John Cheever, The Stories of John Cheever (1978)
"Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam,
Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home."
John Howard Payne
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
It Ain't About Geography
"Homesickness is. . . absolutely nothing. Fifty percent of the people in the world are homesick all the time. . . You don't really long for another country. You long for something in yourself that you don't have, or haven't been able to find."
John Cheever, The Stories of John Cheever (1978)
"Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam,
Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home."
John Howard Payne
John Cheever, The Stories of John Cheever (1978)
"Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam,
Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home."
John Howard Payne
Sunday, April 16, 2006
How Not To Be A Twit
Read the Article Here
Saw this story and thought it captured the reality of where the stereotype of the "Ugly American" comes from. Obviously not every American who travels abroad does these things, but it does have some basis in fact. I think the biggest thing we tend to do when we travel is focus more on where we're from as opposed to where we are. I can still spot US tourists in Melbourne easy as pie.
The nice thing, though, is that nearly all of the people I work with have had very positive dealings with Americans and think that we are the friendliest, most amiable people they've met. It's always good to hear when so much of the talk is about how we can be a bit hard to deal with as tourists.
A survey conducted a few years back by a major tour operator polled people in the service industries from all over the world and found that the least-liked tourists were British, while the most liked were Americans and Germans.
Saw this story and thought it captured the reality of where the stereotype of the "Ugly American" comes from. Obviously not every American who travels abroad does these things, but it does have some basis in fact. I think the biggest thing we tend to do when we travel is focus more on where we're from as opposed to where we are. I can still spot US tourists in Melbourne easy as pie.
The nice thing, though, is that nearly all of the people I work with have had very positive dealings with Americans and think that we are the friendliest, most amiable people they've met. It's always good to hear when so much of the talk is about how we can be a bit hard to deal with as tourists.
A survey conducted a few years back by a major tour operator polled people in the service industries from all over the world and found that the least-liked tourists were British, while the most liked were Americans and Germans.
Thursday, April 06, 2006
Stupid Monkeys
And now, some doom and gloom...
And so it is and so it goes. Kind of scary thinking about the way the world is heading. People have evolved to deal with problems in the immediate, the things staring us in the face in the foreground. It goes without saying that our ancestors who could resolve and overcome the immediate issue of a tiger reading the menu where the ones who’ve passed on their genes. Those who couldn’t resolve such issues became a meal, having their DNA naturally selected to end up fattening up our four-legged foes. Unfortunately we seem to have a dramatic incapacity to be aware of the events unfolding in the background. Perhaps we didn’t evolve with an aim to minding what was going on behind the scenes, but then again, why would we? How would primitive man make a difference to his environment on such a large scale so that it would outweigh his need for surviving day to day?
Unfortunately it looks like that propensity towards myopia has led us down a track where we have been affecting tremendous and cataclysmic change in our world, and yet, even with this knowledge, we can’t get our shit together enough to take action and prevent what we all know to be happening.
Eric Pianka, a professor at the University of Texas, recently gave a lecture about how humanity is heading for an inevitable collapse due to the earth being incapable of sustaining the overpopulation.
(http://story.seguingazette.com/drudge.html). His is just one of the many learned voices speaking out about overpopulation as well as global warming, pollution, deforestation, etc.
So long as we look out the window and see blue skies. As long as we have warm summer nights and beautiful winter snowfalls, we will be hard-pressed to wrap our heads around what is happening on a much more subtle scale. What we see is what we believe. It’s not until the freak blizzards, hurricanes, tsunamis and droughts become the norm will we snap out of our contentment.
I heard someone speak about the misconception people have that we are killing the planet. What we are doing is reducing the planet’s ability to keep us alive. Once we push the planet past the tipping point, it will find its own equilibrium and we are either going to be gone or back to swinging clubs.
And so it is and so it goes. Kind of scary thinking about the way the world is heading. People have evolved to deal with problems in the immediate, the things staring us in the face in the foreground. It goes without saying that our ancestors who could resolve and overcome the immediate issue of a tiger reading the menu where the ones who’ve passed on their genes. Those who couldn’t resolve such issues became a meal, having their DNA naturally selected to end up fattening up our four-legged foes. Unfortunately we seem to have a dramatic incapacity to be aware of the events unfolding in the background. Perhaps we didn’t evolve with an aim to minding what was going on behind the scenes, but then again, why would we? How would primitive man make a difference to his environment on such a large scale so that it would outweigh his need for surviving day to day?
Unfortunately it looks like that propensity towards myopia has led us down a track where we have been affecting tremendous and cataclysmic change in our world, and yet, even with this knowledge, we can’t get our shit together enough to take action and prevent what we all know to be happening.
Eric Pianka, a professor at the University of Texas, recently gave a lecture about how humanity is heading for an inevitable collapse due to the earth being incapable of sustaining the overpopulation.
(http://story.seguingazette.com/drudge.html). His is just one of the many learned voices speaking out about overpopulation as well as global warming, pollution, deforestation, etc.
So long as we look out the window and see blue skies. As long as we have warm summer nights and beautiful winter snowfalls, we will be hard-pressed to wrap our heads around what is happening on a much more subtle scale. What we see is what we believe. It’s not until the freak blizzards, hurricanes, tsunamis and droughts become the norm will we snap out of our contentment.
I heard someone speak about the misconception people have that we are killing the planet. What we are doing is reducing the planet’s ability to keep us alive. Once we push the planet past the tipping point, it will find its own equilibrium and we are either going to be gone or back to swinging clubs.
Weekend at the Prom
Spent the weekend at Wilson’s Promontory (http://www.parkweb.vic.gov.au/1park_display.cfm) and was absolutely blown away by the almost prehistoric beauty of the land. It looked like part of another world yet it was only a three hours’ drive from Melbourne. We spent the night in a cabin with our brother and sister-in-law and Nina’s parents. The entire wall of the cabin was made of glass door walls and we slid them wide open, eating, drinking, playing cards, watching the kookaburras swoop in for a peak and relaxing under the stars.
We went for a bushwalk up around a mountain that ended up overlooking a sheer cliff face that dropped to the ocean below. Strong winds blew us about and I was thrilled not only with the breathtaking view, but also with not a single safety railing or warning in sight. If you were willing to be stupid and hang out over the edge, you would fall to your death.
How refreshing not being protected from ourselves every minute of the day.
Heading out to the bush/campground/beach for the weekend is quintissentially Australian. It's not about being entertained every second of the day and it ain't about spending a lot of money. It's all about relaxing with family and enjoying this gorgeous country.
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