Striking or Clunking?
I’ve never been to the Twelve Bell Striking Competition. ‘What!’ I hear you exclaim. ‘What? Never?’ The answer is, ‘No, never.’ I do know one of the judges in this year’s competition, which feeds my vanity that, after all, I do actually know someone important in ringing circles. I have, though, thoroughly enjoyed the articles about this year’s competition (and its 50-year history) in The Ringing World. I admire the skill and the dedication to purpose.
We have Hawkear in one of the towers I ring at. Occasionally I have the courage to look at my own striking. I think my striking is not too bad, but Hawkear is unforgiving. Is that degree of inconsistency really mine? I close Hawkear with a lurking sense of guilt and failure. Perhaps I am a clunky ringer after all.
This all leads me to a clunky encounter I had a while ago in our belfry. We had a group of visitors, and I asked one of them where they were from and how long they had been ringing. ‘Eighteen months’, came the reply. I was then asked, ‘And how long have you been ringing?’ ‘Sixty years’, I replied, rather too quickly. Instantly I thought what a clunky, literalistic response it was. I could have put it better. It sounded a bit of a put down.
Dealing with poor striking requires patience and tact. Putting up with clunkiness in human relationships requires patience and tact. ‘Let your gentleness be known to everyone’, writes St Paul in his Letter to the Philippians. Indeed. Let it!
Canon Bill Croft (Retired)