December 7, 2008 – Sunday
FAMILY HERITAGE AN ROOTS…
Category: Life
In Moby Dick there is an amazing passage where the deck hand is lost at sea and in the vastness and eternity of it his mind snaps…as I remember he never spoke again, although he was rescued….
It seemed to me a symbol of the conquered America experience…..I studied American Literature at Warwick University, and lived in California for 5 years. I cannot presume to know much, but sometimes an outsider’s perspective captures something, a bit like Des Bishop the ‘Irish’ comedian who spent his first 15 years in America then got sent to Ireland to boarding school as a solution to his teenage rebellion…he now speaks fluent Gaelic and is hilarious in his perception of the psyche here…
It saddened me in California to see so many alienated, disenfranchised, voluntarily disconnected human beings. I’m not talking about down an outs, I’m talking amazing artists, musicians, thinkers an philosphers, who for whatever reason had detached from their families and roots. California…out west…San Francisco..the Bay Area…a houseboat I lived on to be precise…seemed to attract those searching for something…
And I used to think well that’s not me, I’m Irish, we are big into clans an family an roots an identity…an eventually I came home…to Ireland. To the bosom of the insane clan. To the dream of weddings an funerals an wakes an christenings an parties an Mass an family reunions…
20 years later I’m thinkin those guys floating around California had accepted something it took me this long to realise…sometimes we are all alone, all alone and ALL alone. I found what I was searching for in terms of life art an science (a joke phrase we had at University…we could either talk about life art an science or boys discos an make-up…) His name was an is Jesus. As for family…of course I love them..but I’m thinkin a little distance might be ok!!
Belated Happy Thanksgiving to all who found it not quite picture postcard perfect! To all who felt just a tad of tension…to all who felt unseen and unrecognised…
Psalm 45 says HEARKEN O DAUGHTER AND CONSIDER, AND INCLINE THINE EAR; FORGET ALSO THINE OWN PEOPLE, AND THY FATHER’S HOUSE….INSTEAD OF THY FATHERS SHALL BE THY CHILDREN, WHOM THOU MAYEST MAKE PRINCES IN ALL THE EARTH…
Must dash an collect one of my ‘princes’ from his weekend job riding ponies!