National Fears and Feelings

All the news in recent times has been about covid, with little asides of other issues and a few ‘feel good’ stories tagged on at the end.  So I haven’t posted a blog for months because the impacts of covid have ravaged many countries with misery and death, and in Australia, one of the least affected, has caused widespread anxiety, dislocation and a great deal of financial stress to many.  And I have sailed through it all with almost no disruption of my lifestyle, and increased business due to Queenslanders being imprisoned.  So any blog I write may seem like gloating, including this one.  I am aware of the impact of covid on most people’s lives, which at the least is a curtailing of opportunities and fun, and at the most grief and loss.  So I will bring you a sunny account of a beautiful rainforest untroubled by perilous times in the hope you see it as a beautiful bright world still out there.

Just a couple of hours ago I saw two tree kangaroos cross a grass clearing near my house.  First an adult with it’s long tail hopping across then a juvenile perhaps 2/3 the size moments later.  They are beautiful animals and gentle herbivores I have had perching on my shoulders watching me doing the washing up, with sharp 75 mm claws just gently resting on my head.  Gentle until territorial disputes or sexual rivalry comes into play that is.  Then all bets are off.  It is the same with possums and recently there has been major disputes with the possum at Maple Cottage as guests report major fights with the hissing, spitting, squealing sounds that accompany such conflicts.  There have been severe injuries and big patches of skin and fur ripped off.  I think a possum mafia has moved in.  One casualty with the right side of it’s face ripped off was driven out and moved down to my house.  It has caused me considerable annoyance as desperate possums resort to desperate measures such as raiding my house during daylight hours.  I am quite accustomed o having the daylight hours to myself and leaving the dark hours to the possums.  But when I have all doors and windows open, I don’t want to be subject to sneak attacks to steal my dinner.  I have managed to trap it and relocate it to a distant part of the rainforest but I doubt it will survive.  Callous perhaps, but I claim a small portion of this land, my house, as my own.

I am having a drought.  More than 3 weeks without rain!  I know, I know, this is well short of an Australian record, but here in the rainforest it seems strange to not need gumboots and to see dust in the trails of cars.  Other people would call it beautiful weather.  Just depends on what you are in need of.

For those of you out there in the anthropologically modeled version of reality, I think you really need to get vaccinated for covid.  It isn’t the final solution, but it could stop you dying.  The virus is changing due to the vast opportunities given by its massive distribution.  This leads to its survival and our demise by the process of trial and error, otherwise known as evolution.  On the side of the good guys are the remarkably competent and trained virologists who strive to counterattack.  Unfortunately, they can only perform a few well directed lines a month, and the virus can perform billions of aimless experiments to defeat them.  This contest has a long way to run.