When I graduated highschool, I went on a trip to the American Southwest. On that trip, I went on a hiking expedition through the river canyons of Zion National Park. The hike was an incredible, revelatory experience, and it opened me up to new perspectives on my role in the natural world. For the purposes of this blog, I won’t be focusing on my experiences with nature, however. Instead, I will be considering the actions of certain individuals I observed in Zion National Park and contrasting them with the actions of some children I observed in Dublin today.

In the picture above you can see a child suspended in mid fall from the mast of a replica coffin boat in the River Liffey. This boat has been used for some time as a museum and the children have clearly snuck their way on board.

Whatever you might say of the foolhardiness of their adventure (and it IS foolhardy), you can’t deny the symbolic power of their actions. The boat they have commandeered represents the wound inflicted on the Irish people by the British Empire during the potato famine and, by taking control of that representation and refiguring it as a tool for their own enjoyment, the children here have transformed the coffin boat into a symbol of healing.

that said, this scene still conjures up an event that occurred while I was in Zion nearly a decade ago. Hiking through the river canyons, I came upon a group of college students jumping into a deep part of the ri we from the top of one of the curling canyon walls. Much like I was struck by the children on the coffin boat, I was struck by the figure of slender, tan figures tumbling down the canyon into the dark river. On my way back from my hike, however, a helicopter hurtled past my head moving toward the heart of the park. I would later discover that one of the students had landed in the shallowest part of that stretch of river, shattering both her legs.