Ambiguity Has Value Until You Want to Pin Down ‘The’ Truth - Part 1.

Poetic license is important.

Why let the truth get in the way of good story? This catholic world viewpoint can drive a protestant soul mad. Protestant souls are more Yorkshire minded – a spade is a spade, or it is not.

Gerry Adams was not a member of the IRA. Yet, if he was not a member he wouldn’t have had the necessary standing to be able to negotiate the Northern Irish Peace Process.

The Regulator ‘can’t recall' a lot about what he was regulating when Anglo Irish bank Directors discussed with his Office a deal that would prevent the Irish banking system from collapse. If the Irish banks had collapsed the ripple effect would almost certainly have had many banks in other parts of the world follow suit. I still await and wonder about a further possible truth emerging that not only the Irish Central Bank but the European – and maybe American – Central Authorities were blinding their eyes facing in this direction too and acting in accord. It worked for everyone (on one level), except those who want to bring to account those responsible.

It’s tempting to leave it there - at the border that has us turn our own eyes and ears away.
But let’s persevere. Would we rather the Regulator, or the Central Bank who really held the reins, had stuck to the letter of the law, disallowed a ‘technically’ (I imagine this might have been a word used to describe it in the circumstances) illegal loan to friends, and favoured clients, of the bank for the greater good of saving the system? If the Regulator had not happened to be looking the other way at the time and the loan was not allowed and the banking system collapsed would we then be bitter about slavish attention to following the rule book when wriggle room was required? Or, would we prefer they had stuck to the regulations, allowed the system collapse – or at least, by facing up to the crisis in a different way, have saved only part of it. For example, the deposits of ordinary punters. But then, how do you distinguish between ‘ordinary punters’ and the ‘commercial’? And, wasn’t it the ‘commercial punters’ who went out on a limb, took risks to employ people and to build the Celtic Tiger Ireland that we like to thrash now while still wanting to retain the benefits of infrastructure, coffee shops and the higher standard of living that, despite all, lies in its wake? Having done this for the country, why do we want to make these the particular fall guys?

Would we prefer Gerry Adams had always told us clearly that he was a valued member of the IRA and had the Unionists and others continue to refuse to negotiate a Peace while he was anywhere near the process? Can we give the loyalists credit for being absolutely sure in their heart of hearts he was in the IRA but being willing to fudge it for the greater good of saving lives if a Peace Accord could be agreed (and, remember these were protestant souls for whom this kind of ambiguity is much more difficult!). Of course if Gerry Adams wants the past left behind, then he and his party must put to rest the parts they still want to accuse the British Government and loyalists for also. Negotiating this territory is the business of continuing to build peace in Northern Ireland. It is naïve and dangerous for those in the South to pretend that there is no need for us to accept the ambiguities underlying the Peace our government struggled to assist.

These are the grown up questions most of us, let’s face it, don’t want to have to decide. We’d prefer to have our elders decide them for us and blame them when things go wrong. You can argue they were/are the ones whose job it is to know. But when it comes to deciding these quandaries and weighing up the obvious legal and correct way against what appears to be (and may or may not be) for the greater good then any one of us has to face that decision on our own. You have to choose the ground you’re going to stand on and take the consequences. Those are the moments you discover who you are.

Ireland to Lead the Way in Developing Inclusive Religious Education - A Target

 With Ireland’s missionary history and the resultant diaspora, Ireland’s education system should develop an inclusive religious vision to support the development of peaceful structures for a global future. Karen Armstrong won the 2008 prize for her talk to TED. She proposed an international Charter, to be compiled by representatives of all the major world religions in conjunction with the United Nations, based on The Golden Rule, that you do onto others as you would like done to you or, at least, do not treat others as you would not wish to be treated yourself. ‘Every single religion’ believes in this core rule, espoused by Confucius well before Christ.

The TED prize led to the birth of the Charter for Compassion. Those who do not believe in a particular religion, or religion at all, would be inclined to agree with its principle. Atheists, too, agree on compassion and basic goodness, they just don’t believe religion is a necessary component. No-one who thinks seriously about religion – either for or against – is against what has come to be described as this basic rule. Cities in many countries are signing up to the global Charter.

Within that context the value of different religious perspectives can be explored and understood, including atheism and agnosticism. Surely that is the kind of inclusive religious understanding it would be good to teach our children!

You can watch Karen Armstrong's prize-winning speech here. (It's worth watching whatever your views.) 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=8idmgp4icq4‎

‘We are living in world where religion has been hijacked… A lot of religious people prefer to be right rather than compassionate… it is time to move beyond toleration to appreciation’ Armstrong at TED.

In the context of diversity, there need be little problem with children learning the practices and perspective of particular religious creeds. I recall international conferences where teachers of Eastern religions, popular with the Westerners turning to them, kept insisting that ‘this is in your own religion too, you should develop your practice there’.  Learning more particular practice could be partially done in the classroom – everyone’s religious practice should be of interest to everyone else so as to fully understand it – and the final part could be undertaken (such as preparations for First Communions) in their own particular religious establishments.

Mindfulness meditation, based on research findings about its benefits, is now taught by psychologists and others who have been trained to teach it, for wellbeing and good mental health alone. It may have come from Buddhism but the process is essentially similar to the more mystical practices of Christianity such as ‘centring prayer’. Those who argue for a more activist, justice based, faith can have no problem with discussion about justice issues and the questions activism raise. Considerations about to how to make the world a better place are relevant to everyone in education. The perspectives of different religions on the theme are relevant.

There need be no problem in developing an inclusive and inspiring religious education system. It might well be a system that would prepare students far more effectively in learning to live in faith – religious or otherwise. It could be somewhere for Ireland to lead, as the missionaries did with earlier understandings.  

Poohsticks get me back on Verse after overdose of Tweets. Notes from an Apprentice Verse-Maker (2)

Twitter – part of an apprenticeship in writing poems.

I’ve become a Twitterbug!  Made it: through nine years of work-shopping a poem a week; two Collections published;  a small nod from officialdom in terms of winning an invitation to read for Poetry Ireland; the odd publication in a journal – detour of winning a prize on radio and hearing a poem set to music (mega fun) - and reading at the odd festival. Now it seems overdue to focus on how to make a possible readership aware of the glories awaiting them between my covers. In other words, I’m buying into something I’ve known all along, publishers present - and in future – want authors who will sell books.

Learning Social Media to introduce verse and prose.

I’m not great at writing begging letters for invitations to read (you don’t know what you’re missing, I’d be delighted to receive an invitation from you) and anyway that wouldn’t be obvious to publishers unless they get results. I’m a bit lost on Facebook, they keep changing rules I can’t keep up with. Given a hand to set up a blog and twitter account, I set off and I’m hooked! Moi – who hates everything IT! Now, I’ve taken a computer on holiday for the first time ever. I’m writing Tweets watching TV. My old self, luckily demolished (see Fear Knot – published by Doire please note!) is turning over in her mummified grave. I’ve discovered the adrenalin rush – or is it testosterone, given research on how power poses, affect testosterone and cortisol levels (see TED talk on topic) – possible when a Tweet is’ favourited’ or re-tweeted. I’m oiling up my community support gears. Enjoying the challenge of discovering how to apply what I previously learned about supporting and joining community to this medium. Highlights of the last week involved getting over the ‘50 Followers’ hump and Poetry Ireland re-tweeting my notice that Skylight 47 has a submission deadline of 1^st April, thus bringing it to the attention of a much greater ‘target audience’.

Scary Success at Starting Something New.

I know I’ve made it when my daughter notes I have so many Tweets. Maybe I’m over tweeting! Somewhere I’ve ticked a box that has my Facebook page full of tweets. It’s scary. And I launched my second ‘public profile’ photograph – even more frightening (with a bit of preening when people ‘like’ it), who is this woman?

Restored to Verse-Making – Poohsticks* at Belvedere House on Mothers’ Day.

I wake up on Monday morning wondering have I ceased being in line to write verse altogether. I reflect on yesterday – Mother’s Day. I was blessed to meet family at Belvedere House, Mullingar. Seeing my grandson engrossed in following his twigs along an accessible stream while we waited, reminded me to initiate my grand-daughter (who has just got started on the walking) into the joys of Poohsticks too. She had just added ‘lake’ to her short vocabulary – probably any patch of water for now, but she will learn to distinguish further. Those Poohsticks, meandering along the stream, are mesmerising. The pleasures of dropping twigs on one side of a bridge and rushing to the other side to see them come through or lamenting their imprisonment - in mud or log-jammed amidst others underneath the bridge, hotly disputed debates about whose stick it is that is winning, memories of Winnie the Pooh, Christopher Robin and the knowledge we’re participating in a ritual begun several generations past. All of this is a necessary respite from Twittering. Listening to birds – in full song at Belvedere House at the end of March - and the legacy of  A.A. Milne restores me. Maybe I could try writing a poem again.

*The little book of Poohsticks, Rules and Tactics, stuck in to The Enchanted World of Winnie-the-Pooh, Published by Dutton , gives:

 ‘Introsticktion/ The very first game of Poohsticks was played by by Pooh by himself. // One morning he was crossing abridge on the edge of the Foreset, when he tripped and dropped a fir-cone into the water.//Pooh noticed a curious thing: he had dropped the fir-cone on one side of the bridge, but it came out on the other. A second fir-cone did the same. Then he tried dropping in two at once and guessing which would come out first.//And so the game of Poohsticks was born.’

This is a gorgeous book of introduction to the world of Pooh and friends, author  A.A. Milne & E.H.Shepard (illustrations).

You can discover the possibilities of Belvedere House at http://www.belvedere-house.ie/

Move Your Hand Across Paper - Notes From an Apprentice Poet

I've been walking about for a week,wondering how to get started on my next piece for writing.ie. I can’t get started. Then I remember Natalie Goldberg’s  The Rules of Writing Practice. Rule 1: Move your hand across paper. That’s how I recall it. The actual first rule is ‘Keep your hand moving’. In a gleeful first chapter to Wild Mind  (Rider imprint from Random House), and a follow on to Writing Down the Bones, she discovers her rules apply to sex too!

I set the oven timer to 10 minutes, sit down at the computer and type without ceasing – anything that comes to mind. After ten minutes I am surprised to find I have a draft for a third of the column. I am always surprised when things I should know work actually produce the goods! With a mental ‘thank-you’ to Natalie Goldberg, I set the timer again and return to the key board. A few hours later – allow extra for the breaks I took to gain perspective - of writing, but mostly editing I an able to submit Having a Laugh with Poetry to Vanessa O’Loughlin. Maybe it will suit, or maybe I’ll have to go again. But now I’m walking around having regained confidence in being able to find a way in.

I suspect I’ll be bringing you more about Goldberg’s Rules in future.

See http://nataliegoldberg.com/  She has a new edition of her book about art and colour coming

 http://nataliegoldberg.com/wp-content/themes/thesis_184/custom-8/images/natalie-goldberg-2013.jpg

More at:

http://whisperdownthewritealley.wordpress.com/2011/10/25/natalie-goldbergs-rules-for-writing-practice/ 

http://www.amazon.com/Writing-Down-Bones-Freeing-Edition/dp/1590302613

1.   Writing Down the Bones - Shambhala Publications

www.shambhala.com/writing-down-the-bones-1.html‎

o     

For more than twenty years Natalie Goldberg has been challenging and cheering onwriters with her books and workshops. In her groundbreaking first book, she ...

Ripples in the Fabric of Spacetime - link

'... ripples in the fabric of spacetime'.

Lichen clusters on bare branches like bog cotton

'Up the airy mountain/Down the rushy glen' I quote childhood lines of memory on the board walk, amidst bare heather branches and lots of wet moss just under the water in this bog-land wilderness over looking Lough Gill. Inisfree is in view. It's the Sligo Way. I'm in my element. Not surprisingly, my companion is looking at me strangely. My grandfather used to recite the poem dangling us on his knee. These words of William Allingham were probably the first poetry I heard, apart from Nursery Rhymes. We've visited Dromahair. I have ancestors here.

There are wisps of cotton like lichen on bare heather. I have to stoop to prove they're not bog cotton. On the way down I spot a cluster of lichen on bare rock, squat to take a  photograph.

Having the Conversation - About Beauty, its Possible Obligations.

Thanks to the interest of my local community Conversation number three is about to begin!

A year ago I facilitated the first Conversation, in what has become a series. In Ashes, Having the Conversation About Faith - for those of any religion and none - had been in my mind for a while as an alternative to former Lenten talks. I didn't have the minimum six to begin and cancelled. But then some of my local community approached me and suggested we'd run it a neighbours' house. It was thought there were others who'd like to come along.

There were nine there the first night and fourteen at the sixth and final night.It became evident the Conversation itself was as important as the topic and that the poems added an essential dimension, centering and returning us to layers and places within ourselves.Talking about symbols chosen initially led to Dried Feathers on Bone, a poem I included in Fear Knot (Doire, 2013).

There were people who knew a lot more about poetry than I do and others who have little exposure to it. A confidential questionnaire at the end demonstrated how much the participants valued the experience. So we did it again in the Autumn for six weeks and raised some money for the Galway Hospice. We looked at each poem, asking only what it suggested to each of us at this time and kept away - at first anyway - from an aesthetic analysis. That time we took as our starting point Having the Conversation - Continuing in Confusion and talked about the value of confusion as well as how confusing it can be to sit in the middle of it!

I thought it was time to stop while ahead but then, one of the members said - as we put down our final coffee cup (yes, there was tea/coffee afterwards for those who chose to stay and more did as time went on) he thought I might consider a Conversation About Beauty, Its Possible Obligations and I was hooked.

So next Monday evening 12 (so far) of us will sit down to talk about beauty. We'll start with Keats, definitely include some Contemporary work - we've read Carol Ann Duffy, Blake, Vaughan, & Heaney. Theo Dorgan's book of Uncommon Prayer was a good resource and we've looked at Millar duMars The God Thing. We've visited with Zbigniew Herbert, Milosz, Denis O'Driscoll and lots of Mary Oliver - and wander where the conversation and poems elicited bring us.

My local community are responsible for encouraging me to continue.Thanks to them I've had a wonderful chance to pilot a project I  hope to continue elsewhere.It has enabled me find a new way of drawing on my thirty years of group and workshop facilitation and include it with my new interest - poetry.

Contact information and further relevant details below.

POETRY READINGS

& WORKSHOPS

with Susan Lindsay

WORKSHOPS

Having a Different Conversation – About … 

Susan Lindsay is available to facilitate conversations mediated

by poetry, on particular topics. The extra dimension poetry

brings has become as much valued for itself as for what it

contributes to the conversation in these facilitated workshops.

It brings new perspective to a topic, a holding ground for 

the discussion, with the added benefit of providing a way into

discovering  poetry or a way into further enjoying it with others.

No previous experience of poetry, or the topic under discussion,

is needed. About - Faith, for those of any, or no, religion and

About - Continuing in Confusion have been recent workshop

titles. ‘... Conversation – About Beauty,its Possible Obligations 

is mooted for the future.

READINGS

Susan Lindsay is available to give readings from her books-

Fear knot (Doire Press, 2013)

Susan Lindsay’s poems are sometimes enigmatic, often startling. She is a poet acutely aware of the complexities of language, the levels of meaning a poem can have. When I read one of Susan Lindsay’s poems for the second time I always discover something quietly subversive lurking there which I missed first time around. Fear Knot is a daring collection of poems. A triumph.- Kevin Higgins

Whispering the Secrets (Doire Press, 2011)

The voice of experience wrought in lines that are lucid and direct…. this testimony of a survivor is suffused with joy and passion and a clear eyed appraisal of what it means to be mortal.

- Paula Meehan

…a book of courage and resolve. She writes of the “Fifth Province”, of confrontations and renewals, of dreams and shifting identities. … Lindsay writes poems of deep emotional control which communicate an affirmative celebratory mysticism. – Paul Perry

That was gorgeous. Beautiful writing. – RyanTubridy, 2005, The Tubridy Show, RTE Radio 1.

Susan Lindsay was born in 1950 and graduated from Trinity

College, Dublin in 1975. She followed a career in psychotherapy,

facilitation and as a consultant to organisations for thirty years.

Retired from psychotherapy, she is drawing on her former

experience to write and to facilitate workshops mediated by poetry

(such as the recently piloted Having a Different Conversation series),

as well as acting as a co-editor of Skylight 47, a biannual poetry

paper launched in association with the tenth anniversary of Over

the Edge Literary Events. In 2011 she was invited to read for

Poetry Ireland’s Introductions Series. Whispering the Secrets, her

Debut Collection of poetry, was published in 2011 by Doire Press

and a second collection Fear Knot in 2013.

Susan Lindsay Tel. 353 91 776881. 353 86 1671524. susanharrislindsay@gmail.com