What We Find Interesting, We Found Interesting Long Ago

Irish actor Liam Neeson reported that a horse he worked with in past recognized him while he was working on a movie called The Ballad of Buster Scruggs that was being shot in New Mexico. Neeson said he had given the animal treats and he had taken special care of him previously. I know this story is not much of a big story, but it demonstrates just how we admiringly watch our stars and are interested in any number of celebrity details. At the same time, being Irish allows me to look at Neeson's story as fact although it sounds like others around the set were doubtful. 

You have to wonder what peaked people's interest long ago when they were working hard and didn't have the time to spend to waste away. But it seems to me that when I read sabout people 100, 500, or even a few thousand years ago, I am often surprised at how much they were like us. Shakespeare's play about Julius Caesar or his King Lear can still interest us. All the PBS shows on historic royals and so much interest on the Middle Ages seems to point to plots and melodramas that are timely today. 

Over the past 10 years in my publishing career, I have been interested in reading stories of the Catholic Church and its saints. In many ways, these stories have much that people find interesting. At times there are brutalities that were waged against saints--often creating martyrs. My publishing career recently involved a look at many of the Irish Saints--those called the Irish monastic saints of the 6th century--often referred to as 12 Apostles of Erin. In fact, I have a grandson named after one of them. 

Saint Patrick and his followers found that the Christian faith could find favor and certainly provide the pagans a faith that was more merciful and kind. The pagans in Ireland found the Christian faith a great improvement over their religion that required human sacrifice and cruelty. The followers of Patrick were still making progress a few hundred years later in the 6th century, but they were spending a lot of time copying manuscripts and creating a depository of knowledge. They continued their creation of "books" even as the next wave of pagans came into the picture. These pagans were vikings and they started landing off the coast and attacking monasteries, stealing valuables, and killing monks. These vikings were indeed cruel sailors and savages. However, they did create cities and helped bring about an evolution and improvements in how people lived. 

One of the Saints of Ireland was Saint Kevin. And the Irish have a way with creating a mythology surrounding their saints that most moderns might find hard to believe. And yet, this mythology offers a fundamental understanding of the saint's character and a means to pass values down from one generation to another.  A story about Saint Kevin that was recorded over 800 years ago tells of the great monk saint spending time in his cell or hut (a tiny building for one that basically provide a shelter from the rain). Saint Kevin stuck his arm out the window in prayer and a black bird landed on his hand to nest. Like Liam Neeson, Saint Kevin was an animal lover. The Saint kept his hand out until the bird had laid eggs. Saint Kevin kept his hand out long enough for the eggs to hatch and the babies to grow strong enough to fly. 

Irish poet Seamus Heaney wrote a perfect poem about the story that expands the readers thinking and to have us wonder about Saint Kevin's sacrifice and his motivation. For me personally, it hit home as I have been thinking a lot lately about fatherhood and the responsibilities of men. I think the story  is a perfect one for a group called That Man is You,  to which I belong. 

I was so affected by the story and Seamus Heaney's poem, that I created a shirt to remind myself and others about the Saint's sacrifice. I'd like to see many men wearing the shirt rather than the latest from Nike. Most of us are called on to look after others. Write me if interested at lmj.norris@gmail---I promise I won't bother you with a lifetime of sales pitches--I'll just send you the prices and sizes and you can go from there. 

Lawrence Norris is the publisher of Sporting Chance Press. Patrick McCaskey is the author of the Sports and Faith Series. The latest in the series is Pilgrimage.