Table Talk
The conversations we covered at our Engage dinner last week were wide ranging but the topic of ‘going for walks’ came up. You know, the kind of walking we don’t always have time for. The walking with our eyes open, taking in the scenery, the weather, the people at street corners on bridges etc etc.
Well those conversations came back to my mind on Wednesday when my grandson decided to go for a walk. At the mature age of two years and two months he decided that the path I had chosen to walk on was not to be his path, so off he went, hesitatingly at first then at full canter, as fast as his” Spiderman” wellingtons could carry him, (bearing in mind they are two sizes too big for his feet, ‘room for growth’, said my daughter).
As I watched him I wondered if he would hesitate, pause, turn round to see if I would be watching him. Not a bit of it, he was putting some distance between us, and then I saw a little hesitation, a faltering in his pace but it wasn’t to consider where I was in his travels. He spotted a man kicking a football to his mate on the grass, and off he went and joined the game….
The little incident in the Botanics made me reflect on the bigger question of what influences us to take the paths we do, whether in work, or marriage, or special interests and how do these journeys fulfil our lives, or perhaps detract from them.
Are we like herring in the shoal, following the latest cultural trend or are we like the mature chub, striking out in our own into the deep, reluctant for company on the journey…
So I guess the topic of conversation around the dinner table next Tuesday 23rd February at 5.30pm will be: ‘ do we journey alone, or run with the pack….?’
If you would like to sit with us at table for some simple and nutrious food, share a drink, and see where the conversation takes us you would be very welcome. Email me at jackquinn59@btinternet.com for specific directions.
Oh yes the tale of my grandson….. he long forgot about me until I had to drag him kicking and screaming from the football onto the pathway home.
Jack Quinn
19 Feb 2010 |
