Sir, Having regretfully recovered from veritable convulsions of tonic laughter induced by Peter Thursfield's uncannily clever colour camera capture of a rare interplay of jollity between Dr Eames and Dr Empey at the Church of Ireland Synod (May 8th), I hasten to congratulate the photographer on a picture that is worth the proverbial 10,000 words and, indeed, the two arch bishops on an uplifting silent sermon embodied in the photograph.
Aided and abetted especially by the mesmeric magnetism of tightly closed eyes, Dr Empey's mirthful labial expression seemed to me to synchronise with his albeit shuttered organs of vision in a static laugh that revealed a dancing soul and broke into a thousand pieces that went skipping about in fairy fashion with effortless abandon. Having abandoned all ratiocination as to the source of the infectious felicity, I ran rightly riot in my imagination as a simple water jug between the two men added a strange colour to my reverie in being literally transmogrified from a useful, refreshing amenity into an overflowing laughing waterfall that was a wondrous windfall of whoopie for me. Dr Eames played his complementary part in the drama, as it were, as a captivated camera, in his own right, with its shutter open, delightfully passive and recording one might say, the all about thrust of the "humour shuttle" between them.
In the context of weighty discussion about matters of church or State and the importance of cultivating a balancing blend of humour relief, I recall the advice given by the Roman poet Horace "Mix a little foolishness with our prudence it's good to be silly at the right moment" ("Misce stultitiam consiliis brevem Dulce est desipere in loco" Odes). I am reminded here also of a saying of the 19th century English philosopher and theologian Archbishop of Dublin Richard Whately "Happiness is no laughing matter" in this present age, where disturbing negativities abound, pictures such as this one play no small part in raising one's drooping spirit in situations where mere words can be quite watery or even irrelevant at times. Yours, etc., Beach Park, Laytown, Co Meath.