BEYOND EXPECTATIONS

          "When you have nothing more to say, just drive 
       for a day around the peninsula.
       The sky is tall as over a runway,
       The land without marks, so you will not arrive."
                   Seamus Heaney from The Peninsula    

      If it was only the land and sea, Ireland would provide this globe with a bounty of lyrical word and prose and a beauty beyond beauty. But the soul of those words and the guardians of the beauty are a people, unique perhaps, but certainly abundant of wit, spirit, explorers of the heart and resolutely independent.  

    It was our good fortune to see the Irish Republic with Irish friends, Kay, Willie, Kay and Jack.

     An almost constant companion was beauty and personality. 

     The presence of history and scenic nature are powerful, but this is a nation of a great people, sociable people. 

    Wit is a near constant companion. Consider the scene below...

    Glendalough in County Wicklow is a beautiful setting and the location of an ancient abbey, the home of a venerated Saint, Kevin. 
    Kevin was a pious man and lived as a hermit, shunning social contact, especially women. 
    While he is a canonized Saint and held with regard, there is a popular cultural remembrance of him as well. It is a tale  about drowning a woman who tempted him. 
     In a Song by the Dubliners are the lines

       "One evening he landed a trout, sir
         He landed a big trout.
         When young Kathleen from over the way
         Came to see what the old monk was about...
         
         fol di do fol di do day

         "Well get out o me way, said the Saint
          For I am a man of great piety
          and me good manners I wouldn't taint
          not be mixing with female society."

           fol di do fol di do day

           Oh but Kitty she wouldn't give in
           And when he got home to his rockery
          He found she was seated therein
          A-polishin' up his old crockery

           fol di do fol di do day

           Well he gave the poor creature a shake
           And I wish that the Garda had caught him!
           For he threw her right into the lake
           And, be Jaysus, she sank to the bottom

    A closer look at Ireland is onboard in coming posts.

     There is an Irish castle in the charming County Meath village of Trim, and chances are you have seen it, on the big screen, but not "where" you might expect. 

       We'll see how the land of writers celebrates the word and the wordsmiths. 

        There is an Irish social current I wish US citizens could take upon themselves. I can only assume it is born of a desire for Independence, not unlike that of our ancestors 245 years ago.
      Ireland declared their independence from the United Kingdom in 1919, following the Easter Uprising of 1916. There was struggle and bloodshed. Today the Republic is a place of pride and the history is close of mind. And in the North, there are still troubles.

            "And drive back home, still with nothing to say

        Except that now you will uncode all landscapes

        By this: things founded clean on their own shapes,

        Water and ground in their extremity."

                             Seamus Heaney

         

        Come along for an Irish journey.

        See you down the trail.

TRULY INDEPENDENT

HOW DO YOU DEFINE RADICAL

   Today's sentiment was launched by thoughtful observations of Jed Duvall and Stephen Hayes who authors the extraordinary blog The Chubby Chatterbox.

   You can read Jed's thoughts in the comments of yesterday's post on the Gettysburg anniversary observations.

    The Chatterbox, which is linked in the column on the right, got my wheels turning.

   This is always a day of melancholy. On the one hand it prompts a childhood sense of joy and delight. On the other it recalls true patriotism, devotion and sacrifice adjoined to how we modern Americans regard the day as little more than a reason to eat, drink, be merry and watch bombs that sparkle instead of those that have more lethal outcomes.

    After all is said, I come down on the thought that more than anything this is a day that should celebrate conviction and principle. John Adam's did not attend 4th of July celebrations, despite his contribution to our birth. He did not because he noted the Declaration was "declared" on July 2nd and he thought that should be the day of observation. The formal declaration was adopted on the 4th, but the actual separation from England occurred on the the 2nd.

The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more. You will think me transported with Enthusiasm but I am not. I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory. I can see that the End is more than worth all the Means. And that Posterity will tryumph in that Days Transaction, even altho We should rue it, which I trust in God We shall not. (The Book of Abigail and John: Selected Letters of the Adams Family, 1762-1784, Harvard University Press, 1975, 142).

That is an example of the American spirit. 

JULY 4TH REFERALS

If you have not seen the Gettysburg post

from yesterday,Here is an easy link 

And a true reprise-worth considering again-

A UNIQUELY AMERICAN DAY

Do your self a great favor today.

Take a couple of minutes to read

the Declaration of Independence by linking here.

Here's something to add to your conversation at a barbecue or party today.

Two of the framers and signers of the Declaration

John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, the second and third 

Presidents of the US, died on July 4th 1826, the 

50th Anniversary of the signing.

Both men had been ill.  Jefferson asked his doctor

"Is it the Fourth yet?"

"It soon will be," Robley Dunglison replied.

Later Jefferson awoke to say,

"I resign my spirit to God, my daughter to my country."

Adams was asked if he knew what day it was.

"Oh yes.  It is the glorious Fourth of July. It is a great day. It is a good day. God Bless it.  God Bless you all."

He lapsed into unconsciousness. Later he awoke and said

"Thomas Jefferson.  Thomas Jefferson survives."

Actually Jefferson had died a couple of hours earlier.

It remains an amazing coincidence that the two men, infirmed and dying  held on to life until the 50th Anniversary of perhaps America's greatest day.

Happy Independence Day!

See you down the trail.

INDEPENDENCE

A UNIQUELY AMERICAN DAY

Do your self a great favor today.
Take a couple of minutes to read
the Declaration of Independence by linking here.

Here's something to add to your conversation at a barbecue or party today.
Two of the framers and signers of the Declaration
John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, the second and third 
Presidents of the US, died on July 4th 1826, the 
50th Anniversary of the signing.
Both men had been ill.  Jefferson asked his doctor
"Is it the Fourth yet?"
"It soon will be," Robley Dunglison replied.
Later Jefferson awoke to say,
"I resign my spirit to God, my daughter to my country."
Adams was asked if he knew what day it was.
"Oh yes.  It is the glorious Fourth of July. It is a great day. It is a good day. God Bless it.  God Bless you all."
He lapsed into unconsciousness. Later he awoke and said
"Thomas Jefferson.  Thomas Jefferson survives."
Actually Jefferson had died a couple of hours earlier.
It remains an amazing coincidence that the two men, infirmed and dying  held on to life until the 50th Anniversary 
of perhaps America's greatest day.
Happy Independence Day!
See you down the trail.