Belfast Rab

Belfast Rab

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q90zxQ2CAFk

Sure enough he was a real pressure cooker and his personal affairs were, lets say a little different to most people . Robert or Belfast Rab as he was known was greatly talented and befriended the demon drink quite early on .
I suppose for some it was much easier to judge Rab rather than get to know him and so before you make a judgment let me tell you about him and maybe in doing so you can get a better picture of who he was and what made him live the way he did .

To know him a little is all I ask . But we really have to go right back to his early childhood days and understand where he was at .

A little terror of a kid they say he was .
Others said he had behavioral management problems .
As a youngster Robert was a real handful for his parents . He got used to the hand claps around his ears, in fact he seemed immune to punishment .

His teachers at school often ignored him in class,they said he was impossible to teach .

He couldn’t read or write well and by the time he was leaving primary school Robert had a huge chip on his shoulder . Tagged as a junior delinquent Robert was told he would have a hard road ahead in life They said he would never get a steady job . I suppose no one reached Robert a helping hand and so people never really understood him .
Although he was considered a hard case the real truth fact was Rab just needed time to develop .

Once he started secondary school Robert’s skill in woodwork and metal work surfaced .
Now instead of being punished more times than anyone else he was applauded and encouraged .

Half of his problem was that he never knew how to apply himself to the academic side of school but in the practical work Robert was on top of the class . Now he was able to help other students who found it hard and with his new identity found a new circle of friends . He was tagged Rab for short and was admired in the long run for his abilities .

As he approached the end of his school years Rab had already found a friend in the drink .

At first he enjoyed getting drunk and waking up in back alleys ways . It allowed him a place to block things out and it helped him accept and deal with the early scars of rejection .

Even with his drinking problem Rab was able to map out a future for himself . He was determined he would survive this hard life he was given .

One day at the local fair he bought a horse and cart from a traveler and painted a business sign for it that read Mobile Handy Man .

So while others drove a truck Rab drove his horse and cart around the streets of Belfast looking for odd jobs . He always had a bottle along with him for company and in the winter a short sip or two now and then kept his blood flowing in the morning . The town knew when Belfast Rab was around because he had a big brass bell on the cart that he rang out . That’s how most people would know he was coming . So out they would come with their clippers and knives for in his cart he carried a wide variety of tools and odds and ends . Apart from sharpening scissors and knives, Rab mended old clocks and fixed broken household things . He heeled shoes and polished copper and brass . He collected old rags and cut hedges . He mowed lawns , did plumbing and basically was your do anything man . He was your local wake up man who called early on and knocked your window in case you slept in for work . While he was there he would wash your windows if needed .

When he was around the kids went wild .

They loved to hear his bell ring and they followed Rab’s cart around from street to street . Sometimes he would give them a little toy in return for scooping up the horse dung left by his old grey mare .
He bagged up the dung and sold it as fertilizer for roses .

At night Rab when he finished work for the day he went down to an old shed on the low dock and put away his horse and cart . Then he made his way home to the upstairs room of an old terrace house in Sailorstown It was in there that Belfast Rab dabbed away at night with his brushes and oil paints . Belfast Rab was a gifted man . An artist of the street . No one had ever seen his canvases . The hundreds of unknown masterpieces lay untouched and frameless . Standing back to back on landings and up against walls, in his run down little bed sit flat near the docks . Rab had captured the faces of those people he saw during the day . Pictures and portraits , images and lifestyles, people and places of Belfast City in oil, charcoal , watercolor and crayon .

Night after night , week in week out Rab worked away . Grouted in between the creative spaces in his subconscious Rab could vividly recall an expression he had seen during his working day . The detail in his art was exceptional .

It’s a wonder teachers never picked his gift up at school . I suppose no one was there in those early years to see his first sketches on scraps of paper . The fact was teachers had given up on him early and no one was there to encourage him .

Its no wonder Rab discovered the drink before any one discovered him .

Now in the twilight years of his life Belfast Rab had arrived . His love for art also cut him off from social life and being passionate about what he did almost spoke to you through the people on his paintings . Rab found he worked better when he drank wine . It made him unwind and gave him the ability to focus better on the three dimensional aspects of his work . An artist lives a lonely life and not many hear that call . Not many are so inspired as Rab . He had no time for housework and scattered on the floor of his room lay fragments of dirty clothes and empty tins and bottles . The windows of his bedsit where coated by grime and so the outside world was unseen .

Furniture in the flat was non existent apart from the mattress on the floor .
With a tea chest for a table and a fruit box for a chair Belfast Rab lived out his life answering to no one but himself . The only thing that kept Rab going each day was the hunger for new faces to paint and the desire to find images of his beloved Belfast City . So future portraits pushed him out into the rain and the cold to where his horse and cart waited .

He paid a docker by the name of Yank to feed and shoe his grey mare . Yank worked part time as a chanter in some of the pubs around the town . He was the talented tenor you could hear as the night drew near . He had the rhythm of the city and the rumble of its heart . Yank was a good man and looked after Rab’s asset . His horse and cart . That’s why it was so difficult the day the grey mare died . Yank had to break the news to Rab and did so in a very innovative way .

Early in the morning as the fog still covered the rooftops of Belfast Yank made his way to Rabs flat . Climbing the old staircase he found the landing where stacks of canvasses lay . He made his way to the door and knocked . Belfast Rab opened the door with a creak and saw Yank who stood there with a big smile on his face . Yank said ,

“ Good morning Rab .“

“What do you want ? Haven’t I already paid you this month ? ”
Rab replied .

“Oh sure you did Rab . There's no problem there."
Was the answer Yank gave .

“Well then what do you want Yank ?”
Said Rab .

“I want you to do a portrait of me .“
Rab was overjoyed and said .

“Don’t stand there like a beggar . Come in Yank . Sit down .“

Rab pushed the wooden fruit box over to Yank who took out a cigarette and said,

“Give me a light will you Rab ?”

Rab leaned over and looked into Yanks face .
He stood back and checked another profile . Eventually he produced a box of matches and lit Yanks smoke for him .

“Is the picture for you ?”
Rab asked .

“No . Its for my cousin Michelle who lives in America . I want to send it over as a Christmas gift for her . She hasn’t seen me for ten years and I thopuht it would be a good way to show her I haven’t changed .“

Rab grabbed an empty canvas and placed it on the easel . He grabbed some brushes and oils and as if inspired with sudden greatness Rab immediately began to dab and stroke out an image unto the frameless board .

“I’ll make it like you’re a visitor then Yank . Hold up this for me will you .“

Rab handed Yank an empty wine bottle .
Yank took the bottle and held it up and said ,

“I saw one of those new trucks in Cornmarket yesterday Rab .“

“No Yank that’s too high hold it out in front of you as if you’re pouring a drink for a friend . Yes that’s it .“

“That new truck I saw has lots of space and a radio built in .“

Rab continued to dab away . It was as if he was in a trance .

“This cousin of yours is she older that you ?“

“Yes just by a few years . She tells me everyone drives a car over in America Rab . Do you know what I think that a small truck would be a great asset for your business Rab .“

Suddenly Rab stopped painting and dropped the brush . He looked at Yank .

“It’s the mare . Isn’t it .”
He said .

Yank walked over and looked into Rabs bloodshot eyes and said .

“I found her this morning .“
On the brink of tears Rab said ,

“So she’s snatched it . Handed in her notice then .“

“There’s nothing you could have done. “
Yank replied .

Rab walked out of the flat into the street and Yank walked over and had a look at the painting . When he saw the work he could hardly believe his eyes . The image of Yank standing on a ship holding a torch like the statue of liberty behind him was a new York skyline .

“Perfect .“

Said Yank . He knew Rab needed tome alone and so he remained in the bedsit until his return . During the time Rab was away Yank checked out all the canvasses in and outside the flat . He was so impressed by what he saw that he called in an art dealer who was so impressed that he called in the director of the art museum .

About a week later Rab returned .

Immediately Yank handed him a bundle of bank notes .

“This is just a deposit Rab .“

“What’s going on Yank .“

“I had to tell them about you Rab . Your work is too good to be lying here undiscovered . Please let them show your work Rab . “

Rab stood there in shock .

“You mean someone likes my paintings .“

Yank burst out laughing .

“Rab your entire collection is lined up for a new masters exhibition .“

An international art directors is waiting to come over on your approval to view your work . Rab the thing is you are going to be famous .“

Rab’s work was approved and appreciated . In a very short in the art world Rab rose to fame and became quite a wealthy man .

How ironic now it was . Some regarded him as a genius . His artistic greatness which now uncovered or discovered had in fact been overlooked and unseen by many who only saw hopelessness and under achievement . I wonder how many people are in the same boat as Belfast Rab . The sad fact is there are many people today who have not been understood or appreciated

Today the world is full of teenagers tagged as the lost generation . This lost generation have hit the drink pretty hard in an escape from life . For them like Belfast Rab the say that drink helps them to forget . It seems for many drink is an escape hatch from life .

The thing about escaping is that someday it is time to return to life . Unless like Belfast Rab you are able to map out a future or have a plan for existence and for some that transition is too hard to make . That is why we have so many steamboats who are unable to understand and cope with life and its hardships .

They turn away from life and sink into the confines of alcohol rather than look for a path through life where they can survive the drink and learn from the things they do . Even though the people in the world cannot cope with then and their problem it is very important for them to know who they are .

Steamboats are usually not accepted by anybody except by some of their own kind and even that is debatable at times . Some steamboats like their own company like Belfast Rab . But whoever they are like Belfast Rab they are still God creation and no matter what package you put them in they are both body and soul and there for the grace of God go we .

God only knows it could be your son or daughter . It could be your brother or sister . Like Belfast Rab it could be or could have been some one you went to school with . You know breaking through the barriers of a hard exterior is difficult but not impossible . Look deep into the human heart and you’ll see tha we are all soft centred individuals . Because of this we all are also vulnerable . Some hide that tender side of themselves by acting aggressively and putting up a front . Some accept it but whatever hurt we have or burden we carry there are many who are able to help . People like Belfast Rab have never asked for help because they were pushed away early on in life . People like Belfast Rab looked for a way and a I suppose a reason to get on with life and found a method that was acceptable . It is part of humanity that we all avoid getting hurt . We are all fragile in one way or another .

Steamboats are usually in a place of transit between time and tomorrow where no one or nothing really matters . it is a place called nowhere .

In a place where the artist escapes to many things which are unseen can be opened up in a vague dimension that portrays for them life . In this nowhere land there are no rulers or cruel twists of fate . There are only visions of a better place and Belfast Rab tried continually to bring this place out of nowhere into the real world . In the company of strangers and in a nowhere land he ran way each day . He escaped from the world that for him never understood him . In a nowhere land he found he could survive better by drinking a large amount of alcohol . He was able to cope with and was not

bluffed by the false courage it provided but he was rational and ironic as it may seem was well focused . Belfast Rab had walked deeper into life and until someone pulled him out from his cave he couldn’t see the truth .

His often erratic behaviour was fuelled by living an existence between artistic genius and alcohol that his nowhere land was the best town along the way .

In his nowhere land this steamboat was on a journey home alone with a horse and cart and some pictures to paint . The drink problem in his life was never really addressed because it was accepted as normal by Rab .

The problem of drinking too much alcohol effects everyone who comes into contact by that person . So if like Belfast Rab you drink alone then the one who got effected most was himself .

He could not admit that he had a problem so he remained in nowhere land .

In nowhere land there is never a destination but there is a road to recovery and once the steamboat can see that road then there is a way back to reality and an escape from nowhere land .

Half way to fixing a problem is admitting there is one .

Making an excuse for a problem is easy to do .

Accepting it and asking for help is a small part of the journey on the road to recovery .

Steamboats need one another to justify the things they do .

The road to recovery demands that you leave this kind of company and never return . It is not easy to walk away from a lifestyle that has supported you in the difficult times . Nowhere is a place where God hears the sound of your inner thoughts . When we find ourselves in a nowhere place we become vulnerable which isn’t such a bad thing . In our weakness we discard our cloak of pride and take away the disguise of confidence .

There in our vulnerability we can tap into a higher place where God is in control . The step of faith leads us to the house where God lives .

Not only does God live in this house but he also has made a place there for us all . The house where God lives cannot be broken in to and it is impossible to enter unless you believe in God .

It is true that many people do not believe in God and it is almost impossible for people with no faith to let go and let God .

Within the twelve step of recovery from alcoholism the very first step to make is admitting that you have a problem and then reaching out for the help that is available . Fighting any addiction is difficult but not impossible .

There are a great number of people put there who want to help .

The thing is people want to help but unless we reach out and ask and accept their help our problems will never go away .

Reaching out is important .

In this life we need one another .

We also need to include God more and more with the difficult issues that face us . Christ loves us and that includes all our addictions and problems .

This unconditional love is ours . We can be free from the chains of alcoholism and drug abuse . We can be free from the nightmare of mental illness and we can be free from the wrongs we think we have made .

That was the whole purpose of Christ coming here and showing us by example . His death on the cross was for all of these things .

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