Someone in Bermuda keeps writing letters to the editor of this newspaper, suggesting that some of the stations currently shown on CableVision should be replaced. His (or her) list includes ZBM, VSB, Toronto's CITY-TV, CNN's Business channel, Bloomberg, CNBC, CMTV and Ovation.

Is there a thread that ties this rather odd collection together? Here's a clue - the writer suggested that Ovation, unique for what might be called high culture programming, should be swapped for a learning or an educational channel. So maybe it isn't worth thinking too hard about the thinking behind that thought.

I doubt that Mr. Elmas of CableVision is going to be entertaining any notions about cutting out ZBM or VSB. Each of the other stations probably caters to a minority of viewers. But each of these minorities makes a fairly obvious contribution to the good health of the Bermuda community, so I hope he won't be entertaining any notions in their direction, either.

I say all that to say this: On Friday, the architect I M Pei was honoured at the White House as a recipient of the Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award for Lifetime Achievement. This afternoon at four, Ovation will be broadcasting a programme called Museum on the Mountain, which is about Pei's involvement in the construction of the Miho Museum in Japan.

It's really worth watching. If you haven't seen it, and if you're not prepared to sneak out of work early, don't worry. It is scheduled to be run again five times before the end of October, and a couple of times in the first few days of November. Pei is one of the world's greatest living architects. Museum on the Mountain concerns the solutions he found to the problems of constructing a museum in a pristine mountain nature preserve, without allowing the building to intrude on its surroundings.

On its face, Museum on the Mountain is a fascinating and instructive programme. Bermuda faces the problems of minimising the impact of construction on the environment every day, so that adds particular interest for us. But there is also a fascinating sub-text - what human quality or belief is it that allows a man of Pei's stature and power to live a life of modesty, refinement and humility?

I can't remember who it was who said that art and culture are not capable of being detached from piety, but if ever there were a living example of the truth of that proposition, it is I M Pei. He was born in China in 1917. He went to the United States in 1935 to study architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and later at the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

He has won far too many awards to list. One of them, in 1993, was a Pritzker, the most prestigious in architecture. In 1982, the deans of the architectural schools of the United States chose him as the best designer of significant non-residential structures. President Bush Senior called him the best architect alive.

His buildings are everywhere - perhaps the best known are:

The East Building f the National Gallery of Art

http://pcfandp.com/a/p/6810/s.html

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

http://www.pcfandp.com/a/p/8704/s.html

The Pyramide du Louvre

http://www.pcfandp.com/a/p/8315/s.html

Hong Kong's Bank of China

http://www.pcfandp.com/a/p/8220/s.html.

They are special in the sense that they exhibit a particular harmony - both with their surroundings and within themselves. In his Pritzker acceptance speech, he referred to this quality in this way: “Architects by design investigate the play of volumes in light, explore the mysteries of movement in space, examine the measure that is scale and proportion, and above all, they search for that special quality that is the spirit of the place, as no building exists alone…

“I believe that architecture is a pragmatic art. To become art it must be built on a foundation of necessity. Freedom of expression, for me, consists in moving within a measured range that I assign to each of my undertakings. How instructive it is to remember Leonardo da Vinci's counsel that ‘strength is born of constraint and dies in freedom'.”

Of all the projects Pei has undertaken, the one that I think best reflects his personality and his quiet determination was the Louvre project in Paris that he undertook for then-President Mitterand in the 1980s.

The Louvre, although it is always on everyone's list of must-visit sites in Paris, was at that time hardly a first-rate museum. Its reputation rested on the fact that it housed three very well-known pieces of art, the Venus de Milo, the Winged Victory of Samothrace and, of course, the Mona Lisa.

But half the space in the former royal palace was taken up by the Finance Ministry, and the rest was notoriously run down. It had no entryway to speak of. Mitterrand decided that the architect for the job was Pei, and was so convinced of the rightness of his decision that he appointed him without going through the usual competition for the contract.

Pei had the Finance Ministry kicked out of the building. He decided that the Ministry's old entranceway, the Cour Napoleon, was the natural centre of gravity of the building, and should be the site of the entryway for the new Louvre.

To the horror of the French (some of whom spat at him on the street when they saw him) Pei proposed to add a 70-foot glass pyramid to the Cour Napoleon, through which visitors would walk under ground into the building.

He based its proportions on the classic Egyptian pyramid at Giza and surrounded it with a trio of baby pyramids and three triangular reflecting pools with fountains. It was an ingenious way to avoid upstaging the Louvre.

No solid addition imaginable was capable of blending gracefully with the time-weathered old palace. But a translucent glass pyramid would defer to the heavy presence of the building by reflecting its tawny stone. It was an ancient form, much older than the Louvre, of course, but made of modern, high tech material. (There's a thought worth thinking about.)

In the flesh, it is a breathtaking success. It is nothing like the crass, flashy juxtaposition that most of France feared it would be. On the contrary, the pyramids are respectful and appropriate companions for the Louvre, matching its refinement perfectly.

It must have taken great courage for Pei to put up with the vituperation of the French while the project was being built. Now, the French love it. They have forgotten the extreme way they expressed their disapproval of Pei's ideas, and their horror at the anti-democratic way Pei was appointed to do the job.

“Someone has to take the big decisions on monuments,” said Emile Biasini, the resourceful man whom Mitterrand installed in his government as Minister of Grand Works. “Otherwise, it's like television. Let the public choose, and the level of programmes goes down.”

That's where we came in, isn't it? Our letter writer was as cool and as confident as Caesar in passing sentence on the television stations he didn't like. It has probably never occurred to him that there is a point of view other than his own.

Is that a bad thing? More to the point, am I wasting time with this circular nonsense, trying too hard to be polite? Okay, I'll be blunt. Don't listen to that turkey, Elmas, he hasn't got a clue.

gshorto@ibl.bm