Even now, where I live in rural Ireland, people are considerably more practical and multi-skilled than the average Dubliner. They—we—have to be, when a tree comes down across a road in a winter storm, or the power goes out, or a cow escapes from a field or the well stops working. When I lived in the city, my main skill was tapping keyboards. This is still my main skill—here I am—but since coming here I have supplemented it with a dozen others, from coppicing to composting, construction to chainsaw use. In the country, you have no choice but to remember what your body is for. In the city, even
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