Ceiledhs, Circuses and Cravats

*Dream from the eve of September 19, 2009*



I am walking alone through the streets of Dublin.  It's a bitter cold night and the sky is grey and stormy. All around me are warm, inviting pubs and places of merriment but I can't stop.  I have to keep going until I find a church. I come to an alley that is cobblestoned and silent with six wooden doors each with a brass knocker.

The first door opens to reveal a full-blown Ceiledh taking place.  There is a rock group on stage playing Bohemian Rhapsody with bagpipes.  Every person in the room is participating in the dance and it looks like great fun.  Nobody even glances my way while I stand there observing; they are so caught up in the dance.  I desperately want to join in but I don't know the steps.

The second door opens to a massive circus tent filled with thousands of coloured helium balloons.  There are animals of every kind seated in the bleachers and the only human being is the ringleader in the centre, cracking a whip at a tiny monkey running around him in circles clapping tiny brass cymbals.  The smell is absolutely appalling and I can't bear to be in the room a second longer.

The third door opens to a hallway.  It's dark and dingy, with lots of twist and turns and even ladders to climb up and a big, curly slide to slip down.  After hours of walking I come out through the fourth door, back to where I started. 

The fifth room is pure blackness.  No sight or sound exists in here and the match that I light extinguises immediately from a waft of icy breath.  I lock the door behind me after exiting this room. 

The sixth door reveals a church service taking place.  It's warm and inviting and perfectly normal-looking....apart from the fact that all the men are wearing polka dot cravats and the women purple wigs.  Two women approach me to welcome me to the service but explain that in order to enter the room, I must put on the purple wig....

I actually woke up giggling a little to myself after this one ;-)