Prayer

You only need to take a short stroll around the confines of prince’s garden and you will soon discover an array of oddities. So it’s no surprise to find a painting hanging on the outside of the shed, directly opposite the entrance of his greenhouse. But, what captured my attention was its subject.

Now, for those who are religious, where prayer is still a strong part of their life this might not look out of place. But here, you stop twice to look. Neither of my parents or their family were brought up with a religious background, and they chose to raise my brother and I free from any church, letting us decide for ourselves in what we believe. But that was no different to the rest of the children in our street. Some might say that many people, where I grew up, would sooner put their money and time into the local pub before it went into any church.

I imagined my father sitting in his chair within the greenhouse looking out and studying the painting. Did this reflect something of his childhood? Did this bring some kind of comfort? What importance did this have, if any? I knew one thing, it was not for the appreciation of art, and this I was willing bet.

When I quizzed him about this ‘piece’, it turned out, as I expected, that it was of no religious importance at all, nor had it any artistic value. “I thought it would look nice on the shed”, he said, “it means the world to me… its cracked see! Besides you can’t leave something like that in a skip, with a crack like that, somebody might cut themselves”. To prince, its only importance lies within the cracked glass. Anything beyond this is worthless, and that to me was priceless.