Far From the Middle of Everything: Stars, Stories, and Sun for Days

Toto, I don't think we're in Melbourne anymore! Stepping off the plane in Alice Springs the sun was out in full force and the air, warm and welcoming. This is exactly the week I need. Not exactly a holiday but not exactly work either. Inspiration and illumination a plenty.

I'd describe Alice Springs as a big outback town with all the charm and ambience of 'the bush' yet with this odd, contrived tourist overlay on it. Shops close early, the pubs start to fill in around 3:30pm and everything just moves slower than back home. It works.

Our party was a youthful mob of friendly postgrads, mingling well with the handful of various other young travellers with which we shared our tour. The first day in Alice was relaxing and informative thanks to a rousing trip to the Reptile Centre complete with proper outback bloke Rex promptly opening up the glass and taking out the Western brown snake within minutes of our arrival. I'm pretty sure my colleagues came in just a few minutes after he explained how freak'n deadly this thing's bite is (fatal in 30 minutes without treatment). To say the least, I was impressed. This was what I have been missing! His presentation was amusing yet informative and really drove home the reality that Australian snakes are quite easy to avoid incident with, armed with a few simple tricks. Don't walk in tall grass with exposed legs and feet. Be aware of your surroundings and if you see a snake simply back away from it calmly. There, life safe. Too easy.

Out there, it's the dryness that will get you first. It was pretty much the most perfect weather you could ask for but there is always the constant need to keep hydrating when in the desert. Despite my best efforts, I did manage to get a little dehydration sickness towards the end of one day.

I should point out that this was my first, and probably only, purchased packaged tour. All the plans sorted, all the adventure minimised. Don't let that fool you, adventure is a place of mind. It starts with turning off your phone, running out of money, and forgoing your typical caution. This trip really only had the luxury of one of those things. The trip was centred on that magical, misunderstood monolith that serves as the only non-manmade icon of this distant and sometimes forgotten land. Sad to say but I was just looking forward to getting out of the city for a few days, away from the impaired landscapes and short sighted perspectives. Sometimes you need to get out far enough to see a real horizon line, broad reaching and deeply cleansing.

It wasn't all smooth sailing. There was one little burst of excitement when the bus decided to refuse to start. After it was established that the starter did not appear to be operational, our guide decided it only made sense to try one thing before calling for help. So about six of us got behind the trailer attached to our bus and gave it a nice hard push. Sure enough, it started up! Luckily, that seemed to be the only time it decided to play up. It's funny how perspective is everything, not a single person complained or expressed negativity through the whole event. It really was the almost ideal tour group.

The afternoon at 'the Rock' was an emotional day for me. I can't really explain why. Here is a place that some of the oldest civilisations on earth have used as a focal point of congregation to teach, learn, and grow as communities. Ancient riverbeds glued together by time and energy then cracked apart slowly to present the features now reduced to a postcard snapshot. This place is so much more than that. The scientists and stewards of this harsh land sure know that. These ponderings interest and excite my mind to not end. Land, country, community; these are all intertwined components of the intricate way of life out here. Shouldn't that be the same everywhere? Uluru and Kata-Tjuta stand as icons of the power of the centre and the story being told here is one of collective consciousness as well as deeply complex laws. A few days was a good introduction but it was exactly that.

This trip only served to further solidify my desire to see the rest of this diverse and unique country. At this point, I can't say when but in the coming months to years I have to pack up a vehicle and traverse the far flung and magical corners of Oz. I want to make another chapter in the story of my life, a sort of outback ode to Alexander Supertramp....minus the tragic ending. Maybe I'll figure out a few more things and get a bit stronger. Maybe I'll just get a sun burn, who knows.

Never Cut to a Closed Door

Time is of the moment and fleeting fast so pardon the unpolishedness but here's the deal:

It's hard to say what's different or why, I should say. Maybe its the NLP, maybe its the new place, new people, new priorities or we can just blame the moon, this is not the town I landed in six weeks ago. Well, it is but it looks, sounds, and feels pretty different. Last night was an amazing convergence of worlds; slam world, Oz hip hop, and Australian ecology/sustainable development...all in one room with a generous helping of glorious glamrock. It goes to show how anything is truly possible when you start living by the immortal words of the great Tiny Fey always follow with "Yes and..." While she is talking about rules for successful improv sketches, I think this is applicable as generalized life advice (until STDs or police could be involved, lets say). 

I just need to sleep less, write more, read more, laugh more, and definitely dance way more. Those years exploring the scientific viewpoint were invaluable but its time to remember that its just that ONE perspective and there's still so much more to delve into. But what gets people through the good times, the tough times, the seemingly impossible: the outer limits of our brains, not how well we've trained them to follow somebody else's rules. Its a mind-boggling expansive void of creative energy that we all reside in. And you can't see, hear, smell, taste, feel, think or know that which you don't believe in. Pausing to really take it in will hopefully lead to future creative ventures. 

When I say "I used to....this and I used to that" the flaw in that is assuming time is a barrier not an opportunity builder, which of course its the latter. Finding the lesson in every path that starts with "Yes, and..", polishing it into a productive, funny, and enlightening story-nugget and figuring out who to share it with is the present task at hand.


Sidenote: I met Tim Flannery last night. It was pretty ordinary but my internal dialogue was going a mile a minute. If you don't know who he is, look it up. He's kind of a big deal. 

At this point in time....

"If we could sell our experiences for what they cost us, we'd all be millionaires."
-Abigail Van Buren

First off, my apologies for the extended absence. The silence is not to say I've been stagnant but instead a result of an inability to coherently process the past two months. I'm trying to do something different with my life, I'm just not sure what that is exactly. Whatever it is that's currently in motion, this place that is to serve as home for the next eighteen months is filled with tall buildings, trains, trams, and way more tourists than trees. To say the least, quite the change of pace from my past few years. 

For all the places I've been, people I've met, situations I've navigated through, I'm none the wiser or better off, in my opinion. What is the value of living by the seat of your pants across three countries over the course of a few years? What's the point of the BS degree that I've completed and the title of Master that is my current investment? Really, can somebody tell me?

The thought of committing to a place, one endeavor, and the largest sum of money I've ever seen attached to my name (all in negative terms of course) is overwhelming at the moment. While living on the periphery of socialized society its much easier to judge yourself by your own standards. Once you stop and sit in a place long enough you cease to be simply an observer and it starts to impart influence on you. Influence is in the brain of the beholder, for better or worse.

Being unemployed (probably for the next 17 months), permanently single, and not particularly skilled or knowledgeable about any one thing are not viewed as advantageous traits from this angle. In a setting where pretty much everybody wants to identify you by where you come from and what you do, it is very hard to explain that you do not care to identify with your 'hometown' and have no freaking clue what you're doing. The simple version is "Immigration told me I either had to find a husband or go to University here." So here I am; that's half the battle. What to do from here is a mystery for me. Maybe I'm waiting for some sign, clue, or divine intervention. That's probably not a good plan seeing as I spend 75% of my time alone in my room reading and listening to music. Its a very one way relationship. The only one talking back is my brain...well and now my fingertips.

There is so much beauty, creativity, enthralling and gut-wrenching history in this place. There isn't a day when I'm not appreciating that but I want to be more than a paid observer. That is all I seem to be at this point. This isn't a year and a half long nerdy vacation, despite what some members of my gene pool might think. But unless I can confidently explain and show what I'm doing here, I'm just going to keep my mind on the electronic pages of tourism journals and expression to a minimum.

Paradise Lost, Found, Lost Again and Renamed.

"Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain! The Great Oz has spoken!" 


What if Dorothy didn't want to get back to Kansas? What's so great about Kansas anyway? Family, o.k. I'll give her that. I was never lucky enough to get randomly transported to that magical land of the weird, colorful, and characters. But I did however find a place in books, movies, and T.V. shows called Australia, ironically enough sometimes called Oz for short. If I had to remember my earliest Oz related memory, it would have to be sitting for as long as I could pouring through the handful of books my primary school library had on the subject. This far off land full of bizarre creatures, extreme weather, tumultuous history, and a map full of places that just make you laugh. I think most people thought I would 'grow out of it'. Contrary, the more I learned, the more I loved this fascinating Terra incognita and it fueled me. Fueled me to appease my family's desire for me to acquire a university education, work and save up to go wander the place to see what I could find, and while it's opened the pathways for me catching the 'travel bug', I feel like I haven't really traveled all that much. It doesn't feel exactly like I'm a visitor here. It seems like a jumping off point. What I've found from my wanders is that the reality of this place is far more emotionally, culturally, ecologically, and spiritually diverse than I could have even dreamed. It cannot be boiled down to a singularity of flora, fauna, place, person or feeling. Its why the cassowary crossed the road, its the pigment splattered transit lines of everywhere people have something to say, its tripping over a 2.5 meter long rock python on the way home from work in the jungle, its a 184000 hectares of sandbar island, its the accidental brush with something called a stinging tree ("sting" my ass it freak'n burns!), and the trillions of other sights and experiences this place is busting at the seems to share with the world. 
This place was overrun with the British Empire's cast-offs and thrill seekers. They took over, called it home, and now think they have the right and responsibility to regulate who can live and work here. As much as I don't want to come to terms with that reality, I also don't want to learn the reality of being inside a jail cell. 

Toiling in the name of love has always been a virtuous path by most culture's standards. While returning to University this early wasn't my original plan....I lost those a ways back...it does hold the most potential for doing what I love where I've always wanted to be.