Look Up!

Look up.

Sounds easy doesn’t it. Looking up.

You’ll find that it hurts your neck.?

Try it. It creaks a little at the back.?

Probably because you're not used to looking up. The other thing you’ll notice is that it stretches the front of your neck. Everything tightens… makes it difficult to speak.?

So don’t say anything. Just look. Up.

What do you see? Whatever it is, it’s something you don’t see very often. Because we don’t look up. Most of us anyway. Unless maybe. Tree surgeons or plane spotters. Ornithologists and window cleaners. Falconers and wiremen. But mostly, we don’t.?

We spend so much time with our heads down. I'm doing it right now. Looking at the laptop. Actually, at the keyboard. I'm not a great typist.?

I’m looking down to make a point about looking up.

We look down at our phones. Makes sense. You're not going to hold your phone over your head to read the screen. Unless you're in…. the countryside in many parts of Ireland and your looking for signal.

So look up. What DO you see? The ceiling, the sky, the interior upholstery of the car. NOT WHILE DRIVING!

What’s rare is beautiful. The sky - whatever it holds - is beautiful. Clouds. Birds. The Sun,?The miracle of air travel as planes show off a white plumage that mocks those of us left on the ground as being poorer for not being up there. Thunderstorms.?

Imagine seeing a hot air balloon. Or a microlite. Or a skein of geese. Lightening or stars. Shooting stars and International Space stations. They’re all there. Not every day or every night, but there is always something there. When we look up.?

Walking down any shopping street in any major town or city in Ireland can be an interchangeable experience. Dodging the visually impaired who have nothing wrong with their eyesight, but can’t be wrestled from their screens even as they walk. They have nothing wrong with their eyesight… for the moment. And hopefully their propensity for distracted ambulation will allow them live long enough to have deteriorated vision as opposed to a serious encounter with a lamp-post, cyclist, bus or van.?

So, dodging the electronically impaired, we look around us. As we walk we could be anywhere in the country…or beyond. Burger King,?Zara, Game Stop, Debenhams, H Samuels, Pamela Scott, Peter Mark, Aldo, Oasis, Hallmark, Sports Direct, O2, Boots, FootLocker, Holland and Barrett, Vodafone, Pandora, Tesco, McDonalds and on and on and on and on….

Look up. How often do we raise our eye level above the plastic, bright neon that informs us we are standing in front of another generic international brand store? With exactly the same merchandise as every other one of it’s like that exists…on the next street or the out-of-town centre or mall or in-town centre or mall.?

Look up. Go on. Stretch. Slowly now. I know it’s a bit sore. They’re not muscles we get to use too often. Watch the eyes too. That’s sunlight and sky we’re letting in. It’s a rarified atmosphere. Careful now. Take your time. Adjust.

Wait for it……waaaiiiit….

………..wait…

Holy Shit!?Who put that there??

On top of the 3 Store??

It’s b….it’s beautiful.

How did they build that? Why did they build that? Look at the windows. The glass. How old is that glass? Oh look. It says 1922 on that engraving over the window on the third floor. It’s big enough to read. They put it there…to be read. All of this is up there. To be looked at.?

Do you know why the words ‘Property House’ house sit on the facade of a building on Cork’s Grand parade and below are 2 gold regal heads framed in ornate colourful decor??Both adorn a beautiful facade that is bottomed out with an English bookmakers plastic shop frontage. I don’t know the significance of this decoration that will outlast the current tenant and those to come. But I’m curious. I could find out. Do some research.?

Or I can just imagine. I can enjoy the intrigue and distraction brought about by just looking up.?

And then I find the Art Decor grandeur that is less than 300 years away housing some equally innocuous temporary tenant.?

Do you know how many visible clocks there are above the second and third floors of building on Henry Street or Grafton Street and how many of them are working. You’d be surprised.

And why does that building on Shop Street in Galway have that one odd obtrusive window on top floor?

I like to look up. Not just in town or in the city. Everywhere. Looking up is clean. It’s where adventure lies. Excitement and, quite often, the unknown. We’re not meant to be up there. But we can look in wonder.

Whether it’s nature or the red brick frontage of a building built in the late 19th century.?Built by someone who had the craft and guile to know how things can be done right. Who didn’t concern themselves with the concept of disposable or ‘pop-up’. Someone who took pride in building…for the future…literally.

It’s not earth shattering, but it is a wonderful distraction to raise ourselves above the everyday and remind ourselves of what we have when we look up.?