Produced for the Maine Farmland Trust, Meet Your Farmer is a series of 8 videos that beautifully depict the lifestyles of 8 different farms in the State of Maine. They illustrate abundance, hardship, forward-thinking, and most of all, the idea that farming is more than just a “historical feature” of the state.
I don’t live in Maine, and now that I think of it, have never even stepped foot on the state, but despite this, it only took me about two minutes to get completely hooked. The knowledge and genuine care displayed by all of the farmers is something unlike any other.
Here is the first of the series in which we meet Stacy Brenner and John Bliss of Broadturn Farm. From viewing it, you’ll see exactly what I mean when I say there is absolutely zero doubt that people such as these are modern-day heroes.
To view the rest of the videos in the series, click here!
A few days ago, I came across Jen Renninger’s “Hope Posters” series on her website. I was surprised. The messages on her pieces of work seemed to be anything but original and even borderline cliché (I mean, come on, how many “Keep Calm” variations can people make before we decide we have enough?), but rather than responding with a slight eye-roll and move on, my reaction was much different. A smile crept upon my face as I looked at them, they made me feel inspired, motivated, and just plain ol’ happy. Before long, I came to the conclusion that despite being a bit cliché, Renninger’s work is anything but ordinary. (Yup, even the “Keep Calm” ones.)
You can view (and purchase) many of these posters at her Etsy shop.
I’m not sure how, but the minute and forty seconds of geometry that is featured in Bonsajo’s “Vanishing Point” made me smile instantaneously and kept me smiling through the entire demonstration of masterful animation. And being that I saw this only a couple days after Iman published that excellent romance short about a line and a dot, I couldn’t help but think that this video could very well be telling the story of what happened to “dot” and “line” after that story ended. Maybe it’s their honeymoon. Or maybe I’m being weird.
Either way, it’s nothing short of brilliant and is definitely worth viewing (…at least twice).
This Sunday is the 4th of July- a celebration of our national independence. It’s amazing to think that our forefathers (and mothers) risked being hanged for treason in order to stand up for independence. So let’s honor these courageous patriots by taking action wherever we go this 4th of July.
Free the slaves is encouraging you “take action” by doing a few fun and and easy things while attending your celebrations in order to contribute to the fight against modern-day slavery:
Donate: The average cost of freeing and rehabilitating a slave is only $376. How cool would it be to say you brought someone to freedom this 4th of July? (You can find out about the financial integrity of Free the Slaves, here.)
Create an Image: Creatively spell out freedom for everyone to see by taking photo of the word “FREE”.
Spread Freedom: Lastly, you can spread the word about modern-slavery and all of the things we can do to help end it by simply communicating about it with your friends. After taking the “FREEdom” photographs, the goal is to see how far we can spread these actions by sharing all of our photographs on the event page.
All in all, participation in this movement is simple and you’ll get to go to bed sunburned and stuffed knowing you just became a modern-day abolitionist. Declare your Independence from Slavery this 4th of July.
To take in the everyday splendor of this life is a daily meditation. The great poets capture this so well. I am reminded of a passage in Leaves of Grass in which Whitman states that there is as much beauty in a fingernail or the hair on one’s arm as there is in a blazing sunset. I look at my young students’ handwriting, so thoughtful in their second language, one they are quickly making their own, personalities revealed in pens. The excited breath rising in your chest at the ring of a friend or lover’s call. Beauty, you see, is everywhere. The great Romantic poet Rainer Maria Rilke reveals this to us as well:
And so it is that most people have no idea how beautiful the world is and how much magnificence is reveal in the tiniest things, in some flower, in a stone, in tree bark, or in a birch leaf. The grown-ups, going about their business and worries, and tormenting themselves with all kinds of details, gradually lose the perspective for these riches that children, when they are attentive and good, soon notice and love with their whole heart. And yet the greatest beauty would be achieved if everyone remained in this regard always like attentive and good children, simple and pious in sensitivities, and if people did not lose the capacity for taking pleasure as intensely in a birch leaf or a peacock’s feather or the wing of a hooded crow as in a mighty mountain or a splendid palace. What is small is not small in itself, just as that which is great is not—great. A great and eternal beauty passes through the whole world, and it is distributed fairly over that which is small and that which is large; for in such important and essential matters, no injustice is to be found on earth.
Let us all be a part of this eternal beauty on this day and the days beyond. We need only to appreciate what is around us, and what is within us.
Love,
SFD
Passage found on Harper’s, one of the great American publications.
I want to introduce to you The Cat Empire! These guys hail from Down Under, shout out to April! And let me tell you: these cats sure can swing! I’ll let their music do the talking.
I hope you are dancing in your seats, because I sure am! These guys are so great! Have a tip-tap dancing Tuesday SuperForest!
Hi all.
I was in Matthew and Terces Englehart’s Kindred Spirit Workshop this weekend. For those of you who don’t know, they are the owners of Cafe Gratitude – a chain of Organic, vegan, mostly raw food restaurants in the Bay Area. The workshops are always incredibly powerful and provide an opportunity to sit and learn under two revolutionaries of our generation. (for a schedule of up coming workshops click here.) I have been to their workshops many many times and without fail, I always see something profound for myself. Matthew and Terces offer a view of life that invite you to take 100% responsibility for the all of it. That there is no “out there.” That any problem in your life is never an outside circumstance or situation, but who you are being about it, and invite you to look at any “problem” and see how you could actually take on being responsibility for it. It’s not, as they claim “the truth,” but the only powerful place to stand. Otherwise we tend to fall into some sort of victim mentality and think the world is happening to us, as opposed to us powerfully causing our lives.
The BP oil spill is something that’s been up for me lately. I’m not someone who watches or indulges in the news. Mostly the news occurs as static to me. An unhealthy recipe of separation and fear offered up in images and words. A noisy whiny interference that pulls at the hem of my awareness’s shirt kicking and screaming for me to pay attention to it. And when I do, I always feel helpless and angry. I blame. I point fingers. I say “this wouldn’t be so if…” I was at an airport when I first heard about the spill. CNN was all over it and every television monitor at the airport had that night-vision camera live feed of the oil gushing into the sea. It took me a second for my brain to wrap around what my eyes were actually witnessing. That essentially I was watching millions upon millions of gallons of oil being poured into our oceans as it was happening. It was like watching someone get stabbed slowly and repeatedly in the carotid artery, and that someone was Earth. It made me sick to my stomach. All of it. The news. The relaying of the news. The congestion and delay of the flight. The glossy magazine rack at the kiosk and complete lack of sustainable or organic products in the airport. The dim glow of so many television monitors. And the juxtaposition of a live catastrophe broadcast and the zombie-like apathy me and my fellow gate B10 viewers responded with. I stood there angry, helpless and with two handfulls of blaming fingers all pointing outward.
That shifted for me this weekend when suddenly I was reminded that there is no “out there.” That’s the incredibly elaborate and equally convincing illusion my mind has constructed. That actually I am just as toxic as that oil and the chemicals they are combating it with. There is no separation. My mind in a knee jerk reaction goes to blaming others and victimizing myself. I stop seeing everyone and everything as divine and as a reflection of me. And within that view, I realized I was responsible. I helped cause the oil spill. And my reactionary judgments and apathy were the equally harmful chemicals that in theory dilute the problem, but only exacerbate it.
So, I invite you all to consider blaming BP is the cowards way out. It’s easy. It keeps the problem “out there.” The real messy transformative clean-up that we can do wherever we are in the world, from the comfort (or discomfort) of our own body, mind and souls is to start asking these questions: Who’s addicted to oil? Who doesn’t like to do manual labor anymore? Who still consumes products without knowing where or how they came from? Who needs something as grave as a disaster to be called into action?
I can answer “me” to all those questions. Therefore, I am responsible. BP was only doing it’s job. Serving me and my conveniently amazing life.
And within that, I could go down some mental rabbit hole of self-blame with my head hung and feet scuffling in a defeated shame with images of oil-cover pelicans and ocean waves that look like salad dressing – but I am not. That too is an outdated paradigm. I choose to focus on the opportunity, to learn from this mess and ask myself these new clean-up questions that call me into action, and again, I invite you to do the same: Who would I have to be in the world to not have this ever happen again? How can I take on eliminating the oil I use personally and contribute to others using in my life? What can I give my word to that would have a dramatic ripple effect in the world?
Here’s what I have so far: I am giving my word to not getting in a car by myself. That any errand I need to run or trip I need to make I will either carpool, use public transportation, ride a bike, or walk. I will also continue to share my own transformation. To share the insights I see for myself knowing that: I AM and so are You.
Thanks for always listening and for always being in action SuperForest. We are the Superheroes and we get to say how this comic book goes.
I want to speak to you about an issue close to my heart. Now before I get into this topic know my action come from my love of nature and life of all animals. This issue for me is more important than our own short-term economic prosperity. And it is my belief by acting now we secure much greater economic prosperity for our children and other future Earthly generations. The issue before:
As all of you know, I am sure, we had an horrific oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. My call to action: DON’T LET THIS HAPPEN AGAIN! How? Get involved! That is what I am going to ask from you. Right now, as we speak, there are plans to begin drilling in the Arctic Ocean. This deal was cut in 2008 before Obama took office for a hefty sum of $ 2.6 billion. Through organisational action President Obama has suspended these plans for an extra six months. But is that enough? For me, it is not. What is the issue with drilling in the Arctic? Well, there is the risk of another oil spill, and given enough time to drill at least ONE spill will happen. The American Arctic is home to half of the last remaining polar bears IN THE WORLD! An oil spill would mean almost certain death to any polar bear than comes in contact with oil. The stuff is deadly. There is no need to be drilling in the Arctic, and it is our responsibility to stop it. So how do we do this? (Sorry if this is all stuff you’ve heard before, but it is soooo important! So read on!)
Get informed. There are so many ways to learn about important issues using the internet. For this issue read this ARTICLE.
Notify your local AND national officials your stance on the subject. How can we expect our leaders to choose what WE want, if we don’t tell them ourselves? We can’t just assume they know what is right, TELL THEM! You can do this by going to your local governments website, getting an email address or phone number, and then writing or calling to quickly let them know. Most officials will actually be very welcoming and excited that you made the effort! Go for it SuperForesters!
Here is why it is so important to notify officials:
Clarity, confidence, and understanding! That is what we need to give our elected officials!
Those two points are most important to me. And of course there are so many other wonderful things you could do, but that will be up to you!
I am supporting and working with the Natural Resources Defense Council, or NRDC, to make sure the Arctic stays beautifully natural! You may have noticed that the article, and the videos, I linked you to is from the same cool cats! I fully recommend checking out their website, and signing up for email subscriptions. They don’t email you everyday with annoying emails (totally important), but they will email you with vital information on their actions and other key issues. These guys are impassioned, positive, and all around great! Here is another example of how they bring awareness, and how they act!
Totally awesome. NRDC brings many together to remind our leaders, and ourselves, what is right. Check out their website and see if you can get involved. Or use this as a reminder to check out your favourite group’s website. Now I will ask that IF you feel as strongly as I do to head to NRDC’s donate button and give whatever you think is right. Personally I am donating $8 monthly because right now I know NRDC is about to enter a prolonged struggle against oil companies. And what is $8 to me monthly? I just won’t go see a movie, and actually save money for myself! IF you are interested please don’t hesitate. All efforts will make a huge difference, and if you can get physically involved. Just by being open to the issues around the world, and considering the solutions we are all making a huge impact, but we can always do more. We can always be hungrier, and demand more excellence (I am starting to understand where my parents are coming from!). Thank you SuperForest. Go be brilliant!
When most think about love, they usually think of it in terms of one’s relationship with another individual, but in the Chuck Jones’ animation of Norton Juster’s book “The Dot and the Line”, we learn that this isn’t always the case. We are reminded that loving someone else starts by loving ourselves.
After first viewing this short film, [SPOILER ALERT] I was immediately frustrated with the fact that he ended up with the dot. It seemed as though the story was promoting changing oneself in order to win over the object of your affection; however, upon further analysis, I realized how very wrong I was. In my opinion, this wonderful cartoon’s message is that people love you when you love yourself. When the line, fed up with his “stifled” self, begins his journey to win the dot over, he is really beginning a journey of self discovery that represents an aim far larger than simply ‘getting the girl’. He gains confidence and self-love, pure and simple.
The ability to bend himself into whatever shape he chooses isn’t just some cheap trick meant to impress a girl but instead a direct result of his realization that being a line is not a bland way of life after all, but actually versatile, beautiful, complex, enigmatic and compelling (note the contrast between the two times the narrator lists the adjectives the line uses to describe himself). As he embraces himself, he is more willing to explore his existence, resultantly growing as a shape from doing so. Sure, he does end up with the girl in the end and of course, some of us may still feel miffed with her sass, but it seems a fitting and simple end for a children’s cartoon.
Another thing I drew from this short film is its subtle commentary on the idea of freedom vs. chaos. I feel this idea, one represented by the line vs. squiggle character conflict, suggests that one does not need to be intentionally unrestrained to accomplish self discovery, but rather, prudent and self respecting. The squiggle is described as anarchical and to never seem to have anything on his mind, in contrast to the stiff line, who approaches his self realization slowly and steadily, beginning with angles and ending with complex geometric shapes, something that can be attributed to his inherent adherence to a systematic way of life.
This squiggle vs. line idea can, interestingly enough, be tied to a modern social phenomena prevalent among a large portion of the world’s youth, that being their confusion between freedom and excess. In an attempt to avoid all constraint, many teens (along with people of any age, really) commit themselves to excess in a desperate attempt to obtain their ambiguous ideal of freedom; however,”line” teaches us that discovering oneself through introspection is the most dignified freedom of all.
Now sure, this is technically a simple children’s film about a line in love with a dot, but on a deeper level, there is so much to learn from it. I sincerely hope you all got as much out of this lovely piece as I did.
Beautiful and spectacular no? I wanted to spice things up. So, instead of just wonderful pictures of glorious sunshine, we will be viewing glorious videos of the sun rising and setting. B-E-A-utiful! To accompany this wonderful video we need something extra special! So I present to you, with the loving help of SuperForester Marie-Eve, “Blue Sunny Day” by Jonathan Coulton! This the description of this song, it is truly wonderful!
When Jonathan Coulton debuted this song at a concert in Chicago, he told the audience he wanted to make a happy song, so he thought he’d make it about sunshine and blue skies and call it “Blue Sunny Day”. But then he noticed that the word “blue” could have another meaning…
He wondered who would be “blue” about a sunny day. Vampires, of course, but then he thought, no. What’s more obvious than Jonathan Coulton writing another song about a sad and/or lonely monster?
But then he thought, “nah, it’s totally a vampire”.
However, if you listen closely to the lyrics, you’ll see that there’s actually nothing in there that says it’s definitely about a vampire. It could just be a about a guy with Seasonal Affective Disorder or some other kind of depression.
But in my video, it’s totally a vampire.
A wonderfully fun song, and very creative video to go along with! Creativity on the individual scale always blows my mind and gets me excited about today. It reminds me that we truly can do whatever we want, as long as we have a little passion.
I have been trying to re-appreciate everything in my life recently. I want to say, “Stop, what is the value of this?” And all of a sudden my appreciation of whatever that is, my day, my week, and my life increases. There are so many wonderful things in this world and it becomes so easy to forget in our busy lives. Or worse we start comparing different places or events with our current situation (what I am guilty of right now. Oh how I miss Ireland!). So, to counter this I have been trying to find what I appreciate about where I am now, and that not only allows me to appreciate my current time and place more, but also all my past experiences. Now I just made that sound wonderful and easy, of course it is not. But then what fun would life be if it was all easy? Humans love challenge; it allows us to grow and adapt. So, thank you Life & World for making my time on Earth hard, difficult, and sometimes unreasonable. I have grown because of it. Thank you SuperForest for always been an amazing source of inspiration, and that extra nudge forward that I need. Happy Sunshine SuperForest!
This week, watch an inspiring short film about changing history in extraordinary ways, learn which two billionaires are encouraging the rich to give big, meet a man working to make plastic forever recyclable, and gain ground on that project you’ve been putting off.
Let’s kickstart a “global collaborative culture”
The Coalition of the Willing has what I believe to be the ideas needed for us to trigger a 21st century culture shift and make the world the greatest it has ever been. How? The internet. Yes, now that we have the internet, we can collaborate, connect and create together like never before! We can share ideas, educate each other, seek one another’s counsel and advice about how to live a low-carbon, self-sufficient, planet-mindful existence.
The film says: “The real lesson of the ’60s is that a swarm offensive can transform cultures and change history in extraordinary ways. It’s easy to see how we might bring this insight up to date; thanks to the internet, the world is networked like never before. We can use the internet to kickstart our own revolution, harnessing the energy of the human swarm and focusing it on the problem of our time.”
“A swarm can be smarter than any one of us working alone.”
The short film talks about an “open source” online research site, in the very same vein as Wikipedia and Linux, but for environmental problems, that’s open to input from everyone. The narrator says, “We need the infrastructure to get this started. We need a network of high-profile online destinations, that people from all over the world can access to share their knowledge and generate the tools, innovations and social networks that we need to combat climate change.” The Coaltion believes this will be the catalyst for creating a “global collaborative culture”.
And the funny, fabulous and uncanny thing is this: I truly believe SuperForest is already working towards this goal. More than any other time in my life, I now feel part of a powerful group, that of SuperForesters Worldwide. This group comprises all you who I’ve never met but know I share so much in common with, namely a deep and passionate desire and willingness to restore our planet to its intended state: thriving, fresh, providing.
Watch this film. Get ready to change the world. SuperForest is already part of the infrastructure that’s making it happen. (I wonder if it comes across in my words just how hopeful and grateful I am for the ability to share this video and my thoughts with you.)
Warren Buffett (right), 79, and Bill Gates, 54, started a drive called The Giving Pledge to encourage high-profile promises, according to the initiative’s website. The two men and Gates’s wife, Melinda Gates, have been assembling billionaires at private meetings to drum up support for their challenge.
Buffett said he is asking ”hundreds of rich Americans to pledge at least 50 per cent of their wealth to charity.” He said 1 per cent of his wealth is enough for him and his family, and ”neither our happiness nor our well-being would be enhanced” by keeping more.
No need for landfill Krishna Nadella is working to improve the sustainability of plastic products. He emigrated from India to the US at 23 years old, and with inspiration from his grandmother’s primitive recycling efforts back home, is redefining what it means to recycle plastic. Watch this four-minute doco below to learn about his work.
What are you waiting for? Is there something you want to create, but haven’t made a start on? Perhaps it’s a painting, a song, a novel. It could even be something like re-building a relationship with someone you’ve fallen out with. Perhaps the problem has been that you didn’t know where to begin. As I was reading Bruce Mau’s Incomplete Manifesto for Growth, I stumbled on this legendary advice:
John Cage tells us that not knowing where to begin is a common form of paralysis. His advice: begin anywhere.”
Seriously, how simple yet spot on! Perhaps after you close the browser on SuperForest today, you will paint your first stroke, pen your first line or strum your first chord. Who cares where you start, so long as you make a start?
These visualizations are the brainchild of writer and self-described “data journalist” and “information designer” David McCandless. Like many of the amazing infographics we’ve shared on SuperForest, I think these visualizations are also a unique, thought-provoking way of looking at information and our world. Kudos to Mr. McCandless and his colleagues for their talent and ingenuity!
As a Canadian, I suppose I can support my status as one of the many “fruit juice drinkers” across this vast land, as long as wine is included in the “fruit juice” category, I think it’s probably pretty accurate!
First off I want to say, “Group Hug!!” I just feel like a group hug would be great right now, so please join in!
Next, my trip! I posted about it once, but this is my summary of it all, as well as sharing some spectacular footage with you all! So, I would like to say thank you to everyone involved on the trip! It was an absolutely amazing experience, and I got the chance to become close with so many spectacular people! Truly it was all wonderful. When I last left off I was in the Aran Islands. We left after that to go to Sligo. Wow, Sligo. We got to read Yeats poetry over a delicious dinner all while looking over the land he grew up on. It was so magnificent. Take a look at what we were looking at, while listening to the poems that were based on this landscape being read:
Pure beauty. Here are some Yeats poems that are based off of this landscape.
*Read them out loud while looking at this picture*
The Song of the Wandering Angus
I WENT out to the hazel wood,
Because a fire was in my head,
And cut and peeled a hazel wand,
And hooked a berry to a thread;
And when white moths were on the wing,
And moth-like stars were flickering out,
I dropped the berry in a stream
And caught a little silver trout.
When I had laid it on the floor
I went to blow the fire a-flame,
But something rustled on the floor,
And some one called me by my name:
It had become a glimmering girl
With apple blossom in her hair
Who called me by my name and ran
And faded through the brightening air.
Though I am old with wandering
Through hollow lands and hilly lands,
I will find out where she has gone,
And kiss her lips and take her hands;
And walk among long dappled grass,
And pluck till time and times are done
The silver apples of the moon,
The golden apples of the sun.
The Stolen Child
Where dips the rocky highland
Of Sleuth Wood in the lake,
There lies a leafy island
Where flapping herons wake
The drowsy water-rats;
There we’ve hid our faery vats,
Full of berries
And of reddest stolen cherries. Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world’s more full of weeping than you can understand.
Where the wave of moonlight glosses
The dim grey sands with light,
Far off by furthest Rosses
We foot it all the night,
Weaving olden dances,
Mingling hands and mingling glances
Till the moon has taken flight;
To and fro we leap
And chase the frothy bubbles,
While the world is full of troubles
And is anxious in its sleep. Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world’s morefully of weeping than you can understand.
Where the wandering water gushes
From the hills above Glen-Car,.
In pools among the rushes
That scarce could bathe a star,
We seek for slumbering trout
And whispering in their ears
Give them unquiet dreams;
Leaning softly out
From ferns that drop their tears
Over the young streams. Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For to world’s morefully of weeping than you can understand.
Away with us he’s going,
The solemn-eyed:
He’ll hear no more the lowing
Of the calves on the warm hillside
Or the kettle on the hob
Sing peace into his breast,
Or see the brown mice bob
Round and round the oatmeal-chest. For he comes, the human child,
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
from a world more full of weeping than you can understand.
THE LAKE ISLE OF INNISFREE
I WILL arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;
Nine bean rows will I have there, a hive for the honey bee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.
And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight’s all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet’s wings.
I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements gray,
I hear it in the deep heart’s core.
UNDER BEN BULBEN
I
SWEAR by what the sages spoke
Round the Mareotic Lake
That the Witch of Atlas knew,
Spoke and set the cocks a-crow.
Swear by those horsemen, by those women
Complexion and form prove superhuman,
That pale, long-visaged company
That air in immortality
Completeness of their passions won;
Now they ride the wintry dawn
Where Ben Bulben sets the scene.
Here s the gist of what they mean.
II
Many times man lives and dies
Between his two eternities,
That of race and that of soul,
And ancient Ireland knew it all.
Whether man die in his bed
Or the rifle knocks him dead,
A brief parting from those dear
Is the worst man has to fear.
Though grave-diggers’ toil is long,
Sharp their spades, their muscles strong.
They but thrust their buried men
Back in the human mind again.
III
You that Mitchel’s prayer have heard,
‘Send war in our time, O Lord!’
Know that when all words are said
And a man is fighting mad,
Something drops from eyes long blind,
He completes his partial mind,
For an instant stands at ease,
Laughs aloud, his heart at peace.
Even the wisest man grows tense
With some sort of violence
Before he can accomplish fate,
Know his work or choose his mate.
IV
Poet and sculptor, do the work,
Nor let the modish painter shirk
What his great forefathers did.
Bring the soul of man to God,
Make him fill the cradles right.
Measurement began our might:
Forms a stark Egyptian thought,
Forms that gentler Phidias wrought.
Michael Angelo left a proof
On the Sistine Chapel roof,
Where but half-awakened Adam
Can disturb globe-trotting Madam
Till her bowels are in heat,
proof that there’s a purpose set
Before the secret working mind:
Profane perfection of mankind.
Quattrocento put in paint
On backgrounds for a God or Saint
Gardens where a soul’s at ease;
Where everything that meets the eye,
Flowers and grass and cloudless sky,
Resemble forms that are or seem
When sleepers wake and yet still dream.
And when it’s vanished still declare,
With only bed and bedstead there,
That heavens had opened.
Gyres run on;
When that greater dream had gone
Calvert and Wilson, Blake and Claude,
Prepared a rest for the people of God,
Palmer’s phrase, but after that
Confusion fell upon our thought.
V
Irish poets, earn your trade,
Sing whatever is well made,
Scorn the sort now growing up
All out of shape from toe to top,
Their unremembering hearts and heads
Base-born products of base beds.
Sing the peasantry, and then
Hard-riding country gentlemen,
The holiness of monks, and after
Porter-drinkers’ randy laughter;
Sing the lords and ladies gay
That were beaten into the clay
Through seven heroic centuries;
Cast your mind on other days
That we in coming days may be
Still the indomitable Irishry.
VI
Under bare Ben Bulben’s head
In Drumcliff churchyard Yeats is laid.
An ancestor was rector there
Long years ago, a church stands near,
By the road an ancient cross.
No marble, no conventional phrase;
On limestone quarried near the spot
By his command these words are cut:
Cast a cold eye
On life, on death.
Horseman, pass by!
Those last three lines are written on Yeats’s grave, and aren’t they powerful? Here is a picture of his tomb stone:
We then ventured to Doolin for one day, and then headed off to the incredible Dingle. There I truly fell in love with Ireland (if I hadn’t already fallen head over heals, which I think I had done 5 or 6 times by that point). We started off with a hike along the harbour, seeing Fungi the local dolphin. Fungi goes against dolphin norms by swimming and living by himself. Here are some pictures from that hike:
And after this hike a group of us went to eat at the most wonderful restaurant, called The Global Village, I have ever had the pleasure of dining at. The food was delicious, and the people even better! The Global Village is owned by Chéf Martin Bealin and his wife, and waitress, Nuala Cassidy. The two of them, along with the rest of their staff, are true SuperForesters. They were enourmeously hospitable, and sincerely kind, beautiful, and all around awesome! Big thank you goes out to them, and be sure to go visit them if you ever find yourself in Dingle, Ireland (which I demand of you!).
The next day we headed out to the Blasket Islands off the coast of Dingle. These islands, according to National Geographic, are one of the most beautiful places on Earth, and I have to agree. I could have sat upon the beaches, hills, and IN the clouds of the Blaskets all my life (except perhaps when it gets colder). I made a few videos for you all while I was there. Whenever I felt the impulse of needing to show you something I took video, and as you will see this was rather a lot. I am no David Attenborough, and it is rather hard to hear me sometimes because of the winds. But at the very least you can take in the wonderful beauty, and if you can actually make out what I am saying that is a wonderful bonus! Please enjoy, and please do take the time to absorb this wonderful landscape, it is Middle Earth or any other fantasy land you can think of. I know at one point in one video I talk about how it isn’t hard to figure out how Rowling and Tolkien were able to dream up such amazing worlds, when the the lands they live on or near are that magical. Enough talk, please enjoy!
Now I start talking!
This isn’t the top! We just thought it was. The fog made it very deceiving.
That is it SuperForest! We left the next day after a night of celebration and good cheer! It was one of the most wonderful experiences of my life, and we all plan to get together again as a group to go back! I hope I have convinced you to make a trip to the west of Ireland. Seriously! DO IT! I may let this trip and experience go rest, or I may revisit it (I hope I do, and thus probably will). Take care wonderful SuperForesters!
Love to you all,
Mathew
P.S. My wonderful older sister, Sara, just gave birth to little SuperForester Avery! YAY! :D
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