book of hours

While a wee lass, yours truly's parents had friends who were of similar interest and persuasion, the wives discussed literature and life, the men argued about theology and politics in a way that made me realize at an early age that one could share camaraderie with people with whom one disagrees provided there is mutual respect and understanding.

They moved to California and before their departure, bequeathed an assortment of dusky Persian carpets, King Crimson and Ravi Shankar records, and art books to us, including a beautiful edition of the Duke of Berry's Book of Hours.

While reproductions are not quite as luminous as the real thing, I'm glad to live in a time when such things are not the purview of the very rich, for in prior eons, the Peonage had no access to any of the benefits of literacy, much less pages colored with crushed lapis lazuli and gold leaf.