Áilín Quinlan: A world of love and splendour, but sadly, hatred abounds too

More than 1,000 years ago, a Japanese lady-in-waiting at the court of Empress Teishi (Sadako) put together a sort of diary of her observations as well as lists and personal thoughts that provided razor-sharp, often withering, insights into daily life as it revolved around her.

Sei Shonagon’s Pillow Book became famous and, to this day, believe it or not, is viewed not only as an early classic but also as a still fabulous guide to life, politics, and relationships.

People don’t change. Seriously. Google it.

Anyway, her lists are, like many brilliant things, very simple. Some examples:

Splendid Things. Hateful Things. Adorable Things. Things That Have Lost Their Power. Awkward Things.

I found myself thinking about Things That Have Lost Their Power.

One of the things Shonagon mentions here is the sight of a large tree that had been blown down in a gale and lay on its side with its roots in the air.

Well, now, if that image didn’t get me thinking.

Here I am, living some 10 centuries later - and far from making insightful and shrewd observations that will still hold water 1,000 years down the road, I think of this incredibly brilliant author and commentator when I’m searching for something in YouTube on my phone.

(If you must know, blush blush, I was trying to find a chakra healing meditation platform which a friend recommended to me some time ago, and which I keep meaning to listen to. Because, one of these days, she’s going to ask if I’ve tried it.)

But instead, and oddly, something very different popped up on the phone, something which, it occurred to me, would fit neatly into a 21st century version of Shonagon’s category of Things That Have Lost Their Power.

America.

Because despite everything Donald Trump has er, done to Make America Great Again, truly, all he has really achieved is to undermine it.

I began to think about this because – and I don’t know why these shorts keep popping up lately and I don’t have any interest in military affairs – my phone started playing videos of all these good-looking pilots in the American air-force taking off in amazing fighter jets, all of it running to a loud and fast version of The Sound Of Silence.

My God, you think, isn’t it impressive. Until you think again. Not.

There was a time, and not so long ago, that I would have been blown away by the sight of U.S fighter pilots, men and women, in cool sunglasses, climbing aboard these incredibly sophisticated military jets and doing the most unbelievable things in the air. Even their dogs know how to parachute out of a plane.

And their skills have not changed.

But now, you think with a grimace; they’re American.

Yes, I know it’s deeply unfair because these pilots were all just as incredibly skilled and fit and talented before the advent of Donald Trump and his mean-mouthed rants.

But thanks to Trump and all the damage he’s managing to do (and not just to American society and the American economy, culture and natural environment, but also to the international perception of America and to societies and economies, and possibly the cultures, of countries across the globe) that’s the way a lot of us are thinking now.

That got me thinking.

If I was Sei Shonagon, what lists would I make?

So, because people have accused me (and not always unjustly) of being a glass-half-empty kind of person, I’ll start positive, with the category of Splendid Things.

In this category, I would place the courage of the gardaí who patrol our cities and are often attacked while merely doing their job. That is a truly Splendid Thing.

And what would I put under Hateful Things?

Yes, Donald Trump.

Benjamin Netanyahu is also a hateful thing, given actions in Gaza in recent years.

Also, Ireland comes into this category.

The unapologetic misogyny and rampant violence which is now part of Irish society has resulted in violent attacks on, and murders of, women young and old in the home and unprecedented violence against pedestrians of all ages and both genders in the street.

Vicious attacks on gardaí, nurses and other HSE staff.

Then there’s this outburst of violence against members of the Indian community living in Ireland.

Oh yes, Ireland fits into the category of Hateful Things now.

And then, there’s that sense of unease so many of us have. It brings me to thinking about another of Shonagon’s categories - Things That Give An Unclean Feeling:

Parental complacency about gifting smartphones and tablets to young children, despite the huge publicity about the damage being done to children through access to online pornography, online misogyny and the sexual grooming and abuse and exploitation of children and teenagers on social media

Finally, to finish on something else positive, is the category of Adorable Things:

A little child sitting on the floor engrossed in a picture book

Evening time when the baby swallows exit the nest their parents built behind the outside light on our shed and engage in the most incredible training runs with their parents. Swooping and diving and dodging through the air.

A bit like those US fighter pilots. But without any man-made equipment and, thankfully, without Donald.