This week I find myself at an old watering hole. I’m not in a position to be indiscreet nor is that my style. My role is background supportive, not centrally placed or intrinsic to anything that is being decided.

It’s good to be back in familiar surroundings. It’s also an antidote to the exclusion that we all have been experiencing. It is a privilege to be able to change locale.

Meeting up with some old familiar faces has also been pleasurable. All of us are weighed down with baggage. Most unable to rise above the labels acquired or often ascribed through a not always fair reputation.

We talk in what some may seem to believe is a honour among thieves way. That is an another unfair, though understandable, representation.

There are rogues, knaves, fools and the occasional demagogue here. For the most part there is decency. If private conversations offer a basic humanity that differs from the public theatrics of antagonism, it is because all need somewhere to be themselves rather than any personae asked of their ever fickle audiences.

There is a sense of these are the circumstances, good fortune with wherever they take us.

For some it will mean greater responsibility but with that the opportunity of being able to make a difference. Others will have a platform of directly observing those who have sought responsibility when they fail at achieving.

While those outside will take satisfaction from the difficulties of those inside, that satisfaction will rarely be laced with malice. All are aware of the there but for the grace circumstances that exist.

Some may choose not to sup from the chalice. Let the chalice pass to others. Let them have the opportunity of failing better they may think.

There is a comfort at never having tried. Perhaps a life spent on the sidelines brings about a different type of expertise, that of a practiced heckler able to raise a laugh, even if rarely capable of winning plaudits.

The intention of most is to test themselves. While most will prefer that the challenges that arise are not too impossible, no one expects that every challenge can be overcome.

And there will be those who presume that failure is the default position that should be attached to every challenge.

Again if failure is your expectation you will rarely be disappointed.

When success is achieved it will rarely compensate for the failures, real and imagined, that have been attributed.

There are never any auditions. There are rarely any rehearsals. Practice may make less imperfect but most will over depend on the impromptu.

Those who succeed better are those who learn that it can’t be all be about them. More success is achieved when more people are involved in the making of decisions; when more are involved in implementing agreed decisions; when most are involved in reviewing the actions that have followed these decisions.

This is the stage that has been chosen. This is the audience that can never be sated. These are the rules of the game. And the game, like the show, must go on.

My visits to the old watering hole will become less frequent. Others will choose whether they want to drink here.

I can recommend the wine.

Dan Boyle is a former Green Party TD and Senator.  His column appears here every Thursday. Follow Dan on Twitter: @sendboyle

Pic : Denis Minihane/UCC