Rockabill

I spent some time today at Rockabill, a granite outcrop six kilometres off the north east coast of Skerries. It contains an unmanned lighthouse..... and 80% of Europe’s breeding Roseate Terns…. With a small craft warning in operation we pretty much had the place to ourselves and despite the noise it is a place of strange tranquility ….. and it gave me time to reflect on why I posted the poem Mid-Term Break, by the poet Seamus Heaney on the occasion of his death…. I love the written word and in the selected poem I chose I can visualize so much that it defies explanation for me in less than a full fifteen thousand word thesis. And he does it in 186 words (I counted) what I can only hope to do in a lifetime….. I have very little fear of anything and have a broken body to prove it….but the enduring strength in humanity leaves me upset.. Dick Hoyt and Rick Hoyt who compete in the Iron Man races in a case in point as is Juan Mann a man whose Free Hugs mission was to reach out and hug a stranger. Even films like Run, Fatboy, Run….. I love the overwhelming power of the individual who has the inner strength, irrespective of personal cost, to make a difference. I am glad I posted the poem on a social network site and was pleased at the response… I could plainly see I very much not alone in my thoughts on this poem and how it seems to seep into the psyche of the Celt. I can speak for no others….. I usually say and do things which can get me into trouble…but I never to purposely to hurt a friend…. I am human… I make mistakes…. I hope to continue to make mistakes….. In the words of the orator Edmund Burke “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing”….. I will not necessarily get it right but neither will I stand idly by….. and if my friends fail to see this then it is the unfortunate price I will have to pay……just saying….