Jack’s back! I do post intermittently about my love of Morris dancing and the folk scene, as regular readers might have noticed. Those who follow me in those bits of social media where my personal life intermingles with shoutouts to buy books and come to events might also have been aware how big a deal Jack In The Green has been to me and for how long. And this year, Jack’s back.
It was less a case of ‘don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone’, more ‘I had no real idea how desperately I had missed this until it was back’. I mean, there had been some years when my team did something different on Beltane Monday; sometimes going to the festival for only part of the weekend or even being otherwise engaged the whole time. But I do remember being unable to watch any of the virtual versions in either 2020 or 2021: it made me far too miserable.
I took the train down to the coast on Saturday morning, hung out with mates, saw people I hadn’t seen for three years and, on Sunday, May Day, got dressed up in my full kit and danced with my team, and was filled with a sense of perfect wellbeing and joy.
Your joys, of course, may come from other sources. Once again, though, as even more dark clouds gather and a sense of mounting danger is never far away. I still maintain the importance of relishing your happiness when and where you can find it. Keep those little lights burning, somewhere, somehow, wherever you can because without them, what do we have?
And if you’re interested in erotica featuring Morris dancers, it exists. I wrote this one (under a pseudonym) way before I was pushing Rule 34 and even Rule 35.
And I sold a couple of copies during the weekend, too.