The men are using their shields as dining tables.

A muzzled bear tied to a tree is about to receive the stroke of a sword.

A soldier tenderly washes another's facial wounds.

Horses gaze from the side of a boat. This brings tears to my eyes.

I'm moved to be here. The 'Tapisserie de Bayeux' brings to life the campaign of William the Conqueror. The building of ships, the transport of helmets and spears. The border of the tapestry is lined by snakes and fish and boar and goats and birds. I can hear the clapping of horses' hooves against cobblestone.

I also hear the laughter and conversation of those making the stitches. I see the pride that went into this horse, the thought that went into choice of color, whether to let the line of the haunch show through the tail. Hundreds of feet of embroidered story. Someone had a very large thought-to create a history book of thread. And then there is the final horse-that gallops right off the tapestry onto the border toward beyond...

perhaps toward us on this day, hundreds of years into future.