spend six nights together in September, 1904, in the Martello Tower in Sandycove, Dublin.  Gogarty -- who had leased the tower from the British War Office -- is the inspiraton for the character of Buck Mulligan in "Ulysses" which opens with Buck and Stephen living in the same Tower in Sandycove in 1904 (in June, not September).



Sandycove, Martello Tower.

Haven't you had a friend like Buck Mulligan?  Maybe not stately and plump, but one who pushed you to do more (or less), who knew where your landmines were buried, knew what your small print said?  Understood your triggers, buttons, switches, hidden mechanisms? 

Gogarty said the disagreement at the Tower which ended his friendship with Joyce involved a gun.

In the Tarot, the Tower card is related to the Devil.  Which is one explanation for why they're there.  Buck's a sort of devil.  Plus the whole Tower = Ego, and the collapse of the Tower, and being struck by lightning and the falling bodies and all of that and so forth.

"The worst thing anyone can do to you is ignore you," my friend ARH observes at yesterday's brunch.  "That's a trigger for you."

"And for absolutely everyone we know," I point out.  It is true.  He admits as much.  We have been discussing Buck Mulligans We Have Known.  The subject, like the Devil and the Ego, is vast. 

"You're in a mood," he observes.  

"I was," I explain.  "But I took that reference out of yesterday's post.  I'm better now." 

However, I still vex myself.  I am my own Buck Mulligan.  I run errands, I get on the phone and argue for causes I am only half-hearted about immediately afterward.  I encourage bad behavior in others.  I am discontent.  I head on impulse up above Sunset and Hollywood, straight up Vine, to the top of the hill overlooking the freeway and the city and Cahuenga Pass.  I get to the Vedanta Temple in time for Arati (Vespers).  It is Ram Nam which is the monthly worship of Rama, Sita and Hanuman.  The devotee conducting the Puja is an Asian woman whose singing and recitation blend in a sweet lilting cadence so that I barely recognize the parts in English.  The Temple interior reminds me of an Episcopalian chapel with crystal chandeliers (dimmed to amber), white woodwork, pale mint green carpet.  The rose incense is lovely and mildly intoxicating.  Christopher Isherwood lived here for a while.  Then he met Don Bachardy and changed his mind about the celibate life.

"Find God," said Ramakrishna.  "That is the only purpose in life."

"Love is all there is," says the song.

There's nothing but Art," says Iris Murdoch's Black Prince. 

I am hoping it is all the same thing.