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Paul.
I came across a story this week about a man in Lebanon whose family has been making church bells for more than 300 years.
His name is Naffah Naffah, which, to be fair, is certainly a name you are unlikely to forget. He works in the mountain village of Beit Chabab, where generations of his family have cast bells since the eighteenth century. At one time, the family operated ten foundries. Today, only one remains, and Naffah is teaching the craft to his sons, Charbel and Youssef.
What caught my attention was a detail about how he works. When a church orders a bell, Naffah wants to know about the village and how far the sound needs to travel. That helps him decide what size bell to make. Before the metal is poured or the bell has made a single sound, he is already thinking about the people who will hear it.
It is something I have never considered before, which is odd because I have spent a considerable part of my life around church bells.
