When things cannot be automated, they are always much more interesting. So Philip King wisely said, Philip of the beautiful RTE Radio 1 show South Wind Blows and founder of Other Voices.
Philip was speaking, brilliantly as ever, at an e-commerce event in Tralee, at The Rose Hotel.
This is the first blog entry I write, on the afternoon of May Day when haiga.ie has been formally launched, the bird’s dawn chorus officially doing the honours at 6 am.
I have stayed with my gut feeling, explored it, could find no metric for it, which I take as a good sign, but I have remained enthralled by it, by the art form, haiga.
There is no doubt that, as an amateur, I will make mistakes, am making them already, perhaps. Fear of rejection, of ridicule, of raising anger among those more expert than I, of having insufficient talent, of wasting money, of becoming overwhelmed are all real but not quite strong enough to stop me in my tracks.
‘If the machine can do it, it will.’ Again, the words of Philip King and isn’t he right?
Nevertheless, I believe, the machines cannot do what haiga.ie tries to do and will try to do. To be real, to keep a warm narrative alive.
My intuition tells me to be grateful, to be happy, to trust, to side step the petty stuff. I must therefore have the courage of my convictions.
I step, tentatively, out of myself and into the land of blog.
Welcome.