I guess the past IS prologue
While I was chatting on the phone last night, the wind outside was blowing quite dramatically. This morning, there is a plastic bag caught in the high branches of the tree outside my windows. Now, normally, I'd consider that an eyesore; and it is, essentially. However, my years as a world traveler seem to have given me a reference to almost anything that occurs in the present.
In the town of Killeigh (County Offaly) in central Ireland, where my Irish ancestors settled in the 1700s and 1800s and where a few of them, the ones who didn't emigrate to the U.S. or Australia, are buried, there is one of the Holy Wells one can find here and there all over the island. Next to this particular one, there is what is left of an ancient tree, and hanging from its branches are a large array of everything from baby shoes to plastic bags; this morning, the otherwise ugly plastic bag outside my window took me back to that well and my many fond and quiet memories of Killeigh.
Currently, I am fantasizing that some very wealthy friend or other benefactor will provide me with a first-class air ticket to Ireland for one last visit. If I somehow manage to get there, I will totter over to the well and inwardly express my gratitude for its giving me a reference point for this and other great recollections.
In the town of Killeigh (County Offaly) in central Ireland, where my Irish ancestors settled in the 1700s and 1800s and where a few of them, the ones who didn't emigrate to the U.S. or Australia, are buried, there is one of the Holy Wells one can find here and there all over the island. Next to this particular one, there is what is left of an ancient tree, and hanging from its branches are a large array of everything from baby shoes to plastic bags; this morning, the otherwise ugly plastic bag outside my window took me back to that well and my many fond and quiet memories of Killeigh.
Currently, I am fantasizing that some very wealthy friend or other benefactor will provide me with a first-class air ticket to Ireland for one last visit. If I somehow manage to get there, I will totter over to the well and inwardly express my gratitude for its giving me a reference point for this and other great recollections.