Off the Shelf: Frankie
November 26, 2024
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The Irish have always been great writers, this month’s selection is no different. …
Terry from Derry: Storytelling
- iIrish Admin
- November 25, 2024
- Edited 20 hours ago
Table of Contents
By Terry Boyle
Part of my role as a hike leader is to impart some knowledge about the animal and plant life of the desert. When it comes to plants, it’s quite easy.
Plants don’t get up and move around. You can usually count on a plant being in the same place week after week unless something quite dramatic has happened to it.
Animals are different. The chances of seeing wildlife in the desert is almost impossible to predict.
Most people who take this hike want to see big horn sheep. Those eager for a photo op. scour the desert sands in the hope of seeing a sheep. As a hike leader, you are always on the lookout hoping to satisfy this desire to glimpse one of these elusive animals, especially since you’ve spent time telling stories about them. As part of my repertoire, I point to a barrel cactus and tell my fellow hikers that a big horn sheep will eat such a plant. It’s hard to imagine that such a prickly plant would be edible.
The spines of the barrel cactus, apart from causing you serious damage should you get pricked by one, are hard and sharp. And, since I’d never seen a big horn sheep actually bite into one of these plants, I had to trust that what I was told by the experts was true. Those who studied the habits of these animals had to know what they were talking about, right?
Cactus
I’d been leading the hike along the Art Smith trail for about two years, and each time, I’d point to the largest barrel cactus I could see and tell my story about the sheep. There were times when we would see what looked like a cactus that had been savaged by something.
The plant was torn open. Was it a big horn sheep? Maybe.
It was difficult for me, and I’m sure it was for the others to imagine that anything could break through those formidable thorny spines and eat the very salty material inside. The experts told me that a big horn sheep could knock over the cactus, spit out the spines and eat that salty material. Again, I was solely reliant on what they had told me until I finally saw it for myself.
We’d finished our hike and were making our descent down the trail when we encountered eight or nine big horn sheep. The excitement in the group was palpable. Cameras were at the ready as we stealthily moved towards them.
Big horn sheep are not skittish, at least not with people. Dogs are a different matter.
As we began taking pictures, my attention was drawn towards two of the sheep. They were savaging a barrel cactus.
You can imagine my delight at finally seeing what others had said to be true. At last, I could, with conviction, tell the story about the big horn sheep and the cactus without the slightest doubt. I now even had video proof to back up my story.
In some ways, this experience served as a bit of a parable for me. I remember writing an article for the newspaper about a famous sociologist who predicted that democracies in the west, since the end of the second world war, were moving towards fascism. The trends, as he saw it, would culminate in a collapse of democracy as we know it.
When I read about his work, I refused to believe it. The optimist in me wanted to believe that such a theory was the work of an alarmist.
Sadly, however, I’ve come to understand that his ideas have more substance to them than my flimsy idealism. His speculations are more than fearmongering. They are rooted in keen observation of a growing disgruntlement with the limitations of democracy.
It doesn’t take a genius to see how this move towards fascism is gaining in traction. In Europe, there are any number of countries where the extreme right is making itself known through racism and white supremacy.
The recent election in this country has proven how far we’ve moved from the ideals of democracy. When the majority of voters are willing to elect a man who espouses the ideals of a dictator, and who is as trustworthy as a conman, it proves that we’re in trouble. Who would ever have thought American citizens would elect to the highest place in government a known felon?
For months, I have written any number of articles that have supported the sociologist’s viewpoint that we were moving towards fascism, but in my heart, I didn’t want to believe it was true. I, like so many others, wanted to believe that this country was better than that. I wanted to believe that this country was capable of electing a woman president.
Election Results
I’d hoped that my fellow citizens were tired of the shameless rhetoric of the Orange Man; his lies, and obvious lack of conscience, but I was wrong. The results of the election proved me wrong and proved the sociologist right. His predictions are now a reality.
The American people have voted to end their democratic rights by electing an aspiring dictator. Over the next four years, we will watch this man disassemble the rights of minorities. The same minorities who voted for this nightmare will rue the day when they see their hard-won rights diminishing before their eyes.
Once in power, this man will execute his plan for revenge. His misuse of rule will go unchecked because he will bend the will of the people to his own need for absolute power.
When I finally saw with my own eyes the big horn sheep breaking open and eating the cactus, I was delighted. The experts were right, and my doubts were assuaged. My faith was not founded in theory but fact. The joy I felt then is such a contrast to how I feel about the last election.
We’re on the path to realizing the worst of what it is to live under a dictatorship, but as one of my Irish friends said to me, ‘perhaps it has to get worse, in order for it to get better.’ I think he’s right; we have not reached our rock bottom yet.
To read more of Terry’s columns, go HERE
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Terry Boyle
*Terry is a retired professor now living in Southern California. Originally from Derry, Northern Ireland, in 2004 Terry took up a position at Loyola University, Chicago where he taught courses on Irish and British literature. Apart from teaching, Terry has had several plays produced and has recently been included in The Best New British and Irish Poets 2019 - 2021 (published by The Black Spring Press). He can be reached at: [email protected]
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