Whisky called last night from London. We had a long chat about all manner of things.
In about a months time he is off to Turkey, intending to visit Gallipoli in time for Anzac day. He asked me a few questions about that, and my recommendations for what he should see and do while he's there. I gave him my best advice, but felt myself drained by the experience.
The truth is that I can't see enough of the world. It worries me a little, because I have to settle, but I can't help this feeling of wanderlust and irrepressible curiosity. I want to see, want to feel, want to taste, want to touch. I felt an ache as I spoke to him and openly called him a bastard for doing what I would do - and this is something I've done before!
I had a chat to my other sister on the weekend. She has two kids, and as we sat around the pool taking in the sun she mentioned what a simple pleasure it was to watch your children swim in the pool. I nodded my head. I couldn't share that pleasure because I've never been a father. Somehow I could understand where she was coming from, though.
So, there are simple pleasures and there are greater pleasures. I guess travel comes under the heading of 'greater'. I enjoy the simple pleasures but it is the greater pleasures that shape my life. I was thinking something related just a day before - that for me, the interesting parts of life come in some kind of conflict, in the abrasion of two surfaces. In travel: an Australian in Turkey, or Prague, or Hanoi, or wherever. In man and woman. In knowledge and learning. And so on. Square pegs may belong in square holes, but there's no challenge in that, and very little that is interesting.
Right now I feel a little sour about the whole thing, stuck in Melbourne, doing the conventional thing. That's life though, literally.
