Burns Night
Good afternoon,
It’s Burns Night tonight, the evening when people gather to celebrate the life and work of Robert Burns, born on 25 January 1759, Scotland’s National Bard, poet, song-writer and inspiration to Scots and others around the world. He seems to have an apt word for almost any occasion. This morning, in a meeting which was discussing possible changes in Covid restrictions, these words seemed rather appropriate:
The best-laid schemes o’ mice and men
Gang aft agley. [Often go awry]
Burns may not have been conventionally religious, but he has a habit of cropping up in the work of the Chaplaincy. Among his poems read or sung at weddings are My luve is like a red, red rose and John Anderson, my jo, while we have sung Auld Lang Syne at the end of a Brexit Reflective Gathering, and, wonderfully, in Germany at the end of a workshop I gave on Chaplaincy and Brexit. St Salvator’s Chapel Choir have recorded all those songs, as well as his songs Ae fond kiss, Ca’ the Yowes, Ye banks and braes o’ Bonnie Doon and Afton Water. His reflections on the social union between humanity and other creatures have helped inform environmental discussions we’ve held, while his Holy Willie’s Prayer is very much in the forefront of my mind when a student asks me to explore problems with predestination. On Sunday 25 January 2015 we devoted a Chapel service to his memory, and today’s Morning Prayers used his version of Psalm 90 (O Thou, the first, the greatest friend). And, had it not been cancelled for Covid, I would have been celebrating with the Officers Training Corps at their Burns Supper last Saturday night.
But celebrations are still happening. The University is hosting a Global Burns Night at 7 pm (GMT) online – details here: https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/develop-2/online-event-registration/event/S2yxAKD9Rj1YA72v/
And so let’s raise a glass to Robert Burns today, and if you want to hear his music, there is no better interpreter than Eddi Reader – here is her take on Jamie Come Try Me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7JS8OtT1Zw&list=OLAK5uy_lxHIQIfnL2Z_2Cqj_fqnDpSbHypyO_A5U
Yours,
Donald.