So this is my
vision. I want to generate just a little
bit of buzz on Youtube or the local press here, or even back in Oz. I think these projects have a lot of
potential. Then I want to meet my
friends and family at the airport in Australia.
I will be wearing my orange hoodie, or perhaps my brown or black
one. I will be wearing my red
shoes. Because those things symbolize
something for me. When you're rich and
famous, you can basically wear whatever you want whenever you want. For the ordinary plebs, we always have to dress
according to certain codes that say “Hey, I’m a serious person.”
So, I want
someone to take a picture of me at the airport, with my hood on, and my back
turned. The caption will read, “Hey, is
that Mark”. The hoodie and the sneakers
are a uniform of sorts- a kind of caustic poke at the rich entrepreneurial IT
crowd. Shit man, get this guy an
ambulance he needs some help? Where’s a
doctor when you need one? Because one
thing that I think is true is that on your deathbed, or in the case of a sudden,
unexpected accident, the last thing you will want fixed is your computer or
your webpage.
One of the main problems for generating a little more awareness is
the lack of any public figure to rally around.
I started thinking about this during the “Face of Rugby League”
debacle. Everyone was talking about how
that particular position is “cursed” or something. I thought, well, why does it need one
anyway? In theory, I get it. It can counteract some of the negative press
surrounding that code of football as a result of numerous unsavoury
incidents. But still, who really cares,
right? It’s just a game.
So I started thinking about who I would choose. I thought about all of the wonderful work
that Glen McGrath is doing in New South Wales and all over Australia to raise
awareness about Breast Cancer. It seems
to me that that particular charity evolved through that man’s sense of sadness
and loss when his beloved died. Yet, in
Queensland, something which is loved almost universally is also going through a
kind of slow death as well. But it’s not
too late, maybe, if we move quickly enough.
What I would like is to have a “Face of the Reef”- someone respected
andsd admired across the country who embodies the Queensland life style.
The ideal person for such a role would be a person like Matthew
Hayden. I would actually like to meet
him one day in person and say:
“G’day, Matt. You don’t know
me but I have always been a fan. I have
deep respect and admiration for all of your charity work. You seem ethical, caring and kind and I know
that you must be very busy. I am not so
many of those things. I like to think
that I am ethical, in my own way, and kind when and where I can be. You are Catholic, but I am not. I was married in a Catholic church, though,
and I have read a fair amount of decent Catholicism. You were an amazing batsman, while I batted
number 10 for my poorly performed Clubites team. But I always loved that game. I even used to “borrow” money growing up from
my parents to fund my addiction to Cricketer magazine. You are great and you are from my state. We love our state and the Great Barrier Reef
is one of the main symbols of our state.
How would you like to be the face of a media awareness campaign and a
charity?”
Now, none of this will probably happen. The principle, though, is important and it is
essential to have big dreams if you want to ameliorate big problems. Even if Matt’s too busy or, understandably,
committed to many other things, he could still support my vision or recommend
someone else to fill the role. It could
be Jimmy Maher, or even Andrew Symonds (if he behaves). It could be a rugby league player, but
preferably it would be a cricket player because it is the one code of sport
that is equally popular in every state of Australia.
2) Dystopian nightmares
As I was writing I began to think back to
my conversation with Eli and to wonder how he was going with his dreams in
Germany. I wondered how much funding he
was getting through Kickstarter for his and his brother Seth’s movie
project. I really hope that our young
visionaries and dreamers like Eli get a chance to live in a world where dreams
are still possible. Not just this
dystopic nightmare that seems just around the corner. How much time will the young men and women on
Planet Earth have to dream of better worlds?
How long until all of the colors- the deep blue of the ocean, the sky
blue of the sky, the greens and browns of plantlife and botany, the whitest of
whites of the clouds in the sky- are removed bit by bit? How long until we live in a world of shiny
buildings, while all the oceans, rivers and lakes become tinged with
brown? How long until we live in a grey
world of forever threatening skies with only the blackest black of asphalt
everywhere under our feet? How long
until all of the rainbows of this world, all of the promises of hope and
brighter days ahead are finally and forever gone. Once that happens, where will we live? Will we only live in paper planes flown deep
into the deepest of outer space, while Wall E gets to sit here in all his
loneliness and clean up after us and some unfathomable, giinormous mess. And, finally, do we all get to go, or only
those with the right amount of money in the bank? These are serious questions which demand of
at least some of us a tremendous act of care and consideration. That’s just the way I have always felt. And then I wrote some shout outs to some of
my coworkers here in Japan. I truly
benefited from the experience of working with such a diverse and interesting
and conscientious group of people. And
then I finished the book. So I flipped
the book over and began to write again.
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