You have an interesting job and you lead an interesting life

A burst of sunshine in the garden

Today, we were at the Templemore Baths in East Belfast. There we watched a parade. All of the East Belfast bands were out playing their fife and drum - it was quite a sight. It was as if we were standing by the road, peasants, watching the army pass us sometime back in the 18th century.

I was with Oisin and Ghin and we just watched the bands pass us. After that we went back to the Baths - it is a beautiful old building and we were there because Peter had suggested we go to watch a film there about community activity in the reclamation of these baths in Glasgow. It was all about communities taking charge of their own space again. As far as these things go, it was not very interesting. The film was not very interesting at all. Maybe i was tired. But the boys, veterans of this sort of event were incensed that i had suggested we go along for this with dad.

Because they knew it was going to be not very interesting at all.

I have been to so many of these things, said Oisin. They are soooooo boring.

I did remark something about how i don't really put myself through these things willingly - maybe i said, i think the things i invite you all to are better aren't they? And they said, but that is because you have an interesting job - so you have an interesting life.

To be perfectly honest, i don't understand how people can organise events where they sit down and just talk. I have really moved past that. I think the world has moved past that. I am not advocating entertaining someone from A to Z. I think i am more a doer and if there is not enough of doing in the ratio of sitting and talking, it drives me a bit nuts. Because i think there is a time and place for talking and beyond that, it is a complete waste of time.

I see the therapeutic need to do the sitting down and talking sometimes. Say a community is being treated unfairly - the sitting down and talking is part of emoting and then, if they have the ability to do something, to do something. Sometimes they don't have the ability - but sharing the emoting is very important. Sometimes they can just emote until they fizzle out and die. But that is what the sitting down and talking is about. I myself, not being melancholic, cannot see the point in doing that. Even if the emoting is intellectual. Beyond a certain point, the emoting to me becomes pointless and dull. One of my favourite choleric phrases which i have heard from the Troubles is, get off the cross, someone needs the wood. This caused great offence once, when i said it at a party. I am pretty sure i got away with it because i was not from here.

But the eternally weeping melancholic is just not where i will ever be for any length of time. For a short while, yes, i can do that. But not forever.

Which is why i do the interesting job.

Next academic year for instance, i am in the process of hatching a plan to take the children around parts of Northern Ireland to enjoy the local geography and the local wildlife. I have said, it has to be about wonder and awe. About really enjoying the place so that in the future, there is a chance they will want to do something caring and positive about it. But not do it in a didactic way either. Do it in a way which is all about the fun and joy and delight and wonder.

I had a conversation with a warden once about the infernal nature of meetings. We were just hanging out in Strangford Lough and he said to me, you know sometimes it just drives me spare these meetings. Once we met with the government about how to get rid of some invasive plant and after three meetings we came to the conclusion that it was impossible to do so we didn't do anything. I can tell you that if each of us had a pair of secateurs and spent one of those meetings cutting down all the plants in that field, we would have eradicated it from that field.

Five minutes, sometimes that is all it takes to do something to make a complete difference. Like yesterday, i spent 45 minutes with Class Three and Two in the rain, weeding and bringing up woodchips. This will help us through the summer now to keep the garden which we have created. It has been a busy year in the school really.

That is my take on education - an education which is just about results and about status and about placements is misguided. An education should be about nourishing the soul, about giving someone the resources to create a life filled with meaning if they so choose. It isn't about targets and results, it is about the journey, which is also the destination. If we are not having fun, if we are not engaged, if we are not making a difference, then what is the point right?

As the school winds down for the summer, i take great delight and knowing that next year, the interesting life continues.