It’s the fag-end of the wettest August since records began and I’m fighting off the end-of-summer blues. After a manic and very successful Summer Music on the Shannon 2008 three weeks of which I spent on-campus in UL, and a three day holiday shared between Baile Bhúirne and Killarney, it’s back to the grind stone!

Please please have the rain stop! Please please please let the sun blaze down for the next 6 weeks! Is that too much to ask for?

I’m off to Kerry today for a much-needed break with my partner. I’m leaving the laptop behind (I really need a break from computers) so won’t be posting here for the next 6 days at least.

Today is the second last day of the Chinese Year of the Pig. And it’s been a pretty good year for me at least.

Next Thursday, 7th February 2008, sees the beginning of the Chinese Year of the Rat. I’m hoping I will finally see some harvest from all the hard work I’ve put in since before my Dog year.

Well, I’m back in full flight again after my recent dose of flu-like virus which knocked my head for six for 5 whole days. I was still a bit shaky when I started work on Monday morning but I’ve been very careful not to overdo it. I’m almost back to my full health, but I’m being careful to take my time about things and not get all hot and bothered when things pile up as they have a habit of doing. While work is important, it is not the most important thing by a long shot. But it is easy to forget this in our pressurised society. I had temporarily forgotten this and that is why I was hit by this virus - it was my body’s way of getting me to slow down and stop for a breather.

It’s Friday evening of the November bank holiday weekend already. It’s been a hectic week for me work-wise so much so I haven’t been able to post here at all. I’m off for a walk in the fields now, while it’s dry and before it gets dark. I’m taking the digital camera with me in case I get any interesting shots.

11 September 2007

Dear Secretary,

I have been a member of The Green Party for nigh on 10 years. Joining the Party was a very big decision for me since I had hitherto regarded all politicians and political parties with suspicion and contempt in varying measure depending on the person or party. My decision to join was therefore taken only after months of deliberation and soul-searching. What eventually persuaded me to join were the core principles espoused by The Green Party which very closely mirrored my own and which I reiterate here for convenience:

• The impact of society on the environment should not be ecologically disruptive.
• Conservation of resources is vital to a sustainable society.
• All political, social and economic decisions should be taken at the lowest effective level.
• Society should be guided by self-reliance and co-operation at all levels.
• As caretakers of the Earth, we have the responsibility to pass it on in a fit and healthy state.
• The need for world peace overrides national and commercial interests.
• The poverty of two-thirds of the world’s family demands a redistribution of the world’s resources.

The set-up of The Green Party, with each member having a single vote, and all members being entitled to vote on any and every item up for decision by the Party, was another powerful attraction. The Ulster Unionist Party is the only other party that can claim such egalitarian credentials on the island of Ireland.

What distinguished The Green Party from every other party at that time was that it didn’t have a leader, which was particularly attractive to me since I believe in the primacy of the individual as espoused by Proudhon - not in the primacy of the group over the individual as enforced by the status quo, nor in the primacy of a tiny elite over the mass of humanity as vested in dictatorships, nor even in the primacy of the majority over the minority as practised by the many and varied democracies on the planet.

That all changed when the membership of The Green Party voted to have a leader. If my memory serves me correct, those who mooted the idea did so as a means to give the Party a focus with a view to making it more media-friendly and thus more likely to get attention from the media, and as a consequence be taken as a “serious party” by the hoi poloi. I, with some misgivings, was one of those who voted to have a leader. I now see I was gravely mistaken, as voting to have a party leader has proven to be the crack that let the rot in.

The recent decision taken by a minority of The Green Party membership to go into government with that Party that stands for all that is detestable and execrable in both the human person and the political entity (corruption, dishonesty, lies, deceit, greed, the nod and wink, retention of power at any cost, the One Party state - in short: the triumph of the mediocre), is proof positive that The Green Party has succumbed to that rot. And, yes, it was a minority decision by the membership - I remind you that the 86% that voted for going into government was 86% of around half the membership. I regard this as a clear disenfranchisement of those of us who absolutely couldn’t make it to Dublin mid-week to vote due to family and work commitments since no effort whatsoever was made to accommodate us.

Much soul-searching and deliberation has lead me to conclude that The Green Party which I joined all of 10 years ago no longer exists. I emphasise that I am not leaving The Green Party - The Green Party has left me. I am not resigning from The Green Party - The Green Party by its actions detailed above no longer deserves and may no longer count upon my support.

I, as sole arbitrator of my destiny, do hereby assert the primacy of the individual, and in that capacity do hereby tender notice of my intent to ritually cleanse my person of all and any vestiges of the current self-styled Green Party at a date and in a manner I deem appropriate. Therefore do I demand that you cease all communications so ever with my person and desist from plying me with Green Party literature be it by snail or electronic mail from this moment.

Yours sincerely

____________
Patrick Stack

Much as I would have liked to blog the entire Summer Music on the Shannon 2007 programme, this proved impossible. So I’ve been silent since the last day of July. The programme was a success yet again, but once more I found it to be very intensive, exhausting and exhilirating in various measure at different times. Both my partner (who was also involved in SMS 2007) and I were absolutely jaded by the end of the programme - we could barely move when we arrived back home on Sunday 19th August. Fortunately, we had a mini-break in Madrid with the children from Tuesday 21 to Saturday 25, and this recharged our batteries. SMS 2007 was a watershed for me as a poet, as I did my first public performances since the mid 1980s at two Mozart Plus concerts at the Georgian House in Limerick. But more of that in another post.

After a glorious day yesterday - the first without rain for a month and a half! - and a nice morning this morning, it’s back to spilling rain and gloom once more. It was too good to last I suppose

Day 2 of SMS is down and I’m very tired - so tired I can’t bring myself to work any more, so I’m calling it quits for the day.

The first day of Summer Music on the Shannon 2007 has passed without incident. It was a very early start for us as we had to get up at 6.30 am to be in UCH by 8.00 am for registration of the first week’s Opera students and faculty. I have a nicer office this year than ever before, as there is more natural light. We didn’t get back home until 6.30 pm when I cooked dinner.

I now have to do at least an hour’s work on this shopping cart I’m building, which I don’t relish as I feel quite tired, and I have to be up early again tomorrow. I would much prefer to be dozing off in front of the TV.

I’m one year older according to the calendar, but in reality I’m not really. It is an interesting phenomenon how people react to the mounting number count of their years on this planet. Most, but not all, of them seem to cringe at the prospect of another unit being added to the total that is the number of birthdays since their first. And the birthdays that end in 0 (zero) seem to take on an added significance for some reason - that is those after 21, because up to then it seems to go 7 (seven), 13 (thirteen), 18 (eighteen), 21 (twenty-one). A curious phenomenon indeed!

Well, I celebrated my 49th birthday yesterday, and did it in style. Together with my partner/spouse/wife (choose whichever you’re comfortable with) and two offspring (my 15 year old daughter is less than enamoured with the label of “child”) went to see the latest Harry Potter film, The Order of the Phoenix. Then it was off to the swimming pool for an hour where my son had his last swimming lesson. Apart from splashing too much, and not concentrating enough, he’s doing fine! Then we nipped back to base to install the weekly shopping in the fridge and cupboards before going out again for dinner - at the Kasturi Restaurant in Ennis. We had a fine meal in pleasant surroundings, and this time I successfully resisted the temptation to eat too much!

All in all a very enjoyable day - I didn’t even turn on a computer or think of checking my e-mail or web stats! And if you’re wondering what I thought of the Harry Potter film, wonder no more - it was a fine piece of entertainment: I was lost in another world for a couple of hours, which is after all why I went. I wouldn’t want to see it again - once is plenty. So there you have it.