Pre-Boarding Reminders

Dia dhuit! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYJjFW80ejM

D and I leave this coming week for Ireland, and as I gear up, I’ve received several important reminders from the Universe.

1. Be humble and kind. Keep centered.

In this case, the center is the Magdalen women. The project isn’t about ME, the book, my “mission” or “calling." It isn’t about the wrongs of the Catholic church or Irish blame (remember the laundries were in the U.S., Canada, Scotland, English, and Australia, too). Remember that I’ll be an “outsider” and can never speak for those who’ve suffered. Acknowledge my own privilege, and remember that this project is ABOUT acknowledgement, about facing and shining a light on something that must never happen again. It’s about admitting that we’re a global family, we’re responsible for each other, and whatever happens to the “least” of us, happens to us all.

2. Not everyone will welcome this project.

I was surprised to get some fairly hostile comments on FB one day, from a very devout Catholic in Ireland who truly believes that the church has been the target of a smear campaign by the leftist media, communists, atheists, and others who want to destroy the church. I need to remember that what looked at first like bizarre fanaticism (not unlike the MAGA attitudes we see here in the U.S.), is probably deeply-seated fear—if a person admits that the church has committed atrocities (the laundry abuses, abuses of children and nuns, etc.), and the church has been the foundation of someone’s “house,” the house might begin to crumble. I’m reminded to be respectful of and gentle with all viewpoints, especially those springing from that root HUMAN frailty: fear.

3. The laundries are bigger than the buildings.

I need to remember, in my writing and along the way in Ireland, that the project goes beyond the former building sites, beyond the cemeteries, beyond even the girls and women who lived and died in the laundries. The project must also include the families, the governments, the villages, towns, and cities in which the laundries were located, the history and culture behind the laundries, the sisters, some of whom also lived in fear themselves and worked (and suffered) alongside the Magdalens, the priests and bishops, the babies and toddlers taken from their mothers. In writing the poems, I need to remember to face the bad without sensationalizing, and to not ignore the GOOD.

4. The Universe will provide.

Every now and then, I’m “stunned into silence.” You know how something can happen, and you all you can do is watch it? marvel at it? be silently amazed and grateful? I felt that every time one of my kids was born. To a lesser degree, I’ve been there several times as I prepare for this trip; I get an email from someone in Ireland who’s worked on Magdalen oral histories and would love to get together while I’m there…I hear from an Irish poet working on Magdalen poems who’d like meet…I hear from a laundry survivor in the U.S. who wishes us well…SO MANY friends and family have helped make this trip possible, are following the project, are holding space for us in some way. I’m gratefully “stunned into silence” by the outpouring of love, support, and comhtharlú.

See you all in Ireland, and go raibh maith agat!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QlDZ-ZiU90