gratitude Archives - The ClearOut

Lowering the Bar and Keeping Sight of What Counts – Episode 253

In this episode, Dara is considering the merits of low bars. How can you talk about heatwaves when it’s only 18 degrees? Very easily actually, when you live in Ireland! How can you celebrate being the fourth worst team in the league? With the greatest of ease when your team has underachieved so badly for two straight years. But it’s a fine line between understanding the usefulness of lowered expectations and giving in to total complacency and the complete absence of any standards at all.

Lowering the Bar and Keeping Sight of What Counts – Episode 253 Read More »

The Taste of Victory and a Life Worth Sharing – Episode 252

Leave a Comment / Podcast / Dara Clear

In this episode, Dara is weighing up winning and losing. His football team is driving him to the brink of all-consuming rage, so much so that he sought out escapism in a TV show dedicated to gory bloodletting, heartrending betrayals, and gratuitous equal opportunity nudity. One climactic moment was so compelling that the vicarious exultation caused Dara to leap from his chair, fists thrust emphatically skywards in celebration. One standout performance is given special mention.

The Taste of Victory and a Life Worth Sharing – Episode 252 Read More »

Lucky to be Here! Thoughts on Privilege, Doppelgangers, and the Unwieldiness of Emilia Perez – Episode 191

Leave a Comment / Podcast / Dara Clear

In this episode, once he has sorted one Deirdre from another, Dara is reflecting on the idea of privilege after attending the Holocaust Memorial Day event recently held in Dublin. He reckons it has something to do with gratitude and being permitted entry to a special group at a special time, even if it is just as a visitor.

Lucky to be Here! Thoughts on Privilege, Doppelgangers, and the Unwieldiness of Emilia Perez – Episode 191 Read More »

What Do You Do If You See a Space, Man? – Episode 173

Leave a Comment / Podcast / Dara Clear

This episode is all about the presence of absence. How are your comfort levels with empty space and dead air? Do you struggle when the void isn’t filled with something to stimulate? And more importantly, with what do you fill empty spaces and awkward silences?

What Do You Do If You See a Space, Man? – Episode 173 Read More »

Turning 50 – If I’m Calm, It’s the Jedi’s Fault! – Episode 138

Leave a Comment / Podcast / Dara Clear

Dara has just turned 50, and in this episode he lets his mind hover over the moment in an attempted stocktake. Even as he argues for gratitude, he acknowledges how challenging the world is right now. This leads him to consider whether enough weight is attached to softer impulses and emotions. In these times of fracture and isolation and estrangement, should we attach greater significance and worthiness to love and positivity and connection?

Turning 50 – If I’m Calm, It’s the Jedi’s Fault! – Episode 138 Read More »

Survival, Transcendence, and the Myth of Whatever Doesn’t Kill You – Episode 108

Leave a Comment / Podcast / Dara Clear

In this episode, Dara talks about the affection for survival narratives and considers the respective legacies of the recently deceased singers and songwriters Tina Turner and Christy Dignam. He wonders whether we should be defined by what we’ve overcome in life. He also questions the value of legacy and argues for the need to be more concerned with our present-tense impact.

Survival, Transcendence, and the Myth of Whatever Doesn’t Kill You – Episode 108 Read More »

Embedding Gratitude, Controlling Sensitivity, and a Cult of Nullification – Episode 98

Leave a Comment / Podcast / Dara Clear

In this episode, Dara starts off with thoughts on what defines us as individuals. Is it a higher power? Or is it just what wins the battle for our identity? He believes it is strongly connected to nature, nurture and genetic legacy.

Embedding Gratitude, Controlling Sensitivity, and a Cult of Nullification – Episode 98 Read More »

A Musician’s Life – Interview with Gavin McCaffrey – Episode 42

Leave a Comment / Podcast / Dara Clear

It’s the dawn of a new era for The Clearout as Dara hosts his first interview on the podcast.

Musician and actor Gavin McCaffrey first made money in the arts as a child performer as one of Ireland’s legendary Billie Barry kids, gracing stage and screen in professional appearances. Many years later he and Dara shared a dressing room together when they were cast in Shay Healy’s The Wiremen, a colourful musical about Ireland’s rural electrification scheme in the 1950’s.

A Musician’s Life – Interview with Gavin McCaffrey – Episode 42 Read More »

You do the math

20 Comments / Advice for the Young and Impressionable / Dara Clear

When writing for this blog I typically start with the kernel of an idea in my mind that I trust will carry enough discursive and imaginative heft to justify the thousand or so words that follow. What I have discovered though is that by the time I press ‘publish’ that kernel may not be in

You do the math Read More »

gratitude

Lowering the Bar and Keeping Sight of What Counts – Episode 253

The Taste of Victory and a Life Worth Sharing – Episode 252

Lucky to be Here! Thoughts on Privilege, Doppelgangers, and the Unwieldiness of Emilia Perez – Episode 191

What Do You Do If You See a Space, Man? – Episode 173

Turning 50 – If I’m Calm, It’s the Jedi’s Fault! – Episode 138

Survival, Transcendence, and the Myth of Whatever Doesn’t Kill You – Episode 108

Embedding Gratitude, Controlling Sensitivity, and a Cult of Nullification – Episode 98

A Musician’s Life – Interview with Gavin McCaffrey – Episode 42

You do the math

Support me on Patreon

Privacy Policy