A Sunkist day with Jack, Jim and the Solo man

Humans have fears which spring from the very nature of being human.  Apart from the regular ones like death, starvation, rejection and pain which make sense, there are some that don’t when considered in context.
     There’s the fear of God although there’s a lack of evidence about the immediate relationship between sin and God’s wrath.  
     There’s the fear parents have that their children will be violated by strangers yet there is overwhelming evidence that perpetrators of child sexual abuse are often known to the family, if not family members.  Of course, there is the recent fear of Muslims acting out IS ideologies and taking ‘Australians’ hostage although ‘white Australian’ hostage situations are more common than most would imagine (there was one in Bunbury on Friday).  We fear being murdered by a stranger - an ice addict, a thief, a predator of women - yet half of homicides in Australia result from domestic violence (almost two women per week).  

Just like the Torres Strait only inland.

     Humans are fearful creatures, but their fear is often misplaced because they have, either through ignorance or denial, identified the wrong enemy ... thereby allowing the real enemy to approach.

     I thought I came close to the enemy yesterday when Tony, the kids and I drove out to Lake Tinaroo with the dogs. We planned to meander along the fjords while the dogs splashed in the shallows.  

     Lake Tinaroo is a reservoir, 15 km from Atherton, constructed between 1953 and 1958 when the Barron River was dammed.  Adjacent to the Danbulla National Park, the lake lures fisherfolk chasing the massive, DPI-stocked barramundi that have no natural predators, watersport lovers, residents, campers and families, like ours wanting to spend some time in nature. 

Underwater wonder ... just like the reef of TI

     We found a little cove which appeared not to have been touched by man, apart from the great body of water that submerged huge tracts of rainforest, the only remainder being thousands of trunks that protrude from the water’s edge.  Seffy and Tony reclined on a great granite boulder and Kibby and I set off with the dogs. 

     The warmth from the sun was intoxicating as we traipsed along the marshy shore.  Cormorants sunned themselves on the boughs of the dead trees and families of ducks glided on the azure waters, which resembled to my surprise, the solwata of the Torres Strait (when the wind is below 20 knots!).  Apart from the hum of traffic along the road and the drone of speedboats, it was just Kibby and me and the dogs, enjoying nature.  I found myself in a walking meditation.

     Then I found the litter.  In all its hideousness.  There were plastic bags in various states of decomposition, too far gone for me to use to collect the other crap.  

     The insole of a child’s shoe.  A piece of pale blue plastic, possibly an old icecream container, bleached by the sun.  The plastic handle from a bucket.  A barramundi lure.  Scrunched toilet paper, complete with brown stains.  Crumpled plastic bottles, sun-bleached to the colour of tripe. The porous remains of an adult thong, Kustom I think, the kind with a textured surface that were popular about five years ago.  

     A tyre.  An endless supply of soft drink, beer and UDL cans, the labels faded, but the aluminium living on and on.  Stubbies, both clear glass and brown and millions of shards of stubbies.  
     A packet of Doritos floating rhythmically against a rock as if banging its head into oblivion, something I was tempted to do to the person who had left it behind.    

     What sort of people litter?  Filth?  Scum?  People who don’t care about public space and other users? If anything pisses me off, it’s litter.  If I see rubbish in the street, I pick it up.  If I go for a walk in the bush, I don’t want to see shit people have dropped because they are, are what?  Lazy?  Selfish?  Lots of people are lazy and selfish and don’t litter.  So what sort of people litter?  I don’t know.

     But who are they?  What do they look like?  I know they like Jim Beam, Jack Daniels, Sunkist, Solo and Doritos, but so do lots of people who dispose of their rubbish responsibly.  
     I fear the littering enemy because they don't have a face.  Nothing can be done to stop them.  They are up there with bigots and racists, moving through all levels of society, but not conforming to a stereotype. The thought of them makes my skin crawl.  I want to avoid them and keep my children and pets away from them.  I just don’t know who they are.

I gritted my teeth during the walk while Gina Rose got hers into something!