The following is a direct steal from Indigo Ocean’s post yesterday on Blog Sisters.
I had something of an epiphany today when following a link from sysrick.com that led me to a post on Italian living.
You must read the article to be able to put this post into context, but it makes me realize that 1) America does not have a monopoly on escapism; and 2) it actually could get worse here without life on Earth coming to an end.
It could just get worse, and worse, and worse, for thousands of years. We could just stay in an ever more drunken stupor, with more alcohol and heroine and crystal meth, plus think of all the new drugs we will create to soothe an ever more despairing public. We will get TV that is even more flashy, more exciting and violent, with quick cuts that only require we be able to follow a thought for 1 second instead of 3. We could …
Oh, gee. Please people, let’s not. Let’s figure out a new way to combine the tribal wisdom of community and present-centerdness with an expanded modern appreciation for planning ahead. Let’s wed peace of mind with running water. Let’s balance individual freedom with collective responsibility and its cousin self-restraint. Having done this, let’s create a revolution without guilliotines in which the regal sovreigns of the invisible global wealth “nation” are finally removed from power and the will of we common people guides our destiny.
Well said!
Kalilily Time
Just an old lady talking to herself
It is the same in Ireland and England. I lived in Ireland for a year before moving to the UK, and I’ve been in Britain now for seven months. It is unbelievable the amount of alcohol that is consumed over here. Back home in Chicago, if I knew someone who got drunk every weekend I’d think they had problems. Here it is absolutely normal to do so, and people look at you strangely if you don’t want to do it. I don’t drink. I used to, but I’ve been clean of alcohol the entire time I’ve been living in Britain, so we don’t have many friends anymore.
One of the things I will always remember about Dublin is the amount of puke on the city streets. Everywhere you go, there are puddles of puke. It is horrible. It is also very hard to make a living in Dublin. Alan was working in a well-paid computer job that should have been able to support the both of us, but we ended up having to move far outside the city centre to shared accomodation because we could hardly make ends meet.
The Irish government is also very corrupt, but it was actually very easy for me to stay there. I wasn’t given a hard time at all, whereas it was a nightmare when Alan and I were trying to move back to the U.S. That’s why we’re in England now, because our plans to move back to the States didn’t work out, so we just chose a random place to live instead.
And Ireland also has this huge reputation for being a country filled with pleasant, friendly, hospitable people, a country filled with culture and art and everything. I don’t want to say anything about the Irish on the whole, because there were some lovely people there, but the ideas that people have about the country are mythologies. Many of my ancestors came from Ireland and I was very excited to see the place, but I will never EVER live there again.
We actually had an Italian housemate back in Dublin for a little while, and he didn’t want to leave Ireland and go back home. I’m not surprised, now that I’ve read that article.