When we arrived in Ireland, I had made it to Chapter 5, "On the Country and the City", and everything I was seeing in the beautiful landscapes of Ireland fit perfectly with what de Botton was writing about. William Wordsworth was the artist being featured, and the location was The Lake District in England. Wordsworth is well known for his poems celebrating his love for nature. Here are a few lines of Wordsworths that de Botton quotes:
...[Nature] can so inform
The mind that is within us, so impress
With quietness and beauty, and so feed
With lofty thoughts, that neither evil tongues,
Rash judgements, nor the sneers of selfish men,
Nor greeting where no kindness is, nor all
The dreary intercourse of daily life,
Shall e'er prevail against us, or disturb
Our cheerful faith that all which we behold
Is full of blessings.
Later in the chapter, De Botton tells of an experience that Wordsworth had in the Alps. He was so moved by their beauty, Wordsworth knew that he would feel happiness anytime he remembered them. He termed such experiences 'spots of time'. Another quote from Wordsworth regarding this:There are in our experience spots of time,
That with distinct pre-eminence retain
A renovating virtue...
That penetrates, enables us to mount,
When high, more high, and lifts us up when fallen.
Driving across the Ireland countryside, I felt so many 'spots of time'...images so spectacular, I knew that if I would revisit them when I felt stressed or troubled, they would have the power to lift me out it, and bring me back to the feeling I felt when I experienced the 'spot' for the first time.
In Chapter 6, de Botton writes about the The Sublime, uses the Sinai Desert as the location, and Edmund Burke as the artist to illustrate it, for Burke composed A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful. He believed that sublimity had to do with a feeling of weakness--that when a landscape had such power, a power much greater than humans, it would make them feel humble while viewing it. Using this concept of Burkes, de Botton writes about what he has learned about The Sublime in nature: "That the universe is mightier than we are, that we are frail and temporary and have no alternative but to accept limitations on our will; that we must bow to necessities greater than ourselves....That we may come away from such places, not crushed, but inspired by what lies beyond us; privileged to be subject to such majestic necessities. The sense of awe may even shade into a desire to worship." He then speaks of how the sublime often leads us to thoughts of God.
When Allan and I went to see the Giants Causeway, The Burren, and The Cliffs of Moher, I definitely felt "the sublime". My mind was so confounded by the geometric wonder of the Giants Causeway, that I immediately rejected what science had to say about it, and knew for certain that something profoundly spiritual happened there. It was a 'spot of time' that would later bring me to stillness; humble, ignorant stillness, when I reflected back on it. 
The Cliffs of Moher called to Allan and I just from looking at them in a photograph. But when we actually stepped up to the ledge of the cliffs to experience them...it was as if all sense of myself had vanished, and for a moment I did not know for certain if they were real and I was not, or I was real and they were not.
As I leave Ireland, I am filled with gratitude to have had the opportunity to experience the beauty of this country; the sublime spots of time that I can take with me in memory. And somehow I feel that in spite of its violent history, (Ireland is littered with ruins, most tracing back to warring parties vying for control of the country, plus there are all the years known as The Troubles...) I believe that the sublimity of this landscape has had a loving, humbling effect on its people. Many times I felt like I had been transported back in time to a place in history when people were respectful of nature, were genuinely friendly, freely giving of their time and energy, trusting in the good of a stranger, and making me feel welcome and valued. (Perhaps small towns are partly responsible for this?) When we were at Ashford Castle, we met a young man, David, and his mother, Margaret, who were just visiting the castle grounds that day in order to take a boat ride around the lake.
David approached Allan and I, and just started a conversation that lasted most of the afternoon. When we arrived back on shore, he gave us his business card, and offered to show us around Dublin when we arrived there. (David lives in Dublin.) So I contacted him a week before we arrived, and even though he was crazy busy with work and packing for a vacation to Argentina, he spent the evening with us, showing us around town. How sweet is that? (And if the situation were reversed, how many straight guys in America would play tour guide to two gay guys from Ireland?) By the end of the night, I felt like I had known him forever. He not only helped us understand Ireland, but since he is half Indian, we were able to ask him all sorts of questions about India. It was as if Divine Intervention had him travel all the way to Ashford just to meet Allan and I so that he could fill in all the questioning gaps we had. Life is just amazing, isn't it? (I just got an email from David. He's in Buenos Aires, and having a wonderful time...)Now we head to Scandinavia, a set of countries I know very little about, aside from perhaps furniture design! I'm a bit resistant to go back to the confusion of shopping and navigating in countries where I can't read labels and signs...but that is part of the journey; diving into the unknown, the unfamiliar, the uncertain. Finland is first up, then Sweden, Norway, and finally Denmark. More posts to come!
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