It turns out that my trip home to Ireland (the Chronology will be skewed here with subsequent blogs) has set me back 3 years, 11 months and 18 days.

I am constantly amazed at the attitudes and demands of American life. There is a sense of entitlement with most of the Americans I know that I had myself convinced was some sort of skewed preconception of mine until I returned home for two weeks at the end of November. I'm right in thinking that almost four years is enough to consider myself educated (albeit from a removed point of view - an outsider point of view, say) in American ways. I might have lost the edge of my accent in recent times, but my values hold pretty true, even if I do "play the game" in a state of semi-passivity. I was happy to rediscover the quiet self assuredness of the Northern Irish, in not only their customer service attributes, but also in something as simple as driving down a highway. There is a real sense of humility in their everyday life that America has beaten out of me. Customer service in a restaurant setting is straight forward and honest, as if the waiter (or in one case, the waitress - Yes they have no trouble using that term in Ireland) was simply serving their parents, or siblings - A desire to seem professional, but without the pretense of camaraderie, or puppy dog need to please. This stems a little from the knowledge (rightly so) that no one person is better than another. You know, I think it's because of the lack of "competition" (and also quite possibly, the need for the use of quotation marks!) with everyday people. It's the, "I'm not anything less than you when you go home and crap on the shitter" attitude in a completely unconscious manner that sets the tone for every transaction.

Today I was in a room full of corporate hounds, trying to validate their every decision within the corporate boundaries of their servitude to the (here we go again) "Customer" and the talk was of rules and policies and best practices and I spent almost my whole time (not all, as I am a respectful little puppy-hound myself) seeing the stark contrast with what I had just experienced at home. In Ireland it wouldn't be about what it says in the rule book, but more about how I believe I should treat other human beings trying to get through the day in the exact same way as myself.

Every little decision, argument, life choice, change in tone, roll of the eyes, tut, harrumph and sigh is analyzed until the life has been rung out of it, whereas Irish life never apologises for speaking its mind, ignoring every little politic or even being misunderstood. NOTHING is dumbed down in case you might not understand it, because having to have it explained is not a weakness - instead it actually has allowed you and me to make a connection and instead of me being the smart one (which, of course I never felt in the first place, as it's not a competition!), we now both have the knowledge, because it was shared, and are as smart as each other. "Sure, aren't we a couple of smarty pantses? 'Mon we'll go have a pint!"

Maybe all America is missing is story telling.
I recall reading a quote recently that states that there might have been great societies that have survived without the wheel, but there have been none that have not had stories. I sense everyday, this lack of appreciation for story telling, for sharing knowledge and information and for opening up of discussion and it seems it's because it might make one of us look stupid. It might make one of us seem, well... more knowledgeable - Oh, God, we wouldn't want that, so how about instead I either not tell a story, or tell it in such a way that all life and thought has been stripped from it so that you don't have to use your underused brain to totally misunderstand the thing that has been taught!
Let me analyze what I just said, attend a support group, appropriate some therapy and maybe take some strong drugs to stop me from speaking my mind again!

Salt of the earth, the Northern Irish are, and I'm badly in need of some seasoning! (please don't be sick.... but it's true!)