#32. View From a Pub Booth

It has been quite a while since my last post, so apologies to regular followers of this blog.

I am currently sitting in a booth in a pub/brewery in Fremantle called "Little Creatures".  Without a doubt, this is my favourite place to go on a day off.  Take a book, a computer, have a pint, read - in general, just have a relaxing hour or two and watch the parade of life pass by.

It is an overcast day today with the promise of more of the rain we got overnight to come.  This keeps the people away a bit, but I don't necessarily mind that either - sometimes quiet is good for the soul.

I sometimes find myself wondering about the people I come across.  Where do they come from?  What is their story?  Where do they all go at the end of the day?  Will our paths cross again?  Have I seen them before?  The answers aren't that important I guess, we all have our back story, with a promise of a forward story to come.

I find this pub to be a microcosm of the society that Australia represents - mostly your average people, going about their lives as best they can.  Some working, some playing, but all going about their business without deliberately trying to be disrespectful of those around them.

Now this might be a stylised view of my society, particularly after the nastiness in Melbourne over the Easter weekend - a bigoted minority of the population making as much disruption as possible to others to shove their opinions in the face of others, whether they are interested or not.  I watched those scenes on the TV news and despaired at how far we have to go as a society.  Then I found myself thinking that if I thought what happened in Melbourne to be bad, how bad must it be in other parts of the world?Some might call this a "First World Problem", but if the first world can't live in acceptance of others, what hope has the rest of the world got?

The "First World Problem" I have at the minute is to decide what to have for lunch.  I might go the Felafel and Pita today.

Life is good.

Until next time,

CfB