Yesterday, my husband and our six-year-old daughter, Lulu visited Blarney Castle – just a few minutes’ drive from our newly adopted home of Cork, Ireland.
In case you have been living under a rock and don’t already know, the 600-year-old fortress is famous for a particular piece of carboniferous limestone with the legendary power to instill the communicative gift of Blarney upon anyone who kisses it. Blarney, as defined in humorous postings in and around the castle, is very distinct from Baloney.
To reach the stone in question, you must first climb 110 narrow, slippery-from-Ireland’s-perpetual-autumn-mist stone stairs to the top of the castle tower.
Baloney is “praise so thick, it cannot be true.”
While Blarney is said to be “flattery so thin, we love it.”
Once you reach the top, you then must turn and face away from the parapet and kneel backwards looking out high above the green rolling hills of the valley. Next, begin to stretch your body – almost back-bend-style – against the castle wall.
Baloney, they say, is telling a 50-year-old woman she looks 18.
But Blarney is asking an older woman how old she may be, because, as you tell her, you want to know at what age women are most beautiful.
A friendly Irishman (yes, that’s redundant) named Dennis helped us put one hand on each of the two metal support rails to steady ourselves as we stretched our heads downward to the extremely difficult to reach gift-giving stone – and smooched away.
Tis there’s the stone that whoever kisses, he never misses to grow eloquent; ‘Tis he may clamber to a lady’s chamber or become a member of Parliament, a noble spouter he’ll sure turn out. ” – Francis Sylvester Mahony
Perhaps our new words will be a bit smooth, but they will also be words that are kind and caring designed to bring a smile to our listeners’ faces and leave them feeling more valuable and valued than when we first began. Nothing wrong with that. It reminds me of another lovely sentiment I have also heard from my new Irish friends:
It costs nothing to be kind.
Whew. So, the perilous gymnastics required to kiss the Blarney stone were well-worth it.
Except for our six-year-old. Lulu said she already knows how to talk a lot and will kiss it another time. Truer words may never have been spoken. And that’s no blarney.
Copyright 2014 Gina London. All Rights Reserved.
