Walkabout Decoded

walkabout decoded

 

This will be for me a difficult blog to write.  Is part a challenge to myself, to try and then do my best.  Am thinking that by the time I lay out the boundaries and parameters of this effort, such that most of the readers will at least tolerate what I have tried to do here, the blog will have reached the maximum length I tell myself a blog should be.  Understanding that this is a blog and should not be taken too seriously, I will walk all this to the edge and then stop.  Is how I have lived most of my life.  Take on a challenge, and go with risk and factors beyond my control right up to the point where I am endangered, if I go one step more.  So have many untold stories and adventures not followed to the very end.  Stop when what I am doing threatens my very existence. 

 

And it is true.  I have lived this way and even now, some of this is with me today; found as  behavior characteristics and tendencies that are dangerous, or could be.  Writing about someone else's culture and belief system and way of life could fall into the category of dangerous and should not be pursued.

 

Limited by the fact this is a form of social media, and not a scholarly accredited works, even so I push on.  Feel as if I should tread lightly on still waters, and not threaten to make waves as I go forward.  The title and the pretense that I know where all this leads, might be deception and misinformation in its highest form.  Even so, I push on.  Push on, but hope to not hit hot buttons that increase ire among us.  I think there are many barriers to common approach and agreement when a foreigner writes about another’s culture and ways.  Having said that, I will continue on in the direction and manner I think most comfortable for me.  Am not sure where I should veer off my intended course and leave the path that suggests:  Walkabout Decoded.

First off, I would like to backtrack some.  And tell it as it first occurred to me.  Seems I have people who comment on my blogs, that are indeed Australian and will read this blog quite differently than say a reader on the continent.  And which continent might that be?  America.  Europe.  The Russian Steeps .  Just agree, it is not where you are and we all have varying degrees of receptivity and understanding, but when a stranger appears and talks about things that belong to us and  our culture we might take issue with that person’s perception and findings.  So it is with a blog that is presented in social media that is world-wide.  How much can be said by an American about the topic that is simply, totally Australian, and not found in the original state or context, anywhere else.   So I have found myself in this position before.  Pressing on and exploring new conditions and outcomes.  Those who read my blogs are aware this is true.

 

The foundation for this particular blog solidified in my mind, when I was reading a comment from an Australian blogger.  It suggested that for the holidays one might just get in the truck and wander about, with no particular destination or plans necessary to be made, except to just. Do.  It.  And it made sense to me.  I have family and I am sure they do not understand my approach to The Holidays.  So I usually side-step their inquiries, when in late summer or early fall, I get an email that asks:  “What are you doing for Christmas?”  My reply over the years ignores the idea that this might be their correct way of asking me to join a family gathering, and so I answer back.  “I will be out and about.  But at this point, unsure of the details.”

Out and About and it dawned on me that this might be similar to a modern day form of an Australian Walkabout.  Walkabout and  ‘Out and About’, and it sounds similar to me, but then I decided I would not assume.  I would look into it.  When an Australian person gets into their truck and just gets out of the city, and then out of their truck, is this the beginning of what they call ‘ a walkabout ‘ ?  And when an American gets into their truck and gets out of the city and away from the family and tribe, is this similar or is being ‘Out and About ‘, quite different?  So this was the foundation of writing a blog with the title:  Walkabout Decoded.  At that point I wasn’t sure I should even continue writing this blog.  But is my DNA.  I push on.

 

So now I have a lot of differing ideas of what should follow next.  Realize that I cannot give the topic all the space and scholarship it deserves.  Decoding a Walkabout and have decided it is and will be, off-limits to one like me.  Out and About and it is not something comparable.  It is just what I say and do, when the Holidays come along and I am being anti-social.  Am veering off from my stated goal and destination.  Will instead be talking about things that come to mind, that are easier for me to relate to and deal with.  Like pet peeves and how it is difficult for me to explain myself to others, while getting on an airplane and venturing out where the rest of population of this earth happens to be. 

 

Multi-cultural and Diverse, and suddenly I want to be quiet and discrete.  The Ugly American, I would not like to emulate.  But it is possible that this is something that just is.  Dominating personality and when you say, “American. But this you know.”, it becomes a disclaimer and you realized you are stepping onto thin ice, and maybe you should stop.  Go no farther.

 

So am calling a truce.  Walkabout Decoded and it can’t be done by me.  I can study up and listen to what my Australian readers and fellow bloggers have to say, on this subject.  Australian Walkabout.  Can smile and take it all in.  Cold and nasty at Christmas time in America.  Summer in Australia and yet, still Christmas.  And so I am thinking, how is it possible we can even talk about any of this.  So different.  So far away.  And he stops.  Realizes that there are some things one should just not approach.  Airplane and global travel, and suddenly here you are.

 

And realize that computers and communication protocols in modern times transport the individual and his mind, to places all so different than he is and will be,  like a stranger in a foreign land, even as he sits at his computer and it all seems familiar, with computer and visual ability and real-time exchange.  But even so,  let it be noted.  Some places and ways of being in those places will not be tolerated when an outsider appears, digitally or otherwise, and starts talking about things, not first nature to him.  And so is why I am calling a truce.  Walkabout Decoded.  Is a proper title. 

 

Great idea if we can do it.  Share it with the world and have fun doing it.  But not by an outsider.  Is what I am thinking now.  Won’t be the one to think I could decode any of this.  And think it might be a great time to go ‘Out and About ‘, and get away from this mess I have just created, in the standard way.

 Meddling. 

Blog topic for another day.  Perhaps.