People and Things

I think before I launch into this soliloquy I should give a wee bit of background about myself that some of you may not already know. I know at least one of you are privy to various aspects in my life and how they have influenced the way I am, however most may need a little of this background to understand why it is that I think, say and do things as I do. To the extent that I even use underlining as emphasis – something people rarely do in a blog post et al.

By the way, this will be long, so if you've not the time to hang about and read garbage for an extended period of time, then, perhaps, await an opportunity when you do have the time, or just don't read it, I guess! I just think that I should be warning you that it will probably be an epistle of monumental proportions. It feels kind of strange writing that after having recently bleated about people not reading, but, you see, I am writing this to assuage my mind, rather than as entertainment value – kind of thinking out loud. The reason I want to put my background in is that I have some quite diversive attitudes to society in general and, I guess, no one wants their readers to think ill of them – myself included.

This, in itself, is quite strange, because as a general rule I couldn't give a tinker's cuss what people in general think about me. I am what I am and if they have a difficulty with that, then they are free to make their own arrangements. I will have to think about that one.

A few short facts, in point form, about me.

• I was born in Papua New Guinea when it was a Territory of Australia
  
• I spent my very early life being raised more or less as a "primitive" at the village level – learning many of the traditional ways and being included as part of their system whereby the boys are raised by the extended family of uncles, grandfathers and so on with me being regarded as being part of the clan – despite the fact that I am Caucasian and they were Melanesians.
  
• I spent much of my education at segregated boarding school.
  
• Having "graduated" I joined the military for a period of time. This was not a highlight of my life as my personality wasn't suitable.
  
• I left the military and have been driving trucks interstate (over the road) basically ever since, living a pretty solitary existence throughout that time – about 30 years.
  
• As a result of all of the above, you can doubtless see that nothing
  in my life has been "normal", nor have I had normal exposure to society, nor as a result are my views reflective of society at large. This is not a complaint or a whinge. It is just the way that it is, as simple as that. Like most people in society, I am a product of my genes, my upbringing, my education, my opportunities, my work exposure, the people I have chosen to surround myself with (friends and those who have mentored me) and, in my case, my lack of a "normal" lifestyle.
  
• I am only unique in my uniqueness, however. By this I mean that everyone else in society is moulded by the very same facets of factors as I have been. It is just that the factoring in my case has been somewhat unique!!!
  

Now that I have given the background, I can launch into this missive properly.

Several things in the last few years of my life and the lives of those I know and/or care about have had an enormous impact upon me. I guess what has really predicated this train of thought has been what happened to Terry's little mate Rusty, as much as anything. I never met Rusty, nor ever would I have, in all probability. Whilst I hold Terry in the highest regard (which would be absolutely obvious to anyone who has read anything of hers I have commented upon), the reality is that I haven't met Terry. However, no one should have been deprived of a companion as has Terry's family. No one should have had to go through the mourning and sense of loss as has Terry.

You see, it wasn't so much that it was Terry and Rusty, although it disturbs me enormously that someone I regard as highly has had to endure as she has. It was because it happened.

As a species I am singularly unimpressed with mankind. As a species, we are duplicitous, arrogant, ignorant, self absorbed and look after our own interests solely and at the expense of all others. As individuals I think we have the same character traits, only to a greater or a lesser degree. I honestly thing that if each and every one of us were to look deep within ourselves, we would find instances where we have been duplicitous (in the truest sense of the word), arrogant and all of the rest of the things mentioned above. I sincerely believe that if you look all those words up in the dictionary, and their synonyms, at least some time we could all apply them to ourselves.

I also think that, fortunately, the people that I have chosen to include in my life control these traits admirably. It is not a bad thing to have these traits, because I think they are part of being human. I think it becomes a bad thing when you allow them to control how you treat others or if you visit detrimental aspects upon the lives of others because you allow yourself to be determined by these traits. Am I making sense?

Now getting back to Rusty. Here was a great little fulla, just going about his business, harming nobody, restrained in his own domain. Along come these other critters that were let roam in suburbia and had formed a "pack" and the rest is a terrible history. I blame, without shadow of a doubt, the "owners" of these hounds. They have abrogated their responsibilities entirely and a poor little blighter went through hell and now is no longer with us. There is no excuse in suburbia for failing to control your domestic animals. It is such failures that lead me to continue to think ill of us as a species.

You see, a dog cannot reason. They merely react spontaneously to the circumstances in which they find themselves. Whatever a dog does is a result of what the circumstances are – not because it has thought something through. In this way, dogs are honest. People are not.

There are not many things in this life that I hate, but one thing I surely do hate is killing things. If you have to because you need to eat, then you do. If it is unavoidable (stray animals on the highways, for example), then such is life – and death. On a number of occasions in the past, because of a skill I had, I had been required to dispatch with packs of wild dogs that were sheep killers. Sadly it was a necessary evil and I gained no pleasure from it. I would far sooner have dispatched with the previous owners of those dogs because, in most cases, they had been domesticated dogs from suburbia gone wild. Every shot fired was into an animal that was merely reacting to the circumstances in which it found itself.

Yeah! You may guess I don't have any regard for irresponsible "pet" owners.

With me, what you see is what you get. I never change how I relate to other people without that they change how they choose to be with regard to me. This has been something that I cannot fathom. I tend to relate the same way to people, at all times – at least, how I regard them. If I believe them to be an arsehole, chances are they will forever be an arsehole to me. If I choose to allow people into my inner thoughts and they are well regarded, then there they shall remain until they choose otherwise.

I also tend to be very forthright in my views. This is because it is my belief that people deserve to have honesty visited upon them. I don't really understand when people say one thing to you and say another behind your back or, perhaps, their words and their actions are at odds to one another. I see this every day of my life at work and I just ….. well …. I just fail, that's all. I fail to comprehend politics and dishonesty, hence I will help anyone at work or anywhere else in my life, but I am extremely selective as to who I travel with or who I share my …… I dunno … true friendship, I guess, with.

I am a confidence person. I tend to appear be confident around people I care about until I feel I have made a blunder. Once I make a blunder, I continue to make blunders, each succeeding error being worse than before. I am not sure why this is so, but it is the way it is. I guess it may be because I have felt quite apart from society at large all my life, so have no firm belief in my capacity to behave "normally". Hell, I don't even know what normal is!

Because of the solitary nature of my lifestyle (even in years gone by when I was in a "relationship" that meant a whole heap more to me than it did to the other party) I think I have ostracised myself significantly from ….. people …… which gets me back to the fact that I prefer dogs – or "primitive" people because they are closer to being straight up than modern society.

The dichotomy of all this is that I get enormous pleasure from meeting people I regard as friends (even though I may not have met them previously) or catching up with old ones.

In the space of the last fortnight (2 weeks for you Americans) I have managed to catch up with 2 mates that I have been speaking to on Amateur Radio for 25 years, but not previously met! This was a real joy for me. They were Col, VK2EEE and Alan, VK2ALN. Both I have spoken to virtually 2 or 3 times a week in all that time but never had the opportunity to shake hands with. I guess we finally reckoned that we are all getting older and we best be doing it before one of us fell off the perch!

Also, in the space of about an hour, I met up with 3 old work mates, all of whom I regarded highly. They were Roger (still at the evolution of Pioneer Quarries), Rodney (also still with that mob) and Nudge (who has since departed like me, and gone elsewhere). I cannot say how great it was to catch up with these blokes, all separately but within the space of an hour or so. An amazing coincidence I am sure, but enjoyable none the less.

I have rabbitted on long enough and I am running out of time as I need to get my backside into gear and get to work. I think this post is a work in progress so I may add to it.

Sorry to bore you all with it, but it was as much to "get it off my chest" as anything!

Drive safely