I live in County Down in Northern Ireland. Let me tell you why I like this. It’s because I am located at the centre of things. Co. Down itself is located between counties Armagh and Antrim. The Irish province of Ulster (Uladh in Irish), is basically what is called Northern Ireland, and Ulster is located between Ireland and Britain. It has characteristics peculiar to both and domicile within it affords the inhabitant to develop a cultural bilingualism. You get a bit of both. Now things get interesting. I am located in a region which is between Britain and America. A good portion of me, through cultural infusion, is American. I probably can name more American presidents than English kings. Now things get interesting. I am located in a region which is halfway between Europe and America. Yes, for all my Americanisms (I have said ‘cool’ all my life. When Michael J. Fox goes back to 1955 I feel like I am visiting my own heritage), I am also European. I prefer German writers to the English. I prefer the French composers to the Americans and if I happen to be taking an evening perambulation through the honey-coloured streets of an eastern Mediterranean village I feel like I am in a home I should never leave. I am thus American and European. I get a bit of both. Now things get interesting. I am located in a region which is located between the West and the East. Once or twice I drink Coca-Cola. I have watched movies from Holywood. But as I sit and type this I am listening to music by the Iranian kimancheh player, Kayhon Kalhor. A great deal of my culture is decidedly non-western. The texts of my religion were written in Arabic. The founder of my religion spent His latter decades as a prisoner in Israel. In 1997 I made a pilgrimmage to Western Turkey to visit a little house in which He was exiled (the subject of another post). When I first visited the middle east in 1994 I was already fairly accultured and I felt as if I had arrived home. So, you see, from where I sit I get a bit of everything. Things have got interesting.

Uladh, the centre of things.

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