paid attention, and tried to slow the rush of life by focussing.

‘When I walk along in the beautiful orchard’ he wrote, ‘if my thoughts have been dwelling on extraneous incidents … I bring them back to the walk, to the sweetness of this solitude, and to me.’ 

 He writes about anything: drunkenness, prayer, cannibals, sleep, cruelty, the custom of wearing clothes - even conjoined twins he once saw.  All worked through his personal experience and thinking.  His stories are of himself and his world.

Samuel Pepys, who was born today in 1633, does the same kind of thing in his diaries. His description of the fire of London is full of unforgettable details.  In the midst of the human chaos, with people flinging their possessions out of houses and scrambling on to river boats, he looks up at the pigeons on the windows and balconies; some of them  hover too long until their wings begin to burn and they fall.

See the world, record it, and try to understand it.  Hold up a mirror, tell stories and ask questions.  That’s what the best writers do, and it’s why we read them, no matter when they lived or who they are.

For writers and thinkers, for those who witness and tell, we give thanks this morning. Amen.