$1.10: Walking Alone, Upstream, Into The Darkness

$1.10. That is how much it costs to take the bus from my home bay south along the coast for a half dozen kilometres. The rain has stopped, so I walk a few minutes down the road and hop the bus. With the addition of myself, there are three people on the bus not counting the driver, and yet, the bus service runs a full size bus along these coastal communities on an hourly schedule. The bus is never full so a mini-bus would suffice and would use a lot less fossil fuels to run. Anyone who still lumbers under the delusion that humans are a rational species would do well to rethink that.

But, I get off the bus at a small bay with a boat ramp. A rough trail runs along cliff tops and beaches back to my home bay. The local council has plans to upgrade the track but these things, particularly when bureaucracy is involved take a long, long time, and Straya, being the perhaps the world capital nanny state will no doubt be compelled to install all kinds of safety barriers, railings, and other corralling devices.

Right now, the track is a rough pathway through bush that requires some scrambling up steep slopes, crossing seasonal creeks, and is generally only used by locals because, without local knowledge a person would never find the track.

After all the rain, the track is streaming with water and the seasonal creeks are running deep and, at mid-tide, the ocean is pushing into little lagoons along the track. I forget completely about keeping my shoes dry and simply wade through creeks and lagoons with my shoes on. About 45 minutes from home, a heavy shower rolls through and I walk the rest of the way home along a bush track with water streaming down my legs and my shorts stuck clammily to my skin.

As I walk, I am pondering the last book I read “Selfie: How We Became So Self Obsessed And WhatIt Is Doing To Us” by Will Storr. The book is an easy read as Storr, a long time journalist and novelist understands that humans grasp the world in stories. Facts and hypotheses, data and statistical significance, do little to move us, but stories capture our imaginations and form the narrative of our lives.

Selfie is not really about narcissism, although, for most of us, that is what the title conjures up. More the book is the story of how culture shapes our individual beliefs and pervades our lives even as we believe ourselves to be rational characters choosing our own individual and unique paths in life. If you have not assimilated the dominant cultural narrative, life can be a little like walking a wet path crisscrossed with deep streams on your way home, a persistent feeling that you are walking alone, upstream, into the darkness.