Connacht’s mañana culture has been good for me!
Double Vision with Charlie Adley
For decades I’d hitch everywhere. I hitched to the pub and school and friends’ houses. When those friends became scattered around the country in various universities, I thought nothing of hitching to Bradford, Exeter, Oxford and Hull. During teenage Summers, I’d hitch all over Europe. At 19, I hitched to Israel and then ventured further afield, hitching in New Zealand and Australia in my 20s
Adopting a philosophy that allowed no ill will to those who did not stop, I made the process pleasurable.
Why would anyone stop to pick up a complete stranger?
I poured scorn on those who swore and raged at each passing car.
Why choose such an angry path?
In the middle of absolutely nowhere for hours, I’d stand by the side of a road, enjoying a view that, quite possibly, nobody else had ever seen from that particular perspective.
Eventually a car would stop, but for as long as it took, I’d wait, loving my place in the world.
As a result, I learned the power of patience. Even as I hear the scornful snorts of many out there who have encountered me as the opposite, I consider myself a patient man.
Just as well, as the West of Ireland’s mañana culture can be testing. Yet in many ways, your laxity of punctuality has been good for me.
Being an anal-retentive control freak raised in a Protestant country, I still arrive early for every appointment, but since moving here 27 years ago, I’ve become much more relaxed about making plans to see friends.
Thankfully in this Twittery age of instant gratification, rushing and immediacy, the people of the West of Ireland still become instantly and absolutely terrified when asked to make a firm social arrangement.
To read Charlie’s column in full please see this week’s Galway City Tribune.
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