the rainbow serpent

[bigger picture]

As a child, the library was always my hiding place. Worlds within worlds were waiting to be read by my eager eyes. I was the special exception who got to borrow more than one non-fiction and fiction book [I thought I could have been a budding environmentalist when I read about deforestation and how it took over a million years for plastic bags to decompose]. Relationships with people were quite the opposite, they were difficult to construct and easy to decompose. The art of storytelling was my saviour when friends were hard to find. Characters were the only ones that were truthful to me. 

I remember reading about the Aboriginal Dreamtime in a Children's Pictorial Encyclopaedia. Particularly, the story of the rainbow serpent with all its vivid colours slithering across the page. I had no understanding of what the culture exactly was but I was always curious. They say curiosity killed the cat. 

While living on campus, you meet a great number of people from around the world. Recently I met two korean guys, one 23 and the other a 26 year old at the masked ball. It is strange to see the hierarchies and the way they choose to interact with my friend and I. Sometimes, when we talk we miss out whole chunks of sentences [as long as you recognise a couple of words and keep on asking questions the conversation lives] and other times, while mr 23 is conversing in another language it's as though he's got a split personality. It is difficult to go beyond the superficial stuff like exams, plastic surgery and the entertainment industry. Although we meet halfway in between, there seems to be an irreconcilable gap. And that gap is crucial, it is the crux of what becomes either meaningful or meaningless. Stories that last a lifetime are the ones you've lived in and reread through the conversations with lovers, strangers and friends.

[photoshop: me, photo credit: wayne yoshida @ yoshidaweb.com]