Wellington

I arrived in Wellington on Tuesday, its now Thursday and I will be heading home this afternoon. Its so lovely to get away, but its nice to go home as well. The first day I went traipsing all around Zealandia wildlife sanctuary, it was a beautiful sunny day (unusual for this part of the country). I saw tuatara, fish, tui, kaka's, kakariki parrots, bellbirds, hihi, wetas (uck!) and a multitude of other creatures (pied shags, ducks, some kind of quail or pheasant, and the supremely endangered takahe, a relative of the pukeko I believe, but bigger.) Word was that the takahe were extinct until a small colony was discovered high up in the mountains in the south island, so you never know, someone could discover a moa in there one day. (Moa being another extinct NZ bird) wouldn't that be interesting, apparently they used to grow up to 12ft tall. What else have I done? Yesterday I went to the wellington zoo, its a cute small place, bit of an uphill climb but lovely. Couldn't really see the cheetah -just the top of his head and his tail as he flicked it and the top of the lions back but everything else was there - chimps, baboons, dingo, african hunting dogs, otters - they were cute and chattery I've never heard them talk before they kept coming up and saying stuff to me. In the afternoon I walked out along Oriental parade that was great as well.

The Sanctity of Marriage

I believe that marriage should be, as it always has been, and should remain, between one man and one woman. In NZ a bill to redefine marriage has recently passed its first reading, which if it passes will allow two men or two women to be legally married. It was a landslide vote in the affirmative. I disagree with it. Even if it does become law, that doesn’t mean that its right. Marriage has been defined the same way for thousands of years, and I see no reason why a minority group should be allowed to redefine it just because they can scream louder than others. They’ve already taken perfectly lovely words like rainbow and hero and reshaped them according to their own specifications. Would I be allowed to start taking words from the English language and reshaping them according to the dictates of my own conscience? No. But they scream “persecution” and “hate” and “homophobe” towards anybody who disagrees with their views. What comes after redefinition of such an important word: gay adoption, polygamy, polyamory, marrying your relatives, incest? Where do you draw the line? If I were a Christian pastor and I refused to marry a gay couple because their stance disagreed with my own beliefs and what the Bible says, I would then be breaking the human rights act for discriminating against them. I can think highly of gay people but still not believe that they should be allowed to change such an important and sacred word to me as marriage. My parents were married, their parents were married, and it goes on back past where I can’t find any recorded information. From that marriage union came me. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. Genesis 2:24 Marriage: One man, one woman, one flesh. Sacred and important, and not to be defined any other way.

Solo

So 90% of the time, I feel perfectly fine, happy and content with being single, with having no significant other in my life. Yet it is that other 10%, that threatens to turn my world upside down. It’s the time in the early evening, when I get home from work, feeling like I want to unload a burden, or vent, or just summarize the days events out loud to somebody, and nobody is there. I guess using flatmates as a convenient sounding board has always been what worked for me. But at the moment she is in a serious relationship, and super busy at work on top of that, we pass like ships in the night on a regular basis. Tonight I got home from a nice musical evening to a quiet house, no lights on, no tv blaring, no music playing and sat on the couch with my herbal tea and it all hit me at once. The solitude. The quiet. The aloneness. Not even birds chirping or feral cats squabbling outside to distract me from the humm of the refrigerator and the otherwise complete loneliness of my evening. I feel as though each time I develop a great travelling friendship with someone, where we hang out all the time and go on weekend road trips, and generally have a blast, they are always gradually swallowed up by that large monster known as dating, courtship and marriage. Would I like to be swallowed up by such a monster? Hard to say, having heard so many horror stories about becoming so engaged to members of the opposite sex. My last two solo girl mates are currently in somewhat serious dating relationships, and although I am very happy for both of them, I find it hard to be happy for me. Some people love and crave solitude, I only like it during the day, then I can get things done. But when you don’t even have a fat cat nudging your ankles to distract you from the silence, from what currently feels like an empty existence, the internal tears come crashing down, making me want to wallow in depression, and eat ice cream. Tomorrow the sun will rise, and all will feel perfectly right with the world, and I will embrace the day with a light heart. But for tonight, this is how I feel – as though everyone else is venturing off to far distant shores, and I am here, by myself, the last one, alone.