TRAVEL DIARY

A weblog regularly updated by Jodi Rose.

Monday, August 15, 2005

9:14 AM
Posted by jodi rose

I lie out on the gym equipment in my inner city terrace backyard. Earlier today the police choppers circled overhead and sirens wailed, trouble on the block. It's the 18 month anniversary of the death of a teenage boy, impaled on a fence after falling upwards off his bicycle, while being chased by police, who denied any involvement. The riots happened a few nights later. Trouble on the block.

At midnight the air is still and silent, the stars blurred behind an obscuring layer of cloud.

In summer the cool southerly breeze in the afternoons is a welcome respite from the oppressive heat of the day - tonight the westerly brings with it a chill from Antarctica. Either way it clears the head and brings balm to the troubled soul. Tonight I dream of a far-away love, wishing time and circumstance would change to hold us together for a moment longer.

Walking in the park yesterday morning, I stumbled across a gay and lesbian rights lobby protesting for equality in relationships. blaring Madonna singing 'it's a wonderful life' across the park. 'all love is equal' was their logo. 'If music be the food of love, play on give me excess of it. Any beats, any key, any colour, any texture - all human beings loving another human are equal,' I wrote on my pink heart and planted it in the grass.

As I meandered on past the new Peace Pole inscribed in four languages: 'May Peace Prevail on Earth; Baluraman Kambiman Dhagun; Puisse Paix Regner dans le Monde;' and a Chinese script I couldn't copy, I wondered if all love really was equal.

Someone asked me recently: When did you lose your innocence?
I haven't; I replied.
He was stunned.
And even if it wasn't quite true, I've fought tooth and nail to hold onto my sense of childlike wonder, curiosity and passion, for life. Which is almost innocence, if viewed in the right light.

If you can dream it, you can make it real. Like the graffiti on a North Fitzroy fence paling, I still believe in my childhood dreams.

this story is edited from my response to Barbara Campbell's inspiration 'she seeks a forgiving breeze' from her performance #55, taking place at sunset over 1001 nights.

go to http://1001.net.au/ to find out what she's doing today