encounter #2

I was congratulated by an old man; I had helped him carry his luggage from the Galway train station and he looked up and said very kindly, "You could get a job working here!" I was a bit surprised by his genuineness; it's not something that I see very often in the States, or if it is, I see it too much and become inured by it. I wondered why this old man was so appreciative; there were young men loitering around the station everywhere, surely, one of them would have helped the man had I not been there.

I got on the bus headed to Dingle; it would be a five hour ride, but we would ride all through Galway. At one of the stops, a large itinerant family with many children had gotten on. They were boisterous, and the matriarch reminded me of the loud Korean ahjoomas that I know all too well; domineering, iron-fisted, loud, and totally, utterly in charge. The children were squabbling and asking loudly, "when're we there?" Even the mother did not seem to know exactly which bus they were on. The little girl who had sat next to me was turned around, facing her family who had seated themselves in the backseats. Frustrated by all this noise, the mother finally erupted at the loudspoken girl seated beside me, "I don't know, ask the person next to you!"

She peeked a sideway glance at me, maybe to see if I was sleeping or not. She suddenly seemed quite unsure of herself, and her demeanor had changed to that of a reserved little girl. She asked, humbly, "Excuse me sir, does this bus go to x?"

I answered her, although I think she was more surprised that I spoke English without an accent, or perhaps that I spoke English at all. She replied, "oh alright, thank you very much." With that, she turned around and returned to her normal loud self.

The family got off at the next stop.

When I finally arrived, I was horrified to see a giant advertisement on the bus stop. There was a large poster with pictures of old men and women and a sign that said, "Who are these people to you?" It was apparently an attempt to combat a hostile sentiment against the older generation. It could be inferred from the ad that apparently many Irish youth saw the elderly as useless and senile bats, not fit for productive effort.

Perhaps this was the consequences of a nascent economy made composed of young people?

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is Xnity a choice?

is Xnity synonymous with faith?

is Xnity an "approximate" religion?

I know where this road ends, but I am drawn to it already.