I sent a few postcards and some emails to people about my trip to Ireland and France. This is my first letter filled with more detail. You won’t hurt my feelings if you don’t have time or inclination to read it all. However, there will be a test later ! J

Briefly, the first week my friend Dani and I spent on a bus going around the Irish Island. The second week we rented a car and went out looking for her family’s historical roots. There’s nothing like looking for dead potato farmers in small villages a century after they left for America. The small churches and historical societies we visited told us to “look on the web”. Well, heck that’s not as exciting as looking at some old crusted over tombstone, but it was fun seeing the area.

This was the first time I’ve been in a foreign country (aside from Canada, which isn’t really foreign) that I was able to ask for directions in the native tongue and people immediately understood me. Even more amazing to me was that, despite the accent, I understood the answer. This has never happened to me before. (!!)

As exciting as that was, the real problem I found wasn’t in understanding the answer. It was in asking the right person the question. When we were lost, many friendly people gave us directions. However, they were often wrong. Later, we would have to stop and ask again. Sometimes I felt that we should ask 4 or 5 different people and then take an average of what we were told.

Side note: This is a lot like people looking for the way back to our Heavenly Home. They ask directions of everyone ~ and many want to help ~ but only a few really know. You have to ask several times before someone can give you an answer that takes you back to Heavenly Father without a wrong turn.

Driving on the left hand side of the road in Ireland is quite an adventure. Here in America, right hand turns are easy. To go straight or turn left, one must stop and wait for traffic to clear. When a cop loses a bad guy he is chasing, the cop will make a right hand turn. Odds are that the bad guy made the same turn because it was easier than crossing traffic to go left.

The opposite is true in countries that drive on the left hand side of the street. The left hand turns are “easy” and right hand turns are “hard”. I was happy to have had a week watching our bus driver before I took the wheel. A second person is essential for reading maps, street signs and giving verbal reminders such as “easy left” or “difficult right”

Make a note of language choice here. If Dani said “hard right”, I could accidentally misinterpret. “Hard right” usually means: Go immediately right – now! “Difficult right” reminded me to wait and watch for cross traffic before venturing forth.

Speaking of language choice… Here in America, we often say those in other lands who drive on the left hand, or opposite side, of the road are “driving on the wrong side”. The Irish don’t drive on the “wrong side”. They say that they drive on the “correct side”. The problem comes from confusing “Right and Left” with “Right and Wrong”.

By saying, “Correct side”, it automatically means that either side is “right” as long as everyone agrees and follows the same pattern. Driving on the “incorrect side” causes problems because it is the “wrong side” for the majority. Having everyone agree on the same rules is what makes systems work.

The problem we are having in our modern day is that we are trying to change Natural and Eternal Rules to our liking just as we change man-made rules. We believe that if the majority agrees, we can do what we want. I heard an expression the other day: “We don’t break the commandments. We break ourselves against them.” Some principles are the way they are. It’s to our benefit to work with them, ~ not against them.

Back to the road….Although I managed the “right /left – correct” issue OK, I still had a wee bit of a problem placing the car on the road. I was in the correct lane OK but, according to Dani, I would often drift to the far left side of my correct lane. This put me up against the scratchy hedgerows along the sides and made Dani dig her fingernails into the car’s upholstery.

I think, I was trying to put my physical body on the left side of the car (?) where it was used to being and taking the car with it. She’d have to remind me to move closer to the center from time to time. With Dani’s help, we did OK. We returned the car without any dings. Whew!

The driving habit carries over in walking too. Oncoming pedestrians wanted to pass me on my right hand side. I wanted to pass them on their left hand side. If I wasn’t watching and thinking too, I’d subconsciously tend to edge nearer and nearer to the right hand side, expecting to pass them on the right. At the same time, with them not thinking either, they were veering to pass me on my right.

Our guide said that today’s traffic patterns developed from the early days of travel when there were robbers about. (And things have changed??) People carried their swords and knives on their left so they could draw them out with their right hand. When meeting someone coming along the trail, it would be easier to defend yourself if your armed right hand was closest to the other person. Therefore, you passed each other right shoulder to right shoulder. . True story? I don’t know. Why only the British Isles?

I read somewhere that supermarkets are designed for the traffic patterns set in our heads. Since American and European drivers tend to make right hand turns more easily, stores are set up with certain products on the right just as you enter. In other countries, where they drive on the left side of the road, (which is “correct” for them), the stores have been designed, and products placed, so turning left is easy. Just a bit of trivia you can check out for yourself sometime. I forget where I read it.

That’s a little (little?) summary of my trip – or at least the Irish part. Beautiful country, friendly people, and great weather ~ what more could someone want? Oh, and the food was good too. J