Never have books been more important.........

So. A week down – many more to go. We’re getting used to the new ‘normal’, we actually all quite like each other in my house, respectful of privacy whilst mindful of others need for human contact – just not through touch!

I drove to Maynooth to bring some books and toys to my gorgeous stepgrandaughter*1 yesterday. I dropped them in the porch and stood back at the gate. When she came to the door she  automatically started to run towards me. I put up my hand. ‘Stop.’ She did. ‘ I love you, nothing would give me greater pleasure than to hug your little body right now. But I can’t.’ So I stood their and mimed a deep deep hug. ‘Did you feel it?’ I asked. ‘Yes!’ she jumped up and down and sent me a hug back. I can’t fly to Seattle to do the same for stepgrandson*1, but I so wish I could.  They were home at Christmas and that will have to do for now.

Never has the world been better prepared to practice personal distancing. The Internet and various social media apps mean we can chat and see each other. I know this was at the expense of handing over all our data to the moguls. But right now it feels worth it.  They may think they know everything about me from what I watch or listen to or read or how and where I shop, but they don’t. As all humans know one can never really know another, we like to think we know our loved ones but even they can surprise, sometimes shock, us from time to time. Sometimes one wonders if we even really know ‘self’.

I smiled when I heard in a vox pop on radio yesterday - 'books aren't an essential service'. OH YES THEY ARE! Socrates said that the unconsidered life is not worth living. As the phrase suggest the ‘considered life’ is a life enriched by thinking about things that matter – values, aims, society, the characteristics of the human condition, desires – both personal and public, the enemies of human flourishing and the meanings of life.

Writers spend most of their time doing all of the above. Fiction writers in the creation of their characters – find a character your reader can empathise with and you have found a loyal reader. Writers of non-fiction show us those who have been moulded by the accidents of birth, DNA, and by circumstance both familial and societal. Never have writers been more important. Never have books been more important. Find writers you like – read widely. I promise it will enrich your life.

 Buy books for those you love that you feel they will like. Books are like any other Art form – what’s one person’s ‘best read ever’ is another’s ‘so-so’. I didn’t go to college and didn’t come from a reading household. There was no money for books. But my parents guided me towards the public library system aged seven – and so I began. I never had anything to guide my reading but still managed to find some wonderful, wonderful books that have stayed with me. These are books I return to again and again – mainly to recapture that frisson of ‘oh! the writer knows – they understand me.’ There are so many books out there - you'll definitely find one that suits and if the one you picked up is only so so to you then don't worry. I’m a reader – I know the next best book ever is just around the corner, for each and every one of us.

If you are book buying at the moment try to order from your local bookshop. Many of them are online and willing to get your beloved book to you. My personal favourites are Bob in  https://gutterbookshop.com/ in Temple Bar Dublin and Des Kenny of https://www.kennys.ie/.

Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of the ....

Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of the party

I must have typed the sentence above thousands of times in 1979 as I learned to touch type. I never thought much about it. Apparently it, and ‘the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog’ exercised particular fingers to build up speed on a qwerty keyboard. No sentence resonates with me more in these scary times. I’d substitute country or world for party though.

I live in Swords, Fingal, North County Dublin. I have a feeling we may see a cluster of Covid19 cases in this area. Many of those living in Fingal work in Dublin Airport, through which the virus probably travelled over the last fortnight. If this occurs no administrative area is better to live in to practice social distancing whilst maintaining your sanity. We are blessed with an abundance of beautiful regional parks - Ardgillan Castle and Demesne in Balbriggan, Newbridge House and Demesne in Donabate  Malahide Castle and Demesne. We have fabulous beaches – Donabate, Rush, Skerries, Rush, Malahide, Loughshinney. Lots of places to go for a daily walk, where children can run free whilst staying away from older people.

Today I kitted out my writing shed as an isolation unit if any of us need to self isolate. It’s perfect, I bought an inflatable single mattress and a portable loo so any of us can cocoon ourselves away from others for the required period. Perhaps entering the house when no one else is there to shower and empty the portaloo. My shed is full of books, notebooks, cds, a radio. Internet connectivity can be intermittent but that’s no bad thing. I may even do some writing! I am so looking forward to reading all the wonderful books that will be written over the next few months. Literary agents and publishers are going to be swamped with new content next year.

My family have been lucky in some ways. Son*1 (25) SMASHED his left leg on January 3^rd and has been effectively quarantined at home since then. His gorgeous girlfriend has only left his side to go to work, they were due to go to Edinburgh in January to start their adult life together. It seemed like a disaster at the time and we were all dreading confinement together. We have two living type rooms in our house. They use one, we the other. My kitchen is tiny but we take turns at cooking. The Jemser and I are retired from admin jobs for years. We are two months further down the road of being in the company of family on a long term basis than others.

 And it's working

 The younger adults have started to bake – son’s brown bread with cheese and rosemary is to die for. His fruit soda is sinfully moreish. Her Mac n' Cheese is delicious.  They’ve started painting, writing, learning and creating new songs. We’re looking at turning part of our garage into a potters area as the girlfriend has pottery in her blood. Son*2 is in college and when he has been home he is mostly up in his room (nothing new!). He’ll miss his girlfriend but they are both being sensible -staying in contact via technology. As the weather gets warmer we can open up the windows and he can play piano for our neighbours. My lovely Clann Cunningham are so musical,  both in creating content and interpreting others' work. I think the next few months will see many people exploring their creative side, slow things they never thought they had time to do.

I’ll miss stepdaughters*1 and *2 of course. And our grandchildren. But I went for a virtual walk with  stepdaughter*2 in Maynooth the other day. With WhatsApp video we chatted as she pointed the camera at Caralicious cycling her bike WITHOUT STABILISERS (yay) up the quiet road of their estate in Maynooth. Later I played Hide and seek with the Corminator aged almost 3 in Seattle. I counted, he hid and jumped out with a ‘BOO’ as soon as I stopped counting. Then we played ‘don’t wake Nanny up’. He delights in roaring as I snore and I overreact and jump awake. Then he showed me all his trucks. We were supposed to visit them in May for his birthday. I doubt it’ll happen now. But this WILL end and we will get there later.

As long as the Internet doesn’t get Covid-19 and collapse EVERYTHING WILL BE OK!

I drove to Skerries for my walk today and observed excellent social distancing on the beach. I got a stick and wrote in the sand as large as I could -

Kids

Our SuperHeroes

WWWashYourHands

I badly-drew a big heart around it and asked any kids I passed on way back to car to go and decorate it with stick drawing or shells – and to please fix my heart! To the tune of ‘Baby Shark’ I sang and danced for them

‘Wash your hands

Do do deh do deh do

Wash your hands

Do do deh etc

Wash Your Hands

                                                             Glan do Laimh                                       (fada yerself!)

Do do deh do deh do

Glan do Laimh

Do do etc

Glan do Laimth

Lavos Manos

Do do deh do deh do’

Etc etc etc in whatever language you like

I made them smile, so did their parents.

I felt good.

Look after each other and be kind.

Get Calm - then carry on

Where on Earth do I start?

What can I write that is not being written by others more informed, better read? The finest minds on the planet are now engaged in a battle against an invisible enemy that threatens everyone. The flaws in nationalist, populist and insular policies shown. The flaws in globalism are also revealed. The rise in loss of bio-diversity and increases in climate change which, experts have been patiently explaining for years, is giving rise to super viruses crossing species and pandemics like Covid19 is a clamouring alarm call to us all.

Those of us in the ‘first world’ have been consuming ourselves to death for over fifty years. The fruits of that consumption have fallen from the tree and lie rotting. It will be the poorest and most vulnerable (as always) who will foot the bill with their lives and their health. A couple of months of social distancing, hand washing and self-isolation for the rest of us seems little enough to contribute whilst the experts engage in saving lives, developing vaccines, and discussing policies to change the way we live.

Ireland is a small country. We’re a close people. Most families will be touched, in some way, by worry and  grief over the coming months. Countries with poor public health systems – like the richest country in the world – are going to suffer most. I turned off all radio and social media earlier this week as people bleated about economies tanking. It’s only money lads. Most of it isn’t even real – just marks on a page, ridiculous numbers that mean nothing to most of us. Economies can be rebuilt. We cannot bring people back from the dead.

People, and our relationship with the ecosystem we live in is the only thing that matters now. We MUST change the way we live or - like dinosaurs, face extinction.

I’ll blog something cheerier later. I feel much better with that off my chest!

Get calm – then carry on