Tis the Season...

Party season has begun. I look forward to the elongated Christmas celebrations in Ireland with a mixture of anticipation and horror. On one hand, it's all great fun: mulled wine and Christmas decorations, and a bit of banter and general good-will. There's a real 'kids on Christmas Eve' vibe to everything. People are a bit giddy and well up for anything and there's always some event to look forward to.

On the other hand, it's absolute drunken-ness on the streets of Dublin, playing dodge the puke during your Sunday Christmas shopping "adventures", pants that have suddenly become two sizes too small and best of all: waking up in the middle of the night with a mouth that tastes like an ashtray, a pounding headache and the vague feeling that you've said or done something wholly innappropriate which can then be replayed in yer head through the wee hours of the morning until it becomes an elephant sized disaster and you think that perhaps it would be best to pack yer bags and jump on the next plane to a new life. (but maybe that's just me. ;) )

In the States in general and New England in particular, we have two things that moderate all of this good fun/complete excess: Thanksgiving and Puritans. Without Thanksgiving to mediate, Ireland moves from fairly muted Halloween fesitivities into two months of full-on, hard-core Christmas debauchery on Nov. 1st. The Christmas decorations go up, Marks and Spencer start showing dessert porn on TV (super-close up shots of sticky-toffee pudding, dripping with creme anglais and some husky voiced female in the background: "Not just Sticky-toffee-pudding, M&S Stiiiiccccckkkkyyyy-toffffeeeee-puddddding"), and best/worst of all, the partys begin. In addition to the easing into the Christmas season that Thanksgiving provides, we New Englanders have a history of Puritanical self-denial. Sure we try to fight it, we're cosmopolitan, modern folk after all... ;) but there's a little man in a pilgrim hat somewhere inside of us that says, "perhaps you shouldn't have that fifth pink cocktail with a strawberry on top, you disgraceful, excessive slob, you should in fact, go off and whip yerself with tree branches instead while running on a treadmill and eating brocolli..." (well, maybe that's just me again... ;) ) Generally though, I think we New Englanders are a bit more reserved than yer average Dub and all this messy whiskey-induced emotion, absolute indulgence and carry-on of the holiday season is both absolutely compelling and a little bit overwhelming at the same time. Either way, there's no denying it's here.

More than enough food for thought

I've been thinking alot lately about how people fnd meaning and purpose in their lives. Maybe because I've been reading alot - about a lot of horrible things really, honour killings, alcoholism, and global warming to name just a few. And whenever I read another article about poverty in Africa or sex trafficking or, insert social ill here, I'm upset/worried/pissed-off. And then I put down the article and go to bed and wake up in the morning and go to work and forget. I spend my days drawing little pictures and laying out type and giving careful consideration to kerning and clean lines and the relative merits of helvetica. ;) And for the most part, I enjoy this but it all seems rather insignificant when faced with all the broken things in the world that desperately need attention. Sure, I ride my bicycle and recycle and vote and try to work on projects that contribute to the greater good, like public gardens and literacy schemes but it seems like small potatoes in relation the worlds big woes... I was reading a collection of quotes today (for use in a book we are putting together at work) and I came across a couple that seemed really appropriate to my frame of mind these days... Maybe they just make me feel better about working at the "frivolous" job of art instead of working to end world hunger but they moved me and it's nice to find a little piece of inspiration now and again...

"Optimism is a strategy for making a better future. Because unless you believe that the future can be better, it’s unlikely you will step up and take responsibility for making it so. If you assume that there’s no hope, you guarantee that there will be no hope. If you assume that there is an instinct for freedom, there are opportunities to change things, there’s a chance you may contribute to making a better world. The choice is yours."
Noam Chomsky

"What is success? To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived; that is to have succeeded."
Ralph Waldo Emerson

html-mnop

I've recently rediscovered the joys of html... After my horrendous first job in Ireland, I had serious web PTSD. ;) But I'm coming back to it... slowly. I'm building myself a personal website and having a bit of fun customizing the blog... Don't worry. I won't leave it all neon pink forever... but I'm craving a bit of colour after spending my day designing a corporate identity for a Human Resources Company.