A very unimportant subject

[Stephen Whiteside]

This is not important at all, but I felt I should raise it nonetheless.

Sometimes you can get distracted by the big, bold issues, when it is the little things that are really getting in the way, and stopping things from running smoothly. It's often only with the benefit of hindsight, though, or the fresh view provided by an outsider, that this becomes clear.

There are some that would no doubt say it is too trivial to even comment upon, but in my experience, nothing is too trivial to talk about, and often things that initially appear extremely slight eventually prove to be quite critical.

Of course, bush poetry is no exception.

Are you with me?

I have sounded several people out already, and they have more or less said, "Oh, how could you be bothered? You're wasting everybody's time!"

Well, perhaps they are right, but I am going to back my own judgement on this nonetheless, and press ahead.

How often have you heard, "Oh, it'll sort itself out in the wash."

Well, sometimes it just doesn't. I don't know about you, but my wash can get quite muddled. In fact, the wash quite often makes thing worse, not better. Often things only get sorted out when you peg them on the line, which is why my analogy is so apt, I feel. Even little things can benefit from a good airing.

It might be a little thing to me and to you, say, but if it is also a little thing to everybody in the room, it suddenly becomes quite a big thing, because it brings us together. I don't think anybody can argue with that.

Often the solution comes through the discussion and the sharing -or airing. And so I hope it will be here. Simply by stating the problem - clearly and uncompromisingly, no matter that it is - or appears to be - trivial, the solution may begin to emerge.

Of course, it might not happen straight away, and it is true, it may never happen, but given time, it just might, and that is the important thing, I think. We have to have hope.

So, think about it. Don't brush it aside, even if that is your first impulse. Mull it over for a while. Sleep on it. Or beside it. Or under it, even. Whatever it takes. There's no hurry, though I would quite like to have it resolved by next Tuesday if possible.

[Heather]

I know exactly where you are coming from Stephen, (I think) and I couldn't agree more, what's more and I couldn't have said it more succinctly.

[Terry]

I think I need a Panadol

Terry

[Heather]

Make sure you lie down as well Terry.

[Stephen Whiteside]

Thanks, Heather. It's nice to know I'm not being treated as though I'm a complete idiot.

What can be trivial to a Christian can be very important to a Buddhist...and vice versa.

What can be trivial to a man can be very important to a woman...and vice versa.

What can be trivial to a mountain gorilla can be important to a rhesus monkey...and vice versa.

And what can be trivial to ONE bush poet can be very important to ANOTHER bush poet.

And vice versa, of course (it goes without saying).

[Heather]

Not a complete idiot Stephen, never!

I am curious to know what a mountain gorilla would find trivial that a rhesus monkey would find important. Do you think they would know what trivial was?

[Stephen Whiteside]

I vaguely recall from my student days, Heather, that rhesus monkeys played a very important role in the history of medical research. Mountain gorillas, on the other hand, played almost no role at all. I'm not sure why. It may have had something to do with their smell.

Anyway. It doesn't matter. The point is this. (Or something very similar to it.) You know how we are all Rh positive or negative, as well as having an ABO blood group? Well, the 'Rh' refers to 'rhesus monkey' - or so I believe.

Now, it would be a matter of great import for a rhesus monkey whether it was swinging through a tree in an African jungle, or cooped up in a medical laboratory in London. To a mountain gorilla, however, it would be quite trivial. Why should the gorilla care where the monkey is? He wouldn't. I mean, they are related, but not closely. The mountain gorilla has many other relatives that are much closer. Does this make sense?

But let me return to my main thesis. I am allowing myself to become distracted.

Yesterday I was walking down the street. It was a hot day. I saw a man walking towards me. He appeared to be a monk. He had a long beard, and was wearing a large shapeless brown garment of a very rough texture.

More importantly, he was carrying an ice cream in his right hand. However, he was not eating it. Instead, he was allowing the melted ice cream to dribble down the cone and over his fingers and hand. I did what any decent person would do under the circumstances. I relieved him of it, and ate it myself.

Now, my question is this. Should I have offered to clean his fingers for him? After all, they were covered with sweet, sticky, melted ice cream. I had half a mind to lick them clean for him, but I thought it would be a bit odd. Besides, they were very hairy (you know, hair on the backs of the fingers, sticking up through small ice cream seas), and he also looked like he had a lot of dirt under his nails.

Of course, it would have been another thing entirely if I had had a wet cloth with me, but I didn't. Held in my hand, draped over my arm, or even slung around my neck, it would have dried out very quickly. I might have had the foresight to pack one in some sort of freezer bag or even back pack. I imagine you can buy them very cheaply at K-Mart, for example. But I didn't. So I was in an awkward position, and did the only thing I could, which was, as I say, nothing.

Now, is this too trivial to even talk about? Did the monk even notice? To me, he looked in a distracted state of mind. Catatonic, or something like that. He might even have been on drugs. Who knows? Not me.

Yet, somehow the whole incident has stuck in my mind, which makes me think it was not trivial - at least not to me.

Now, then, if you take this simple little event, and transpose it into the world of bush poetry, I think my meaning becomes very clear.

[Maureen K Clifford]

As mud Stephen - as mud What flavour was it?

[Heather]

How do you know he was a monk? Maybe he was a homeless man - and you ate his ice cream Stephen! How could you? do you feel bad now, do you?

[Stephen Whiteside]

He must have been a monk, Heather, because he looked EXACTLY like all the monks look in those Hollywood films. EXACTLY.

Love it Maureen.