What
Binds Us? ©
By
Michael
Casey
I just
checked my readers for today, as I do every day, that’s why I always have a ruler
with me, to slap their knuckles if they misbehave. Yes very old school, my dad’s
teacher in 1920s Kerry in fact said “One Day Casey you will hang” But my dad
had the last laugh, out of dad’s kids 4
of the 6 of us, became Teachers, though I only did Esol, but I am open to offers if you can tempt me. Now today
from Colombia to Korea and Singapore I’m being read, I won’t rattle off the
list, 80 countries in total. But it brings me to my point, what binds us.
Many things
bind us, our family, our faith, our football team, our gang, fear of our mum
and her tongue lashing us. Having something in common binds us, working as a
team, or sharing the same canteen.
Things bind us, they make us stronger.
If you look at a bridge you’ll see how the ropes twisted together makes
the thing stronger as you cross that river in Colombia or wherever you are today
reading my stuff. So, rope or metal is weaved together to make it stronger and
it can then support the weigh as people or animals or trucks cross it. So, it
is with people too, if you bind them you make them stronger.
A strange
thought came to me as I checked out who was reading my rubbish today, what if
my scattered readers all met, say at the United Nations. They wouldn’t be able
to speak each other’s languages, no doubt English would be the Lingua Franca, though
the French would pretend they could not speak it, and insist French was the language
of Diplomacy. My scattered readers, what can they say? Michael Casey, and then
smile and mention Big Sid, or Smiling Paul, or the Gavin twins, Amjit and
Patrick, not forgetting Mrs Murphy. They might not be able to use each other’s
language but they can mention a name and they all smile, why are those people
in that book so stupid, or clever, or poetic, or just so full of love. So, a
fan club, unites, not that I’ll ever have a fan club, the point is there are
things we all love, or characters in a book who we like the most. Fan conventions
especially SciFi allow people to dress up and be like their favourite star or
character, thus the love of this brings people together. I have actually met
the real Chewbacca and r2d2 when there were fan conventions at the NEC in the early 2000s, and yes they both asked for
my autograph, NOT.
A
connection breaks down walls and friendship and love or just lust begins, and
that forms families, sometimes even after just one night. So, we are bound together.
Some binding may just be because we belong to the same bondage club, Cuffs and
Links, does not refer just to fancy ways of closing your shirt sleeves, it
might also be Cuffs and Links a members’ bondage club. Or you are in a drinking
club or a diving club, or selfie taking and accident club. Selfies do lead to
accidents as fools fall off things, too many times people die because they were
too busy taking a selfie.
A common
thing, a connection, starting with cobwebs love, binds and unites and
strengthens us. We feel happier if we have a connection and are more likely to
help each other. Back in 1999 I was in Barcelona, my last solo misadventure, I
had relearnt my Spanish by practising for just 15 mins a day but for 3 months I
think it was, the exam was in 1975. Anyway, I was lost and unable to find my
hotel, so I stopped 2 old ladies, older people and ladies always help, remember
that. So, I stammered “Donde esta Hotel Paral Ley” and the ladies helped. Why?
Because I said, “me llamo Miguel” and she replied “ mi hijo es Miguel” I said I was Michael and her own son happened
to be called Michael. The accident of a connect no matter how bad my Spanish allowed
me to get help. So, they walked 400 metres with me to the Subway at the top of
Las Ramblas, and pointed the way. I then said I was hungry, so they too me to a
Tapas bar next door to Dunkin Donuts and told the bar staff, feed this man. So obviously
every day for a week I went back to that bar, “otra vez” they named me.
Connections work, no matter who spurious.
So, to
finish because I need to visit the tapas bar that is our kitchen, why does a
Colombian read my stuff as well as a Korean? Not to mention the rest of you. I
hope it’s because I make you laugh and mix the almost serious with really
stupid ideas. So, as you do whatever you do in Colombia you say to “vuestros amigos”
“Miguelito Casey es Loco, pero Que Aproveche” if my Spanish idiom is right. As
for Koreans it might be just because I so damn attractive all the girls read
me. Though, if that’s true, somebody must have a really bizarre sense of
values. Whatever values you have I hope you can see yourselves in The Butcher,
The Baker and The Undertaker, and laugh with me and at all my 2000 plus short
stories. Because laughing together is the only gift I can bring to the table.
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