The Winner takes it all...even the insults!

“The real glory is being knocked to your knees and then coming back. That's real glory. Thats the essence of it.”

― Vince Lombardi

This week, I won. Yeh! I won tickets, through a radio station competition, for a Jack White gig this summer. As I’m a massive fan, clearly, I was lifted. That lift was weighed down somewhat, by the fact the radio producer, mistook me for an apparent ‘stalker’ type lady who has been harassing him for alt tickets. Wrong gig, Ed and wrong girl! Oh, but how we laughed!

So, maybe winning isn’t everything. Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or lose. It’s not the destination but the journey… blady, blady, blah blah.

So, this week, I am not winning but taking part in two major events, in Kerry. Listowel Writers Week will resume its’ beautiful assault on Listowel town from this Thursday. WW is fantastic. Not only a great socializing event, it houses storytellers, poets, drunks, craic, crafters and a couple of writers. I have been to see many great speakers such as Richard Dawkins, who intelligence far by-passed his audience but still managed to remain intriguing. Alain de Botton was witt, light and sharp as a tack. David Sedaris, won of my favourites was speaking in St John’s theatre sometime before or after the stage play Carnage. As the latest addition to Listowel, the Craftshop na Mear, will also be hosting events throughout the week. I will be there.

Killorglin is home to KFest, Munsters newest cultural fringe festival. This will be taking place over the weekend. As I’m a newbie, I don’t know what to expect. It looks like a whole lot of good so a win win situation.

So a busy week for all involved in these two gems. Long may they continue to transfuse rich culture and a bit of fun into rural Ireland.  

Fear & Trembling

“Bran thought about it. 'Can a man still be brave if he's afraid?'

'That is the only time a man can be brave,' his father told him.”

― George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones

What is it? The one thing that makes you quiver, wretch, draws pill sized goosepimples up on your skin, just at a thought or memory? There is the dreadful Spider family, the shimmering Heights at the top of a ladder or the slither of a cold hypodermic Needle into the arm. Ouch! My personal best is Agoraphobia which is defined in medical terms as: “The fear of situations in which escape is difficult.” I prefer this to a fear of going outside as I regulary go outside and find I have no fear at all. In fact, I quite enjoy the experience of engaging in a varying environments. The problem develops when I am unable to leave!

The dentist has particular control on creating this fear. Not only do you know you have to go, but when you get there, you can’t leave. A visit to the dentist is prolonged torture. The build up to what you can expect, the percieved sinister smile when you enter the surgery and their abiltiy to jam as many metal objects into your mouth as possible. While this is happening, they usually start up a lively converstion asking if you feel any pain! Please, take a snapshot....

The Far Side

Sometimes, I feel similar pain while working. The fear of facing my bank balance, the paper work my accountant insisted I should organise, the fear of the unknown each time I lift the needles and begin. What should emerge, what will emerge. A little bit of magic...here’s hoping. Working creatively is liberating, captivating but also incarcerating. You are confined and let loose at the same time. It makes the journey all the sweeter and more enjoyable but like all sweets, that trip to the dentist will ensue!

Thankfully, the apprenhension of fear is all in your head. Stay sane, stay knitting...and stay hungry. Thanks Steve, for that one.