November 22, 2022
Reflection
BOOKS I BOUGHT
AND NEVER READ
There are books I bought and never read.
I spot them at times on my book shelves.
The book looked good at the time.
November 22, 2022
Tuesday - Thought for Today
"Snow was general all over Ireland. It was falling on every part of the dark central plain, on the treeless hills, falling softly upon the Bog of Allen and, father westward, softly falling into the dark multinous Shannon waves. It was falling, too, upon every part of the lonely churchyard on the hill where Michael Furey lay buried. It lay thickly drifted on the crooked crosses and headstones, on the spears of the little gate, on the barren thorns. His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead.
James Joyce [1882-1941]
Dubliners, The Dead
November 19, 2022
Reflection``
IRELAND
I'm about to take a trip to Ireland.
For starters - here we're sitting on the tarmac tonight. Aer Lingus - the take off - talking - reading - sleeping - waking up in the morning - to see the green - fields down there - out our airbus windows.
Ireland....
Coming home to the place where I could have been born - if mom and dad stayed there - married there - like their brother and sister did - over there.
If they stayed there, would there be a me?
Life. Mystery. Where we come from. Where we are. How we got to be who and where we are from.
Ah sweet mystery of life ....
We're here....
First: the bus ride - looking out the windows - with American eyes - inner sights as well - and the questions - the what if's, the what might have beens ....
Are there answers to what if's - other than the movie, "It's a Wonderful Life."
Are their poems other than,"Two roads diverged in a yellow wood...."? No one can take both roads.
Am I asking everybody''s questions? Does everyone wonder about roads - the roads I took and the different roads I never took.
I'm sure these questions are louder and clearer after the death of loved ones - or divorce from broken ones.
Is this the origen of the word, "Interesting" - when it is said long and slow and has a pondering overtone.
Ireland - I'm saying to myself - if I was born here - I'd be speaking Gaelic. If born here[ would I have become a priest? If born here, would I be the youngest or would I even be?
I'll find answers to some of my questions as I go down different roads - especially the roads of Galway.
Ooops! I still need to unpack so much.