Hitting the archives...

Ok, it's really late so I'm just going to post one of my old travel journal entries once again. But a quick note on something that has been bugging me: Renee Zelwigger broke up with Damien Rice to marry Kenny Chesney. Wow. If you ever needed absolute proof that she doesn't have a brain in her head, that basically is it.

Anyway, more reflections on Ireland...

St. Stephen’s Green:
When we finally got to the hotel in Dublin that Monday we had maybe two hours before we needed to get together for dinner and the play. I was full of energy so I decided to take a walk around. My goal was to walk to St. Stephen’s Green for two reasons: 1) I really wanted to spend some time walking around the place and 2) if I could find the place then I could walk around Dublin by memory, if not I knew I was going to be lost beyond belief. I found it without having any real problems. Plus, it was maybe ten minutes from my hotel and it was a fifteen minute walk to the foot of Grafton Street.

The first thing I saw when I walked through the gates to the park was this statue of the three fates. There they were, the kindly ones, with the green patina forming over the figures as they held the string of human life in their hands. It is one of the neatest statues I have ever seen, especially if you have a understanding of what the figures represent. To compound my fascination with this statue is who donated it. It was a gift from the German government, to give thanks for the help of the Irish people in the aftermath of World War II. The fates being presented after the ravages of war. Every time I walked past this statue I just wondered on how many ways one can interpret this, if the fates would be kind or not, and if the hope is that the cord of life will be long.

The Green itself is like Grant Park just more enclosed and more beautiful. Wonderful open spaces and flowers and a wonderful feel of nature. One of the odd things about Ireland is the difference between rural Ireland and Urban Ireland. Since so much of Ireland is rural when driving around you really seem to be attached to nature. There are no skyscrapers, no urban sprawl, just rolling fields glowing green. The cities, on the other hand, are your standard mass of concrete built on a scale that was correct hundreds of years ago but seem out of place today. A place like St. Stephen’s Green is an oasis in the mist of an aged city. The streets have history, but there is a place beyond stone and concrete.

Like Grant Park, and all urban parks, it was filled to the brim with people. Mainly young, many in full make out mode. And I do mean full. Another one of those things that I have forgotten about, haven’t really encountered that in the years since college. For all I make of the fact that I notice details, I seem to ignore life every once in a while. These are the things that I take from this place, beauty and life. It is a wonderful peaceful place in a city that has been racked by struggle through most of its history. Plus, it is a place that now belongs to the people, where as before it was always locked and only the rich could enjoy it.