Tuesday 30 October 2012

40 IRELAND - The Quiet, The Green, The Clean Empty Waves


Friday, 14th September, 2012

Easkey, Sligo

Dreams of riding 3’-4’ clean, smooth left handers at Easkey Left are disappearing. Since we have been here it seems the wind has been blowing, blowing strong and blowing in the wrong direction. Today seems no exception.



We drove across late yesterday afternoon from Lackan Bay after checking a couple other spots. The wind, whilst coming from the southwest was strong but hadn’t completely ripped apart the waves. Last night it switched, broad siding us with north westerlies. Rain lashed down in droves and a restless night was had. It’s beginning to depress me.

The sun is shining this morning but I feel rain is inevitable. We need to find a computer and check the wind for the next few days.

In 11 days I have had 1 day of near perfect waves. Oh the wind!

Having had a brief look at a swell chart it looks like we should be getting plenty of swell but with it the wind which ranges from west to southwest through to northwest and strong whichever direction.The only thing to do, I guess, is sit it out.

I wonder if Shaun’s around.


Aughris/Dunmoran
 

 The corner of the beach offers us some shelter but again no-one is in. A couple of guys have checked it but both have left. One guy was Irish; the other I think was Ozzie, although he may have been a Kiwi because he seemed to be of Maori or Aborigine in descent.

Talking to the Ozzie (?) guy he mentioned Kilcummin Harbour. I should have checked it out because it works on a westerly. It doesn’t matter how many times I read this guide book I always seem to miss the obvious.

Lackan Bay is the other side of Kilcummin Harbour and I missed it.

On listening to them talk I heard the Irish guy say that this beach is best surfed high or low and not in-between, so for now I will wait. Although the guide book states it can be surfed on all tides local knowledge is key and the book can misinform.


On The Spiritual

Vernon posits that to be hesitant in regards to religion runs the risk of staying your spiritual life. It is possible to be spiritual without being religious but you might not get very far. How can I align myself with a religion such as Christianity when I hear of Koran burning bigots like the American pastor I heard yesterday on the radio speaking in regards to the recent anti-Islam film?

It is easy to love thy neighbour when your neighbour belongs to the same group as yourself. However, as Vernon goes on to say this connection to your own is also likely to lead you to reject those who are from a different group, as they are deemed a threat.

Sympathetic love was for Plato thought to be morally admirable. To love your friends is easy; the true moral hero would be the person who can love those with whom they have little natural sympathy.

In the words of humanist philosopher Marsilio Ficino (1433-99), calm your spirit. Then you will see the power of the divine – of life – all around and flowing through you.     


Bibliography

Cotton C, 2007 The Photograph As Contemporary Art Thames & Hudson: London
De Botton A, 2003 The Art of Travel Penguin: London
Grunenberg C and Pih D, 2011 Magritte A to Z Tate/London
Newby E, 1995 A Book of Travellers’ Tales Pan Books Ltd: London
Perlmutter D and Koppman D, 1999 Reclaiming the Spiritual in Art: Contemporary Cross-cultural Perspectives State University of New York Press: New York
Smyth D Editor, 2012 British Journal of Photography Oct Issue 7805
Sontag S, 2002 On Photography Penguin Group: London
Tolstoy L, 1969 What Is Art? And Essays on Art London: University Press Oxford
Turner V, 1967 The Forest of Symbols Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press
Turner V, 1969 The Ritual Process Penguin 1969
Various, 1987 The Age of God-Kings 3000-1500 BC Time Life Books: USA
Vernon M, 2012 God The Big Questions Quercus: London


 Mark King 2012


















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