ELIXIR

I've been reading James Lee Burke.   What a writer!   I feel jealous every time I read him.   But I'm not here to critique him, I want to quote him.   No better man for the arresting insight but, this one knocked me for six.   It's from his novel RAIN GODS.

• "Theologians claimed that anger was a cancer and that hatred was one of the seven deadly sins......   They were wrong.... anger was an elexir that cauterized sorrow and passivity and victimhood from the metabolism; it lit fires in the belly; it provided you with that deadening of the conscience that allowed you to lock down on someone with iron sights and forget that he descended from the same tree in a Mesopotamian savannah that you did." 

Is that an insight or what?   Anger as an elixir.   Especially righteous anger.   Especially victim anger.   Doesn't it feel soooooooo good?   So much better that that dreepy old, weepy old, soul-sucking sorrow.   It makes you want to get up and do things, be in charge.

But then comes the deadening of conscience.   That brings us to the bomb on the bus, the bullet in a neighbour's head, the daughter gang-raped, the tyre necklace, the gas chamber, the trench filled with quicklime. 

Surely there's somewhere in between?   Some border we don't have to cross?   Can we use the fire in the belly for good?   Can we still keep our conscience alive?  

GOK WAN IS A WALKING SAINT

Gok Wan is a walking saint.   Put him up there with Nelson Mandela.    I can hear the superior sneers coming from people who have either never watched him or do not understand what he's doing.   They think that he's just about fashion and sparkly handbags.

Soooooooooo wrong.

He's all about lovin the skin that you're in and if you think that's irrelevant then you know nothing about how most women see themselves.   And even less about how the media and the fashion industry terrorize women.  Nor how women terrorize each other.

Take me for example.   I'm big.   I'm not gigantic,   I'm not overweight.    I eat healthily, I exercise regularly but I still need to buy extra large clothes.   I find it difficult  find gloves, shoes, hats, bracelets or rings in my size.   When I need an outfit for that special occasion I have to start looking several months in advance to ensure that I get something that isn't black or navy or grey and  shaped like something the circus puts up in a field outside the town.   But the problem of finding flattering clothes in my size is as nothing compared with the attitudes that big women have to deal with.

If, in the course of a conversation, I mention the fact that I'm big, other women rush to assure me that I'm not fat, that I'm attractive really and they implore me to stop putting myself down!    Hang on a moment.   I didn't say I was ugly.   I didn't say I was overwweight.   I'm not putting myself down.  I'm merely stating a fact.  I am big.   But clearly for most women the word "big" is just too hideous an idea to contemplate.

And then there's the shopping itself.   Many assistants are delightful but there is a leathel breed that waits till you're in your underwear, trapped in a dressingroom with three mirrors and a harsh light.
"Why don't you go on a diet?" they coo.
"Have you  thought of "proper" foundation garments?"
"Would you not think of taking up jogging?"
"Someone your size can not wear a dress!"
"You should try black, it's kinder to the fuller figure"
I've been listening to those kind of comments since I was fourteen.   It grinds you down.   Besides, standing in your underwear  is not conducive to being assertive.
"I'm not exactly an elephant," I once snapped to one of these harridens.
She smiled pityingly.
"Not quite." she replied.
Ouch!
But my favourite of all was the assistant who looked me up and down when I asked for my size and replied without batting an eyelid,
"People of your size can't afford our clothes!"
Nowadays I smile sweetly and tell them that I've just lost four stone.   That shuts them up.

Which brings me back to Gok Wan.   He dismisses the diets and dictates of fashion and shows people how best to dress for the body they have.     He points out their good features, shows them how to flatter their shape, how to choose colours that enhance, necklines that suit , hemlines and trousers that make the most of their legs.   He dismisses the size on the label and attends to the fit.   And when he's finished the people are transformed.   Their confidence rises and they feel good about themselves.    Surely that alone is enough to canonize Gok because, when people feel good they are nicer to others, they work more effectively and they make the world a better place.

ALL THAT GLISTERS

I'm in stunned mullet mode. The non-stop radio and tv discussion of the State of the Nation is turning my brain into polystyrene!   Let's talk about glitter.

My motto is "All that glisters may not be gold but who cares?   Just as long as it glisters."   For this reason I've been a great fan of "Strictly Come Dancing".   Any programme with that many sequins has to be good.   For Christmas, my own personal Santa gave me tickets to see the live show in the O2.   I would never have considered buying them myself.    As far as I am concerned what happens on the box stays in the box but, hey, I wasn't going to throw them back in his face.

Now I know that there are people out there, curling their lip with distain as they read this.   People who think that programmes like "Strictly" are too far beneath them to even mention.   People who despise "popular " entertainment because it is "mere" entertainment, bread and circuses for the ignorant masses .   People who believe that, if you have more than two brain cells to rub together, you should only engage with Literature, Theatre, Opera, Ballet, Classical Music, and the artistic pursuits best suited to people of refinement and education.

What a lot of old cobblers!

Why not enjoy both?

What exactly is wrong with enjoying both Strictly and Coppelia?   Don Giovanni and Tinie Tempah?   Stephen King and Dostoyevsky?   For me the criteria are simple.   Does it do what it set out to do?   How well does it do it?    And if the answer is:   "Yes, it does what it set out to do." and  "It does it superbly well". then I'm in.   Quality is quality whether it is mere entertainment or Art.

Yes, yes. I know - there's some hideously bad mass entertainment out there but, let's face it, there's some hideously bad stuff masquerading as Art as well.

Now that that 's off my chest, back to the "Strictly" live show.    Was it great Art?   No.  Was it great entertainment?   Yes, yes and yes  again.    There were enough sequins to satisfy my innermost Diva.   There was cheering and booing and laughter and voting, just like on the tele, and some fabulous dancing as well.   Even my personal Santa, who has no time for "Strictly" on tele, enjoyed it.   He went  in to the O2 out of duty, prepared to suffer for my sake and came out with a huge, happy grin on his face.   

That's the thing about good entertainment.   It may not reflect on the meaning of life, the state of the world, nor the morality of venture capitalism but, it does lift the spirit.   It gives your mind a break from the everyday world, a mini mental holiday.   A mini holiday that makes you better able to deal with the world and, if the big questions are your thing, better able to address them.

ALL CHANGED, ALL CHANGED UTTERLY

We have grown up.   It won’t stop us making mistakes in the future but the Tiger years have indeed change the Irish nation.

We gained confidence.  

We now know that we can excel.   And not just at home, we can excel on a world stage.

Our population is well educated.

That gives us options and choices.   It increases our range of skills and makes us more employable and more desirable as employees.

We speak English.

We may grumble that this is the language imposed on us by the Sasanach but we cannot deny that it's handy to have.    The fact that it is the lingua franca of international commerce gives us an edge in the world market.

We’re starting to take responsiblity for ourselves. 

We've at last stopped blaming the "seven hundred years of slavery" for all our shortcomings.   Listen to radio and you'll hear about the projects local communities are setting up to help themselves through this recession.

We’re more entrepreneurial than ever.

Our new found confidence means that we are more willing to take risks and try new ideas.

We’ve  have travelled the world.

That has broadened our views and shown us that, compared to much of the globe, we are very well off.

We have started to demand responsibility and accountability.

We are demanding it of ourselves, of business, trade, the churches, the professions and  our politicians.      And about time too.

We have a great sense of humour.

This means that  we can laugh at ourselves, we can laugh at the world and we can make the world laugh at us and itself.   An essential attribute during a recession.

Most important of all - we’ve stopped kow-towing to authority.

Another advantage of our new confidence is that we can look authority in the eye, ask the hard questions and demand the answers.

None of this will prevent us from making mistakes but it will stand to us nevertheless..

THE COUNTRY GROWS UP

The Irish have been like adolescents, so busy partying that we’ve only just realised that our parents are fallible, that not everything our teachers told us was true, that politicians are duplicitous and Life is not as simple as we thought.

When we set up our little Republic in the 1920’s we were innocents. We believed in Santa Claus, the Catholic Church, Bankers, Doctors, Layers, Teachers and, in spite of the fact that they slaughtered each other as well, we still believed in the Men who Fought For Our Freedom... but hush now, don’t mention the Civil War.

We believed that Church and State were a marriage made in Heaven and that they should definitely be in bed together. And when that marriage gave birth to the Constitution, we were thrilled. We prided ourselves on our National Independence and our Faith in the Catholic Church.
But, whenever we challenged authority, religious or lay, they slapped us down like bold children. And we acted like school-children confronted with a sadistic teacher. We did as we were told, bowed the head and said nothing or we ran way from home to England, America and Australia.

Then we got education, money and rock bands. We started to win things. We got into the quarter finals of the World Cup. Foreigners started to tell us that we were clever and funny. We became cocky teens. We partied,drank,snorted and had guilt-free sex. We travelled the world, wore designer clothes, arranged fabulous weddings. We were all for the craic and the craic it was mighty.

Then we came down with a bang. The Church let us down, the Law let us down, the Medical profession let us down, Bankers destroyed us and laughed in our faces,our politicians screwed us to the wall and blamed it all on the world economy.

Now the party’s over. Now we’re demanding accountability, responsibility, equality. In other words, we’ve grown up.