Whither Canterbury? The Blogging Pilgrims Say...

The Canterbury Tales is, I guess, as important a piece of social history as you can get.
Literature? For sure, though in some ways it has less value on that front than most people realise for the simple reason that a good third of the stories are purloined straight from Boccaccio's Decamerone, and few of the remainder are original.

Not of course, that that necessarily detracts from it's literary merits. But where, I suppose, it's real import lies, is in it's depiction of a pilgrimage to Canterbury. In other words, it's not so much the tales themselves that matter, as the social observations concerning the pilgrims.
I guess- and I defer to Crashie here- a Muslim who has done the hajj can feel something on reading it that maybe a secular European fails to quite get. Because the whole point of a pilgrimage, is that it is a once in a lifetime experience; it is a journey.
Perhaps the end doesn't matter so much. I guess in many ways the secular west creates it's own pilgrimages; the gap year, perhaps, being something along those lines.

Because the characters of the Canterbury tales aren't holy people. They aren't devout or saintly people. They are ordinary people looking for something on the journey, as much as they hope for enlightenment at the end. And the Canterbury tales is about people from all walks of life, people who have never before in their lives been thrown together in such an unlikely grouping, learning from eachother, laughing with eachother, learning to understand eachother.

And we can't help feeling that the mouldy old bones of Thomas a Becket they will find at the end won't be half as much a prize as all of them have found on the way.

And I think it is so with blogging. Everyone's complaining how slow blogging has got- indeed, many seem to be dropping off. Because yet again, the medium seems to be going through a phasal shift. Because I think those of us who devote such large amounts of our time to this curious pastime have discovered that we are all indeed, kind of pilgrims. We come to tell our tales, but we come to listen too, and as with the Canterbury Tales, we learn as much- if not more- from the prologues (in this case comments) than we do from the tales.
We're all on a journey together. A journey to learn from eachother.

Anyway. A couple of fellow pilgrims have decided to favour this pilgrim with their largesse. So for tonight 'The Salesman's Tale' is taking a break.

I'm going to start with this charming little award given by Nunyaa- charming because no bank in their right mind would ACTUALLY issue me with a gold card, so this one is as close as I'm likely to get.



Now the rules to this are simple- It has to be given to four old friends and one new- the new being from another part of the globe.

Four old? Well, that's easy enough. I wouldn't give you free rein to post on my blog if I didn't value both your friendship and what you write.
Step forward Crashie, Eve, Heart and Oestrebunny.

And the newcomer from overseas? I had to think about this, but I felt the best person was the man now on a real life pilgrimage across the United States- Mr Fusion of Finding my Way.

So, here you go pilgrims. Don't spend it all at once.

A second such gift has come winging my way from the teller of 'The Nurse's Tale', jmb of Nobody Important



Now I must admit, I had to think hard about the criteria for this. How do you decide whether a blog is brilliant? And I suppose the honest answer, is how much in a rush are you to see if the author has updated. Because you know damn well, you're going to get a good read.
Well, I suppose the only way to really do this was ask myself which blogs will always get read immediately I know they've updated. Now I'll let you into a secret- I've finally given way to the tide and got Google Reader. As is my usual way, I've got it, stuck a few blogs in there, then kind of left it. I keep meaning to add a load more in, but as yet it's just the ones I want to be able to see instantly at work.

And so it is here we must go for our Brilliant list- blogs a post on which will not be missed- or so the theory is meant to go.

Helen of Helen's first Language
Princess Pointful of And Hijinks Ensued
X-Dell of the X-spot
Jim Callaghan the artist formerly known as the Tin Drummer
Sparsely Kate who has changed the name of her blog yet again
Cherie of Cherie's Place
Kimba of The Love Quote

I should add that all those awarded with the other, are likewise read as soon as I know they've posted, but I didn't want to duplicate. However, I'm going to break the rules in one instance. Although the rules on the Brilliant award say only seven, I'm going to break it (rules are there to be broken) and nominate Oestrebunny for this one as well.

Because she deserves it.

Enjoy folks!

Pass on the goodwill, pass on the vibes, get giving, get posting, get commenting!

Spread the love!

Savour the journey!
Or enjoy the ride, if you prefer :)