Norman Vincent Peale
We have just been off-island for a day or two, in Edinburgh - always a bittersweet experience because on the one hand I love the city, but on the other it was the scene of a little life reversal which I haven't quite been able to put to bed, despite the passage of almost a decade and my best efforts to live by the words of Norman Vincent Peale: 'The tests of life are not meant to break you, but to make you.'
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Christmas in Edinburgh starts officially on November 26th, when the lights are turned on by the Lord Provost and Princes Street Gardens becomes a romantic winter wonderland of market stalls, funfair, big wheel, carols, and the ultimate symbol of the season - ice skating under the stars.
Officially, that is. Unofficially, it starts when The Dome, the Graeco-Roman style bar and restaurant on George Street which was once the headquarters of the Commercial Bank of Scotland, says it starts. That is, on November 1st. If the spirit - or the Bah! Humbug! - of the season doesn't grab you when you pass by The Dome, your eyes are closed.
From outside, it's dramatic; from inside, breathtaking:-
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Norman Vincent Peale was the controversial Protestant evangelist from Ohio whose book The Power of Positive Thinking, published in 1952, sold 5,000,000 copies and made the New York Times bestseller list for 186 weeks running. He once said, 'Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.'
Peale died in 1993 at the age of 95 - on Christmas Eve.
