The Fallen~Sparrow~Hawk; The Dagda

The Dagda,

Hubris has arrived in the form of Jeff. He is a tightly drawn muscle of intolerance; his anger and impatience very close to the surface. The founder of the Doon of May, he behaves more like a cantankerous slave owner. He has the imperious features of a Rasmussen or Thesiger, with bright clear blue eyes, large firm slightly hooked nose, a pale green tartan poncho, a green tartan waistcoat above green plus fours and an array of amulets around his neck; he carries a cane. His tone can be extremely dismissive, he raged at me about soap being used on his favourite cast iron pot, and the rain-gathering system not working. When he rounded on me again for some other perceived incompetence I told him that I was not his whipping boy and to change his tone. He swings between Kurtz in Joseph Conrad’s heart of Darkness and Don Quixote but resemble the Dagda.

He let slip that he had himself voluntarily sectioned and the diagnosis of his ailment was, ‘A psychotic need to save the planet’... well, I wish I’d known before; ‘fool’s paradise’ springs to mind. But it is not easy to write Jeff off as a tyrannical (read colonial) environmental pied-piper. He has created a beautiful space out of his fevered mind, and may be intolerant with anyone he perceives falls short of his ideas and ideals; these people he terms ‘gormless’ (without sky), and although he doesn’t pick any one out for this insult, at the first meeting since his return, we are all made to feel we might qualify.

It does take a certain amount of vision to leave a full-time job as a suited computer analyst  and don the nomad’s garb and adopt a low-impact life-style. A lot has indeed been established in the four years he has been here, but I don’t think his idealism should lead to bad-tempered remarks as though he and he alone knows and the rest of us are incompetents. This is a trifle unfair, he has the conviction of his beliefs, and he does not suffer fools lightly.

My gripe is he has been off wandering for five months living in Spain and everyone else has kept things going and yet he strides in and lays down the law, as though we were under his employ. An interesting study; A mad man; he says he is the re-incarnation of an old angry Irishman.