Someone commented that blogging is a silly form of navel gazing. There is a truth to that and in that context I almost deleted this blog site last week. But it is still here.
Some weeks ago I had to abort a cycle from West Kerry to Dublin due to a knee injury. But I managed to make amends last Saturday when I cycled the Ring of Kerry - 200 kilometres through some of the most beautiful countryside in the world.
It made me recall the cycling we did in the novitiate and studentate and then later all the walking I did with the late John O'Gorman.
On the top of Moll's Gap it crossed my mind how in the past we were so kind to the environment. Back in the late '60s and through the '70s there was little or no talk about 'environmental friendly behaviour' and yet we were on our bikes. Today we are forever being made aware of environmental issues and our affluence seems to have forced us to guzzle up as much fossil fuels as if there were no tomorrow.
I am amazed at the culture of waste that exists and that includes within the province. There may be some low level PC vocabulary about caring for the environment, but the day-to-day reality tells a very different story.
The lights we leave on, the water we waste. I wonder how many Dominicans know how much a kilowatt hour costs and how much it costs to produce it? How much it costs to run a car. Okay, the sophisticated literates might quote Oscar Wilde, still, there is a link between how we spend money and care for the environment. And when we have not earned the money ourselves the problem deepens.
Just as communism created its own problems, I wonder does the term 'common life' mean today what it is meant to mean?
It was a fitting day for the cycle as it was the 33rd anniversary of priestly ordination and what better way to be in touch with the world.
There is nothing false, no nonsense about cycling 200 kilometres, including the climb up Coomakista and Moll's Gap.
Surely there has to be more about God in that than in discussing how we pray or the garments we wear when praying. Clerical gossip is not the air you breathe on a 200 km cycle.
I keep thinking we are getting lost in trivia.