Wednesday 15 October 2008

The Boss becomes speechless on cycleabout

The Boss and his Australian friend Len have gone cycleabout which is a variation on the Aborigninal notion of walkabout. They are on a cycle track running alongside a canal somewhere 20 or so North of Manchester. The Boss is singing Waltzing Matilda with great gusto and nearly in tune. ("Nearly in tune, that's about as close to being in tune as I've been to a crock" says Len.)
"Hey Boss don't you know any other Aussie songs?"
"My only other Aussie song is 'I should be so lucky, lucky, lucky. lucky-"
"Okay, okay"

A few miles of companionable silence ensues.
"Boss how about some tucker?"
They stop with a glorious view of some Lancashire hills.
"Boss I've been thinking about what you wrote about spirituality on your bike. You remember the Aboringinal notion of 'dreamtime'? In The Last Wave, a film by Peter Weir, one of the characters says: "Aboriginals believe in two forms of time; two parallel streams of activity. One is the daily objective activity, the other is an infinite spiritual cycle called the "dreamtime", more real than reality itself. Whatever happens in the dreamtime establishes the values, symbols, and laws of Aboriginal society. It was believed that some people of unusual spiritual powers had contact with the dreamtime."

"Well without inflating your ego Boss - which is probably big enough already your spiritual experience on the bike sounds rather like dreamtime to me. It's why us Abos go walkabout to re-connect with that truer greater reality dreamtime and I think you have stumbled across your own version of it on bicycle"

The Boss for once was speechless.

No comments: