Thinking Allowed: Dividing the Tropics

Our clan has become an empire of its own discovering and spreading its mighty power in the tropics. While Jakob spent the past week wearing formal clothing in Singapore the girls and I have spent the week in Cairns with my parents in bathing suits. Luckily we are benevolent visitors who happily move on without causing too much trouble.

After two weeks in the Australian tropics, they are growing on me. We are starting to shake off our earlier hesitancy to enjoy the risky pleasures on offer up here and respect the more evolved defences of the local environment. A true sign of our acclimatization is that at the lightest breeze we all complain that we are cold. Our bodies have become so habituated to the sweaty womby feeling. Our bowels churn up tropical smoothies out of the ingredients provided. In usual Australian spirit, all the locals think this is the best place to live in the country. The weather is dependably warm, the ocean balmy, expenses for clothing minimal, the rain forest full of medicines just waiting to be discovered, the elevated table lands lush with plenty – mangoes, bananas, macadamia nuts, peanuts, sugar cane, passion fruit, milk, wine, and on and on. Why should we let some vicious and poisonous plants and animals spoil our fun?

I inaugurated my new northern persona by going for a run along the crocodile infested beach and then for a swim in the stinger laden ocean. And it was really lovely. Cairns has compensated for the faults of its animals by providing some resources that are even better than the originals. The ‘lagoon’ in town is a massive public swimming pool complete with a beach perched right on the ocean. The esplanade offers free communal exercise options multiple times a day and communal workout stations. The library is a regal old government building encircled by giant fig trees loaded with screeching bats. We will be sad to leave this splendor and are happy to have had a chance to visit.