After overcoming my resistance to participating in the carbon-loading industrial complex known as ‘flying,’ I decide to take the opportunity to go to Ireland for a few days.
I had heard many good things about the landscape and was not disappointed.
It felt good to be confronted by the vast ocean and the high cliffs.
It rained and then it didn’t rain. I didn’t mind either way. Both were beautiful.
We drove north along the coast of the Burren.
I tried to imagine scraping out an existence here a few hundred years ago.
When the rocky earth was stingy and the wind relentless.
And how it was probably easier — and maybe even necessary — to believe in a god of retribution.
And how fortunate I was to have the option of believing in a different kind of god.
The day was very short, but the light was magical.
The steps I took were sturdy and well trodden.
The next morning, we returned to a different part of the coast, where there were fewer people, but where the path was also well maintained.
The grassy landscape was lush and depopulated, but thanks to the path, it was inviting or maybe even ‘democratic.’
Would the United States circa 2026 invest in a non-vehicular path that anyone could use? Not without a big fight.
Here, it was possible to understand how the Atlantic Ocean is very slowly getting bigger.
I took the steps down to the sea and back up to higher ground.
And from the window of my plane, I saw a million shades of green.
