August 18, in the air and on our way
after almost a year in preparation. This trip for me is about a lot
more than a vacation, it is sort of a passing on of family stories,
ideas and learnings that I have collected over the last 60 years and
it honours the memory of my own father, who took me to London and
Ireland in 1965. It was an important time for my relationship with
my dad and trust it will be a good bonding experience for Matt and
me.
When I think of my family history, the
story starts the dark reaches of history in Sumeria. A group of
forgotten people started a centuries long migration north and west.
Moving into areas freed from the ice and establishing a civilization
that would one day flower into the Western culture of today. My
genetics reflect this movement. My mom's people come from Ukraine
northwest of the black sea and carry Turkish and Jewish blood. My
father's people can be traced back to Hethersgil near the border of
Scotland. My dad told me stories that we were originally Normans
whom were given land and titles after 1066. The movement then
continued westward from northern England to Ireland and Raphoe. The
name Hertherington was therefore part of the colonization process of
the Anglo-Scot t take over of Ireland and most particularly Ulster in
what is called the plantation movement. After 400 years in Ireland
the name then came to Canada in 1928/29 when father, Robert John,
immigrated to Canada. First working in Saskatchewan (where he met
met mother in Prince Albert where they both worked in TB Hospital).
Then couple married and the name moved to west coast of North America
(New Westminster, 1934) where this centuries long journey westward
was stopped by the Pacific ocean.
Matt's genetic make up fills in the
blanks of this European migration/colonization story through the
genes of his mother (Kastens - Schoeder). Kastens is associated with
the northern European lowlands of Denmark, Holland, France and
Germany and Schoeder with eastern Prussia (near Danzig). One purpose
of this trip is to tell Matt the Irish part of the story of his
origins and family name. I think this very important for knowing who
you have been provides a necessary base for knowing who you are
becoming. It is particularly important for my generation to tell
this story to our children because as the first born Canadian
generation the link with the past will be lost in the melting pot of
North America, and the journey westward of my ancestors will be
hidden behind the curtain of forgetfulness.
A second reason for
this trip is to carry on the tradition of story telling that has long
been part of Irish culture. I sense that the notion of being a bard
or story telling is strong in my family. My father was not an actor
but he was a story teller (clairvoyant and hypnotist). I can see
this love of language and the spoken word is a live in Matt and I
therefore want to encourage him to develop it. One way that I am
trying to do this on our trip is to read to each other. The book I
have chosen is called Ireland and it is by Frank Delany. It is a
story about the last Irish travelling story teller and the stories
that he tells about Ireland. It is also a story about a father and
his son. I hope that we both find the read meaningful. I also fondly
remember reading and telling stories to Matt when he was a child and
the experience was one of most meaningful experiences of my life.
Reading together honours that experience.family storiews, history,
A third reason is
about a Matt's passage from childhood to adult. When Matt was an
infant I took him to the Coquitlam River and Baptized him in the name
of all the gods I could think of, my belief being that God is so
great that he is unknowable and that every religion is only one
interpretation of mens' relationship with God. Religion therefore is
something personal that needs to grow as all relationships do between
two individuals. It has always struck me as somewhat arrogant that
anyone could say they knew the truth about God's will as that seems
to me to be something that everyone need discover for them-self.
Anyway, I as I was baptizing Matt an eagle was flying overhead so I
made a cedar offering to the eagle and gave Matt the name of “boy
who is watched over by eagles”. To earn the name I then made a
cedar offering every time I saw an eagle for one year. When Matt was
in his teens I told him that I was wanted to be more that just his
father and that I wanted us to also be brothers. Matt has taken me
up on this brotherly relationship and we have had many talks as
brothers that would be difficult for fathers and sons. Now that he
is 18 I want to free him of his obligations to me and re-establish
our relationship as two men – not just as sons and fathers or
brothers but also as friends and comrades.
My intention for
this blog is to document the things we do on the trip and my thoughts
about historic and current relationships.
August 20. It is 5
am and I have been awake since 4 and now am in the restaurant of our
hotel (Maldron) in order to give Matt a chance to sleep without
interruption. We had a good day yesterday. After a long flight, I
/we got a few hours sleep and then got up at 5 to do a pub walking
tour of Dublin. After buying a few supplies we walked to the Temple
Bar district where Matt and I listened to Irish music and had a meal.
We toasted with Matt's first legal drink (Guinness). The pub was
called Fitzismons. We then moved on to the Bruxelles pub (three
styles of pub in one) and had a couple of pints. We had one outdoors
and the terrace, one in the basement (heavy metal music) and finished
upstairs. The upstairs room was especially cool. It was very old
and funkie and played good old rock and roll music. We then walked
back to the hotel.
Today, we plan to
tour the Guinness bewerary and a couple of literature related
museums.
-Tom
No comments:
Post a Comment