AS I WAS SAYING...
We live in strange times. The Catholic sacrament of private Confession has fallen from favour. The great majority of Catholics rarely -if ever- avail of it now. While Christmas and Easter still manages to smoke out the odd 'hard-boiled sinner', the adjective 'regular' is rarely attached to the noun 'Confession' today! Yet 'confession' as a verb (verbal confession!!!) was never so popular. The talk shows of the tabloid variety are fuelled by such confessions. The more intimate the revelations, the more popular is the show. Go channel-hopping on the TV any night and you are liable to light on three or four of the type I have in mind. The theme for the night is subtitled in a strap across the bottom of the screen. Titles of the "Violent husband left partner for transvestite hammer-thrower!" variety. Where does Talk Show end and Freak Show begin? Or what prompts a human being to indulge in such exhibitionism? Anything to do with Andy Warhol's infamous '15 minutes of fame' I wonder?
Of course we could shake our heads and dismiss the whole phenomenon as an exercise in sheer lunacy, which of course it is. We could blame America for promoting such banal rubbish, which of could it does. (Had we not our own version of it in the 'Four Guys in the Window' at the Arts Festival last year?) We could close our eyes to the whole thing. But of course we are not permitted to ignore it. Shows such as 'Treasure Island', 'Big Brother', 'Paradise Lost', and so on, actually make news. Not only do people stay awake all night watching people living 'normally' under laboratory conditions. They will actually buy newspapers the following day in order to read about these people whom they stayed up all night watching living 'normally'! I visited Easons one Saturday morning last month. No less than three tabloids carried editorials on a remarkably stupid young lady called Jade. And why was this young lady deemed newsworthy? Precisely because she was stupid!
'The chicken or the egg' will forever remain a philosophical conundrum. It is quite impossible to clearly distinguish between that which is created and that which is merely reflected. Is this voyeurism being created by such shows, or is it merely provided with a focal point? Difficult to know.
In recent years, openness and honesty have been widely promoted as highly desirable qualities (virtues?). (Am I mistaken in thinking that these qualities were promoted more vigorously by the secular authorities than by the religious?) The run-up to the recent General Election saw even the most crooked political tricksters calling loudly for 'transparency'! "The public right to know" is now almost a sacrosanct as the citizens' right to the vote! Hypocrisy -regarded as the antithesis of openness- is condemned today with the same moral earnestness as our Victorian forebears condemned fornication. (Wasn't it a French writer who said that hypocrisy was merely the homage paid by vice to virtue!) The 'Big Brothers' of this world would suggest that openness has gone too far by far! When a person joins a Freak Show, he or she is stripped of their human dignity. The same applies to those who strip on the radio! We could begin to promote reserve and privacy as desirable virtues. And install psychological streaking as a Reserved Sin!
-Dick Lyng.
EVENTS OF THE WEEK
- REVIEW MEETING: As promised, we held a 'Review Meeting' of our recent dramatic doings on Monday night last. About 30 people attended, an excellent turn-out for an August Bank Holiday weekend. Unfortunately, some key people were unavoidably absent. As I pointed out last here last week, if we were to defer our meeting until a quorum assembled, we would not meet until late September at the earliest. Wisdom prevailed, and we ploughed ahead! We concentrated on three items:
(a) The production itself;
(b) Its timing;
(c) Related matters.(a) The Production itself: There was a consensus that this year's production surpassed its predecessors in quality, for reasons of entertainment, and for reasons of naked commercial gain! (We bagged and banked €1,210.00 from the venture, having discharged all debts and duties incurred along the line). Besides, everyone involved enjoyed it thoroughly.
(b) The Timing: Having duly congratulated ourselves, we switched into critical mode! Despite the many objections presented, there was agreement that the Arts Festival Week is the most appropriate time for our play. But the first 3 days of Arts Week would suit us best. 10.00pm start was judged to be too late. People found it hard to dispose of tickets for a 10.00pm billing. (The reason for the late start was that the Shadow Puppet Show demanded a completely darkened surroundings). Besides, a good few children and teenagers were involved this year, and they tended to wilt towards to end of the night. A sensible compromise was suggested: in future, let the play begin at 9.00, followed by the Puppet Show! In this way, a more attractive starting time is arrived at and we would still have darkness for the Puppets!
(c) Related Matters: Despite our healthy financial gains, there was some disappointment at the audiences. Very few people seemed to know it was going on! Publicity and Promotions is an area that needs urgent attention.
ST PATRICK'S BAND
St. Patrick's Band will hold their annual church-gate collection this weekend. The band is a voluntary organisation and it relies entirely on the generosity of the public for support. Not only is the band a cultural resource here for the people of Galway; but they also put their resources (especially the Bandroom at the disposal of other Galway groups pursuing musical interests, like the Baroque Singers, the Galway Concert Orchestra, the Black Magic Jazz Band, and the Galway Boys Singers/Galway Choral Association. These people have been generous to Galway. This is your opportunity to return the compliment.
A STRANGE WORLD INDEED!
If the world was condensed into one village of 100 people, we could expect to observe the following:
- 52 would be female, 30 would be white, 70 would be non-Christian, and 89 would be heterosexual.
- Six people would possess 59% of the world's wealth, and all six would be US citizens.
- 80 people would live in substandard housing;
- 70 would be unable to read;
- 50 would suffer from malnutrition.
- One would be pregnant;
- one would have a college education
- one would own a computer.
- If you have a good home, plenty to eat, and are able to read, you are a member of a very select group. If you also have a car and a computer, you are among the elite.
- If you are reasonably healthy, you are better of than the one million people who will not be alive one week from today.
- If you never experience the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment or the agony and pangs of starvation, you are ahead of 500 million people.
- If you can attend church without harassment, you are more fortunate than three billion other people.
- If you have money in the bank and spare change in your pocket, you are among the top 8% of the world's wealthy.
- If your parents are still alive and married, you are most fortunate.
- If you can hold up your head, put a smile on your face, and are truly thankful, you are truly blessed, because the majority can but most do not.
- If you can read this message, you are doubly blessed because someone else was thinking of you and over two billion people cannot read at all.
QUOTABLE QUOTES
- "The proper punishment for bigamy is two mothers-in-law." Lord John Russell.
- "An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile - in the forlorn hope that he himself will be the last item on the menu.." -Winston Churchill.
- "The Jews have produced but three originative geniuses: Christ, Spinoza and myself." -Gertrude Stein.
- "Kids haven't changed much, but parents seem to be increasingly unhappy with the child raising phase of their lives." -Penelope Leach.
- "A certain person may have, as you say, a wonderful presence: I do not know. What I do know is that Jeremy has a perfectly delightful absence." -Idries Shah.
- "Nowhere probably is there more true feeling, and nowhere worse taste, than in a churchyard - both as regards the monuments and the inscriptions. Scarcely a word of true poetry anywhere." -Benjamin Johnson.
SMALL HOPE
It happens, sometimes, after wars
That we meet someone like ourselves – all scars –
And mumble in our minds that hopeful word
'love'. Could it happen? There is no such thing.
I am no thrush that wakes in storms to sing,
Just a small poet enmeshed in the absurd,
Counting the lost kisses and the broken delf,
Regretting all my life the 'thees' and 'thous',
My forsaken people and the bars
My elbows love to rub and the jars
My liver has absorbed – my thens and nows
Lie broken and lamenting on the shelf.
Sometimes I meet you and forget all vows,
turn your life around and annex myself.
-Michael Hartnett.
UPON THE PUN!
- "You know, it's hard to hear what a bearded man is saying. He can't speak above a whisker." -Herman J. Mankiewicz.
- "It has been said that a bride's attitude towards her betrothed can be summed up in three words: Aisle. Altar. Hymn." -Frank Muir.
Home