sent from: Kilburn, London, UK. destination: Dubai, United Arab Emirates

The card says that this was the Monk’s Dormitory, though I have a hard time picturing this tall-ceilinged place with bed and people. Would they have had any privacy? The monks, human as any of us, would have had the pious, the reluctant ones, the ones pushed (or pulled) into an ascetic life, the cruel, manipulative ones, the ones who knew how to game the system and get away with it, and the clowns. Would they have been like the boarders I once supervised, in a space not dissimilar to this? Study tables in the middle, beds along the outer edges. Would they have lain awake wishing for another life, or would this have been a better option than being an apprentice or labourer? I have the feeling that monks at a place like Durham Cathedral would have a more active life in the community than in another place. Would they have friendships , a lover, even, in the town, or would such things be beyond imagination.. or too tightly controlled. As long as they weren’t like those crazy monks in The Name Of The Rose, it would probably be ok.