roo.
September 22, 2008
a new friend reminded me today of how much i used to love the story of winnie the pooh growing up — winnie had always been her favorite, yet it was kanga and roo — and especially roo, that stole my attention. as we strolled the ocean walk around bondi beach this afternoon, i wondered at the serendipity in falling in love with an animal years before ever getting to see one in person.
is it possible to connect with someone long before you meet? or to connect in passing to pave the way for a deeper, more meaningful (re)connection someday down the road? i met this kanga and roo this past week – appreciating the beauty in the joey jumping in head first and not bothering to right itself – and, i just returned from a 4.5 hr dinner with an old flat mate who lives here in sydney – where we (re)connected in a way that we both have been intensely craving for a long time.
road kill
September 19, 2008
i’ve heard a lot on this trip about how humans have threatened the extinction of so many of the animals here in australia — with all our hunting, greed, past times, destruction of habitat by pouring concrete over it — and yet no one talks about the perils of the road. i’m continually fascinated (and saddened) by road kill and the seeming callousness us motorized folks seem to convey to the world through disregard for sharing space with little ones.
today i journeyed out and about more rural areas on a motorcycle and was confronted with a single reality i just didn’t expect: kangaroo as road kill. yes. that was weird. it was just lying there on the side of the road, all dead like and i felt like i was entering a surrealist landscape and all of a sudden nothing would be what it claimed and representation was so much more than carcass lying there.
and then it continued. i saw a possum and the some furry bushy tailed thing. all dead on or by the road…and…then, a close call with a fatty lizard as i watched it run into the road as my friend was riding by…he tried to swerve, but the little one got scared, ran back and lost an arm. i almost stopped to care for it — and really, it took a lot for me to keep riding by as it flopped helplessly on the side of the road…what does that say about me?
side note: i have also learned from several folks already that the english introduced the fox and the rabbit to australia because they loved their fox hunting — and both animals are now so rampant – the foxes are killing off tons of small animals (including wallabies!!) and the bunnies eating up all the vegetation and ruining the top soil. a sober tale about why we have such extreme quarantine neurosis when going through customs. grrr. tho i did see a number of bunnies today. too cute. i just can’t see them as a pest.
