 |
Just Because it Rains, Doesn’t Mean You
Have to be Rained On
2007 AHAN Irish Seminar
Dublin, Ireland
By Jason Lowrey
If you really want to get to the heart of the matter
go directly to the source. Homma Kancho took Carl Finney
and me directly to Dublin to see if the Guinness really is
better in Ireland than in America. Just kidding. Our
main purpose was to attend the 2007 Aikido Humanitarian Active
Network Irish Seminar held October 20-21, 2007. As always,
whenever I get the opportunity to travel with Homma Kancho,
I learn more about people and culture than I do about a simple
destination or a special technique.
The
first thing I noticed about Dublin was the large number of
people. People from all over the world were walking down
every sidewalk, crowding stores, and paying .22 Euro (.32 US)
for plastic bags. Yes, I had to pay for my bag! At
first I was confused when I bought some items at a nearby convenience
store and the cashier gave me a receipt and said “next” while
my items just sat there on the counter. I asked if I
could have a bag please; he very matter-of-factly asked for
22 cents, punched the numbers in his register, and held out
his hand. At first I was caught off guard and I soon
found myself tucking plastic bags away to use for ice at the
hotel as if they were a valuable commodity. I think this
is a really smart way to make people reduce waste and literally
own everything they purchase as their responsibility.
Not
only were the bags expensive; so was everything else. It
was explained to me by the local people that Dublin is in an
economic boom referred to as the “Celtic Tiger”.
The Celtic Tiger, which began about ten years ago, has brought
hundreds of thousands of people into the country every year.
There are people from all over the world going to any of the
numerous schools in Dublin’s city center, or earning money
in this clean efficient city jammed with people who all spend
the weighty Euro. With such a high demand on living space
and material goods, merchants can charge high prices on just
about anything. One thing that Carl and I were comforted
by was that the price of a pint of beer in Europe works out
to be the equivalent to the cost of a 12 oz. beer in America
(and we continually attempted to do the math). While
attempting to do currency conversions, we were able to meet
the many people who visit, work and study in Ireland. Name
a country and there was a representative, happy to meet Americans
and talk about anything except American football.
One
of the people I had a chance to speak with was Simone Chierchini,
who is one of the co-founders of the Aikido Organisation of
Ireland (AOI), founded in 1996. The money that was raised from
Homma Kancho’s August 2006 Residential seminar
held in Donegal, Ireland was
used by Simone Sensei to purchase mats to be used for keiko
(practice). Simone Sensei, Italian by birth, was able
to return to his roots. He found a good price on mats and personally
imported practice mats from Italy to Ireland for the collective
schools of AOI. These mats were used at the two different
locations for this year’s seminar by way of using a van
for transport. It turns out this van is kind of a “Dojo-to-go,” as
it transports the mats to any of the ten locations throughout
the AOI umbrella organizations.
The
AOI group does not have any permanent practice facilities,
which requires them to rent various practice spaces. The
idea of an umbrella as a portable shelter appears to define
the AOI, and also seems to keep this group of ten schools based
in four towns together as one community. Any useful umbrella
has a handle, stem, and spokes that hold paper or fabric, which
creates a kind of portable shelter. I see the fabric
as the kind and generous people who work together to uphold
the ideas and lessons they offer each other. The spokes
seem to be the people willing to be an anchor point, such as
teachers or mentors. The stem could be the common place
for all of these people to meet, like a school or community
center. The handle represents the person who ensures
that people know where the stem of the matter is and invites
others under the group’s shelter.
The intention of this
year ’s seminar was to create
a more permanent stem whereby all ten AOI groups could come
together and expand their lessons further out into the community.
Simone Sensei plans to open the first permanent AOI dojo (school)
in Sligo, Ireland. This facility, which he is already
calling Kirin, will also include a multi-use area for receiving
guests, with a cafe and a thrift shop to recycle used clothes
and goods back into the community. This idea of a community
center for individuals to better themselves while helping to
better the environment surrounding them sounds exciting. I
wish the best to Simone Sensei and the AOI in building their
selves a permanent home to further their practice and share
their strength with the surrounding community.
I
would like to thank everyone of AOI for receiving Homma Kancho,
Carl and me with such open hearts. Special thanks to
Simone Chierchini, Lara Natali (AOI co-founder), Daniel Diago,
and Fionna for your guidance and support during our visit to
your home of Ireland. The most important thing to me about
traveling is discovering new people and sharing time with them.
Oh, if you want to know if the Guinness is better in Ireland
than in America, just offer to buy me a pint and we’ll
talk about it anytime.
Slainte!
Thank You,
Jason Lowrey
November 2007
|
