The Ferryman’s End

Victoria’s Way, Roundwood, Co Wicklow, Ireland

The ferryman’s craft lies dead in the water. Unable to move, he can no longer reach the ‘other’ shore, touch it, and by so doing become real, fully energised and joyful too. Unable to become real, he fades and dies.

The sculpture of the Ferryman’s End is a metaphor for the individual who is losing touch with the real world, personal or general. Because the sense of realness happens as after-affect of contact, loss of connectivity (i.e. of touch) results in increased feelings of un-realness, which in turn result in loss of meaning and increased unhappiness.

Disconnection is inevitable. That’s because each contact is not only momentary, i.e. quantised, but also because ‘only random contact can strike’ and produce realness. In other words, ‘only difference makes a difference’, and that only for an instant. For an individual to stay alive, i.e. to be fully real, conscious and joyful (i.e. self-realized), she must continuously touch or be touched, differently.

The individual who tries to be still, to remain the same, decays and dies. For, sameness cannot touch and make real.

The ferryman’s craft is his capacity to create bits or bites of difference. Anyone who creates difference and generates realness is a ferryman.