Talent pool

The discussion with Michael Smiley was part of the Aspects writers' festival in Bangor, which highlighted maybe a dozen writers of poetry, journalism, films, and children's books. All of them are from County Down or nearby.

At the same time, the Belfast Comedy Festival is on, highlighting local comedians. At the chocolate festival, we met artisan chocolate makers from the Ards peninsula, and at the autumn fair we saw mind-boggling dahlias--a fractal lover's fantasy. Other festivals have highlighted painters and musicians.

I remarked to David that Ulster seems to have more talented people per square foot than anyplace I've lived. I'd say much of the work we've seen involves a great deal of patience and persistence, whether the result is a champion rose or a collection of photographs. David's theory is that people aren't terribly motivated by money here, so energy that might go into commuting to a better job or to a house in a better neighborhood while driving a bigger car is expended instead on something that people are motivated by. People invest more time in their passions than in getting ahead.

This is also a very community oriented place, so garden clubs and writing groups and community festivals are more common and more loyally supported than in the U.S., where I think people spend more time shopping, commuting, and watching TV. I have no statistics to back any of this up. Only my observations re. the social habits of people here vs the U.S.

As an aside, we were invited by a woman at church to come to Sunday dinner at her house today. She said arrive at 2:30. We left at 6 after a three-course meal that she made for us and two other guests.
9/28