A momentary friend

Yesterday morning we parked at Tallaght in order to take the Luas into Dublin. Whilst waiting we exchanged pleasantries with a mother and her two boys possibly between four and six years in age, each with a three-wheeled scooter. One was messing about close enough to the edge of the platform to demand my attention. Just as the tram was coming in he stumbled and lurched towards the line. Jolted by an  adrenalin rush I jumped off my seat to help his mother pull him away. 

What could have happened had she, had I not reacted fast enough... well, such thoughts troubled my mind all the way into Dublin. This boy, hitherto unknown to me, suddenly had became someone I dearly cared for. It was almost as if I had become part of his family. When we alighted we waved goodbye and he waved back, momentarily friends. And this struck me as odd as it is extremely unlikely that I will ever meet him again or recognise him if I did. 

What it means to be a boy

Cover picture by Hengki Koentjoro

I was given a new book - a birthday present from MYD - and couldn't put it down. A beautifully written though somewhat strange story a bit like although less substantial than Kafka on the Shore. The author pulls images from all manner of and random sources and mixes them all together into the mind of a seven year old boy, recounted when he is middle aged and his memory has become sketchy. And then, last evening we watched the new Netflix Mowgli. One cannot help comparing it with Favreau's Jungle Book or to Kipling's original stories but we enjoyed it none the less. The common theme is what it means to be a boy. I too have largely forgotten that richest part of my life story but small episodes come to my remembrance every so often - like watching the world go by perched on a dangerously rusty corrugated iron roof in blatant defiance of the Adults, or tinkering with ancient radio sets in my workshop in the Top Garden and the joy of finding that my recently constructed oscilloscope actually worked, or loitering in Drove Lane praying fervently that one or other of my boyhood would-be sweethearts would actually like me too. Nothing like as exciting as Mowgli.