Mixtecs and Irish

Irish castle; Mexican paint job

Yesterday I finished a very fun, modern retelling of Emma by one of my favorite authors, Scottish Alexander McCall Smith. I just sat in a recliner all afternoon  with a fuzzy blanket over my feet and my left hand stuck up in the air and immersed myself in Jane Austen. Sigh.

The reason I stayed in the recliner all afternoon with my hand up in the air is because in the morning I had gone in for my next hand surgery. I have figured out what the needles feel like. In Texas a few summers ago, I was stung by a scorpion hiding in a shirt I was picking up off the floor. We saw over a dozen scorpions in that house. They were everywhere. And that’s what the needles feel like. There were three of them. Stab. Stab. Stab. The surgeon kindly asked me if I was alright. What was I going to say? Yes. It’s absolutely no big deal to get stung by scorpions. Three times in a row. When you know it’s coming, and you have to hold out your hand.

So I was taking the afternoon off and immersing myself in Austen’s world, where Miss Taylor takes courses on Open University, and Harriet texts Martin to cancel their date. Mr. Knightly is still Mr. Knightly. The author mentions how people want to claim they are from Chipping Norton rather than plain old London. And I was just in Chipping Norton a few days ago, so I know exactly what he means. Chipping Norton is this quaint (and as my map labeled it, “historic and picturesque) town where post-modern people live inside pre-modern houses. My friend Alyson’s daughter goes to high school there and studies things like Philosophy, Ethics, and Religion. We had the coolest discussions around the dinner table about the probability of miracles and the relevance of Hegel. How many of your friends’ kids are willing to sit around and discuss philosophy and watch “Everything is Spiritual” with you when you come for a visit?

Which brings me to “So how was your get-away” in Ireland and England? Marianne asked me if it was everything I’d dreamed of, and Diana asked me if I really did sit around and read books there. Answer to both questions: a resounding yes. Vacations truly reflect your culture as a couple, and this get-away reflected ours.

We weren’t interested in packing in the sites and attractions, following hundreds of tourists from spot to spot. We were more interested in being in beautiful places, exploring the unknown, finding the unexpected, and getting the feel of the place, soaking it in. We started  from an AirBnB spot in Temple Bar, downtown Dublin, across the street from Dublin Castle. When we walked out our little alleyway, there it was. We ate lamb at carveries, where they piled on enough food for four meals, and at night we went to pubs to listen to live trad (traditional music). One night there were Irish dancers.

Our host took time as soon as we got in the door to explain some Irish history (this is the hundred year anniversary of the 1916 Easter uprising, which we saw re-enacted on St. Stephens Green). There are reminders of the uprising everywhere. One building overlooking the River Liffy has the Proclamation of the Republic written in large on the wall for everyone to see and remember. Our host mused that the lost county (Northern Ireland) might return to the Republic if Brexit forced borders between the two countries. Our host at the northern tip of  Ireland, who worked in Northern Ireland, said that would never happen. That was our lesson in Irish Politics. The Irish reminded me of the Mixtecs because both cultures have been overshadowed by more powerful, more dominant neighbors. Both are forging new identities that meld their own traditions with the influence of their former conquerors, but the conquerors don’t much notice.  

There’s more to tell, of course. The challenge is to weave the telling into what is happening now, a collage of times and cultures: a “getting-away” couple, who connects everything to Mixtecs, and tours Ireland, and returns to Canada, to Jane Austen and scorpion stings.