#227 Digging- Beth Lordan
Repressed emotions, unrequited love, and digging in the
plush green dirt, a trip to America to find a new hope, in Boston no less. What
could be more Irish? This story is both tragic and touching, but like the Irish, always connected to the earth.
It begins with digging, an Irishman digging for something
“ancient and splendid and connected to him.” That connection to the earth, to
the rich past of the Irish runs a heavy thread throughout this story. Buried
right under the surface, but still somehow undiscovered and out of reach. The
tragedy of losing that connection, of forgetting or missing the stories of
their, barely touching the grains of sand them as they slip through time. “No
stories will be told tonight.”
History is solid and rugged like the earth, but our personal
connection to it is delicate, especially during modern times as countrymen get
scattered throughout the globe. The Irish migration to America is a perfect
example of that. A generation removed from Ireland, two people might meet, and
connect because of their shared lineage, but even if their pasts intertwine
intimately, they might not know how. The beauty of that connection overshadowed
by the tragedy of lost knowledge buried just beneath the surface.
I loved this story!
Notable Passage: “His only idea is to be out there, as far
from the house as he can go without leaving his own bit of land, digging; what
he wants is the heft and smell and slide of his own earth at his command. He
doesn’t wonder if a man can own something like land; he owns this field and the
dirt within it, and the field goes straight down to the center of the earth.”
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