Grand Things like The Meaning of Life

Achill Head and the Atlantic.


Keem Bay.

At Achill Island, I encountered the grandest place I’ve ever been in my life. That is no hyperbole. Keem Bay has one of those remote beaches with beautiful water (although it’s too cold to swim in) and cliffs and mountains surrounding it. I decided I’d hike up to the top of the highest cliff for a look-see. The big mountain nearby is unhikeable unless you’re an expert and want to spend several more hours than my quick but very rigorous flight up to my lookout point. The pictures don’t really do it justice. They look like postcards, but being there was awe-inspiring. Being alone up there looking around at these sheer cliffs (about 600m+ drop to the Atlantic Ocean below), perfect beach, massive mountain, some old ruins…it was a feeling I’d never experienced before. I’d like to make some huge statement like, “it changed my perspective on life,” or something, but it didn’t. It just was. I had a very Zen moment and appreciated it, realizing that I won’t be back to that spot any time soon.

In fact, I thought I’d have a lot of deep existential moments on this trip, pondering my life and whatnot. Well I haven’t. Not yet—I’ve still got over 4 weeks left, so there’s plenty of time to delve into who I am and my purpose in life stuff. For now, I’m just like a 15-year-old boy looking at porn—staring intently at everything I see, but nothing’s really going on upstairs.

Ok, something else. Please correct me if you know more about this than I do because I haven’t figured it out yet. Curry is a relatively common surname in Ireland. However, that does not explain why curry (the spices) is used in traditional Irish cooking. There must be some history between Ireland and South Asia or the Middle East that I don’t know about. Sure, there are plenty of Indian restaurants here—I ate at an overpriced one for dinner several nights ago—but those curries you see in Indian food pop up in Irish restaurants, i.e. curried lamb or curried potatoes. I’ll do some sleuthing perhaps.

Also, let’s talk about friendly people are here. It’s true. When you’re walking down the street, people say hello to each other as they pass. When you’re driving around a small town, drivers wave at each other. Everybody greets and leaves others with hardy salutations. I had a couple nice exchanges with hikers at Keem Strand. As I was coming down, this older guy was slowly making his way up. He said hi and I asked him how he was doing. He looked at me and answered honestly in a brilliant Irish accent, “weary.” We chuckled and I told him it was well worth it at the top. He said he was hoping coming down would be easier. That wasn’t the best example, but I laugh when I think about the guy saying “weary.” It’s a great word to say in an Irish accent. Anyway, people are nice here. If everyone in the world had a community that promoted this sort of friendliness and hospitality…well we’d all be drunken socialists, but we’d be happy and that’s all that matters. Maybe that’s my existential discovery thus far. Fame and fortune are means to happiness, but they are not the only ways to achieve it. We heard these lessons from a lot of different famous people during Commencement week, and we’ll all disregard them soon enough, but it’s true. There is no need to judge ourselves by society’s prevailing standards if those standards are misguided. Over here in rural Ireland, I haven’t seen any rich people other than tourists, but I have seen a lot of happy people.

Other news in brief…the only good looking girls I’ve seen are attached to good-looking men. I was chatting with a guy about my age at a pub tonight; he said all the beautiful girls were in Galway. Thank you Let’s Go for not putting that grand city on my itinerary. I heard a great radio debate over the new best-selling book, God is NOT Great. I can’t wait to read it when I get home. I’m in a B&B above a pub. Sweet. I stayed in a fancier place last night, so for breakfast this morning I had scrambled eggs and smoked salmon as opposed to the usual Irish breakfast of sausage, bacon, and egg. I’m not expecting to make any money doing this job, so I might as well spend everything I get, right? The new coalition government is causing a big rue. I’m sure you can find out more than I can tell you by just going to CNN.com. I’m back in Cambridge on the 22nd/23rd. My sister will become Lindsay Waters on July 28th.

Day: 9
Guinness: 12
Thanks to the Westport pubs. I watched an incredible soccer match with the local folk.