Culture Shock and the Island (P.4 of 4)

 

Strategically, similar to chess, thinking plays ahead will give you an advantage. The 3 balls in the far corner pocket, in this instance, would become a set-up for the 5 to the side. All the balls were there for the taking. One stupid miss-shot, however, would hand victory to my opponent.

The music in the pub has been turned off because they were closing down for the night. Other than my opponent's contingency, a small group of observers, mainly staff, had gathered to watch the match. I had cleared the table in a manner of 2 minutes, sinking the 8 balls with a clever bank shot into the side pocket. It seemed half the crowd cheered, and the other stood there in silent resentment.

My defeated opponents girlfriend, the racist one, approached me with the $20, and said, “Meet us here tomorrow night for a re-match. 8:00 pm sharp.”

I returned to my bungalow to find my wife sleeping soundly on top of the sheets. The air-conditioning blasting and the air felt as cold as winter. I removed my tee shirt and lay down beside her to fall into a dreamless sleep.

The next day was hot, but an occasional cool breeze reached us from the sea. We lay together on separate lounge chairs, reading our respective novels. It was around two in the afternoon, when two indigenous boys approached, one I recognized as last night's staff member.

“You're that good pool player, mate?” he asked.

“Oh, you were there last night.” I said.

“You want to see something that the other tourists can't see,”? he asked.

Looking at my wife, she rolled her eyes and returned to her reading.

“Sure, lead the way,” I said.

We walked through the compound into dense bush. About 30 minutes had passed when we reached a beach on the other side of the island. An old, depleted peer extended about seven meters out to sea. The three of us walked to the peer's end.

“Watch this, mate.” he said.

The staff member put a knife between his teeth and dove into the ocean. Seconds later, he re-surfaced with an oyster in his hand. Opening the shell, he said, “Taste this, mate.”

Handing me the shellfish, already open, I swallowed it in one gulp, and, let me say, it tasted delicious. The other boy did the same, handing me the already shucked oyster, and again, swallowed it with pure pleasure.

Handing me the knife, my new friend said, “Your turn!”

Learning by example, I put the knife between my teeth and dove into the water. Murky, at first, my eyes focused on the wooden extensions of the peer. All along, one particular pole sat several shellfish. Removing the knife from my jaws, I worked frantically to remove a single shell. No joke, I was running out of the air, when, finally, the oyster let go, now swimming to the surface, bursting into the sun and the clean air. One of the boys helped me onto the peer. I shucked the fish and handed it to my new found friend. He downed the delicacy in a single motion, smiling.

This went on for near an hour, or until our hunger for shellfish had gone its natural course. Walking back to the resort, my new friend asked me, “Are you from America?”

“Yes. Though not by birth. I was born in Canada.”

He smiled, “Yea, you're quieter than the American's I've met on this island.”

It was a few years later that I read about Aboriginal deaths in custody. This travesty that continues to this day is an unspoken fact that it is not written about much in the mainstream media. At this time in history, Aboriginal deaths in custody, for the most part, known in the public sphere, was at its infancy.

There are racists everywhere, no matter what country or religion. In the US at the moment, the rioting for the out-right murders of black American's by cops is reaching its peak. People have had enough racism, yet the true racists, hiding behind an ideology of hate, appear to be yelling the loudest in many countries worldwide.

Culture Shock is a big term.

In many respects, it was moving to Australia from the bubble of suburban American “reality,” that finally my enlightenment about many issues, world-wide issues, came into view as a citizen of the planet.

Ideology is our greatest enemy. People are destroying each other over notions of what is right and wrong, based on spurious evidence.

One ideology makes sense, one of world-wide peace, and concerns about the planet's health, and revealing the dogs of war, and their main focus is destruction and power.

When finally leaving the United States, gaining different points of view, that my perceptions of the world changed. And despite the so-called cultural shock in daily manners, language, and political affiliations, it all started on this island paradise, playing pool, and diving for shellfish.