[ 09.2015 | London ]

one of my liveliest child­hood memo­ries is ly­ing under the skel­eton of a blue whale at Lon­don’s Nation­al His­tory Mu­se­um. the cap­ital of the United King­dom still is one of the cities I feel strange­ly con­nect­ed with. thus, when I visited the pulsat­ing metrop­olis in Sep­tem­ber 2015, I found me stroll­ing through the parks enjoy­ing some me-time.

St. James’ Park is the oldest of Lon­don’s eight royal parks; it spans 23 hec­tares and is sur­rounded by three royal palaces. since the 17th cen­tury, it is famous for its wild­fowl (includ­ing peli­cans) as well as for count­less cere­monial parades at the Horse Guards Parade and the Mall. on my way to St. James’ Park in the dis­trict of the City of West­minster, the low sun broke through and touched the fall­en autumn leaves into a golden, almost divine light.

speaking of enlight­en­ment and divin­ity: the Crea­tion of Adam is a fresco on the ceil­ing of the Sistine Chapel by Michel­angelo. painted 1508-12, it depicts the bib­lical crea­tion in which God breathes life into Adam, the first man, created after his own image. the Chris­tian pic­ture of the almost-touch­ing hands (Adam left, God right) has become iconic of human­ity, being repli­cated in count­less imita­tions and paro­dies.

only when play­ing around with words to find a title, I realized how close the letters for ‘ADAM and…’ and ‘a DEMAND…’ were – remember­ing Adam who demanded a com­panion.

hopefully sur­rounded by your com­pan­ions, I wish you the very best of holi­days.

sources: royalparks.org.uk | timeout.com | italianrenaissance.org