#9

Place to be

♫ “IBS - Duval Timothy"

~ Paddington

Nick Drake said:

"Just hand me down, give me a place to be”

He was by most accounts, heavily depressed at the time of writing this.

I have never known a person who didn’t want a place to be. Some of the more contented people I know stay in that place, and don’t ask too much from it. I know discontented people who are never happy with their place no matter how much they get out of it. I have more in common with the latter.

So stop. Look around. Be happy with what you have. Or don’t. Go away, find your place, in the new place - and be happy there. Simple.

A sense of place can be practical, physical. Or it can be mystical and intangible. I think Nick Drake who, as a rising music star with a family home in the country, could have found a physical space that would satisfy most. But in one of his more haunting moments he begs for someone or something to give him a kind of place. Either in life or in death, a place to be. 

Not a place to aspire to, or a place to win, but a place to be. 

A lot of my friends are split between multiple cities around the world. As Irish passport holders we have a lot of access. Under the age of 30 there are about 35 countries we can move to and work pretty easily. The EU and the UK are not visa restricted for us. Countries like Canada and Australia seem to welcome us for at least a period of 1-2 years with options to become ‘Permanent’.

What a terrifying state that is: ‘permanent’. 

It’s unnatural. 

When I have lived abroad, or when I am talking to friends who are living abroad - there is rarely a sense of peace. But that relaxes me. That’s the natural state. 

I am living in Dublin as of the 14 June 2026. I’m in my slightly dark, rented bedroom. It’s 20 odd degrees outside, and it’s a helluva place to be.

* Nick Drake - Place to be, Pink Moon 1972

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