To die for Ireland

Art does not imitate life. Art anticipates life. (Jeanette Winterson)

We talked about the financial crisis way back in 1998 and how the world, well, my world at least, went to hell. There was no art in that. It was an intense sort of remembering.

We talked about how the currency speculators tore down the ringgit, so much so, it had to be taken out of circulation. And how we became economic pariahs forthwith, at least for six months, until Steve Taran wrote that article saying, well done. When you're Salomon Smith Barney, people tend to listen. Maybe there is a little art there...

We talked about the centreless world, and the headless chickens staring helplessly at weeping statues. We have killed God. So we make money, we consume, we fill ourselves up and feel empty anyway? I'm not talking cheesecake here. Or maybe I am. Cheesecake is art, no?

We talked about the couple who gave their daughter an envelope with RM100,000 when she came back from Australia and how she went shopping to buy an RM8,000 Chanel outfit and a RM49,000 watch for a man she wanted who said: "Take it back, I can't accept that. And by the way, your dress looks terrible." Artifice. But it didn't work.

We talked about Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death and how people can't read anymore. Where are the bards? I told him I hated Socrates for saying poets should be banned from the nation state and he said, don't dismiss him completely, he did come up with some good stuff. As if.

Then he dusted the blueberry muffin crumbs from his hands and said, we have to go, I have vespers. And I said, thanks for the coffee. And he said, it's been a pleasure. And he told me about Patrick Cavanagh and lent me a book.

Then an old Irish monk wandered on by and we talked conspiracy theories for half a hour under the biting wind that felt more winter than spring. He spoke into his beard and I had to lean closer to hear him. We said, the tsunami was not a natural disaster, they were nuclear testing in our waters. We said, the killer application for cloning is to create armies.

And he said, everyone is willing to die for Ireland until they are actually asked to.