Hidden Treasures

My quest has taken me far. I have been down to the trenches. I have walked the front line and I have seen the devastation. I have seen things that no man should have to see. I have witnessed Hiroshima. I have witnessed total desecration. I am searching for a treasure so well hidden that my quest has taken me to the end of the earth and literally waltzed with me to the brink of sanity. All this over a chocolate éclair!

My trip to the trenches started without my knowing. One moonless summer evening, after dinner, I was walking in the streets of Perth, full of good food, good drinks and in good company. Funny how life likes to set you up before bringing you crashing back down to earth again isn’t it? Yes, to cap off this delightful evening I had purchased a chocolate éclair, the epiphany of all that is good about pastry, chocolate and cream. It’s a work of art that is the pinnacle of all deserts and confectionaries. The highlight for myself, and I’m sure you’ll all agree, is the cream. Without it the pastry has no feeling, no taste and no conceivable reason for existing at all. With it the éclair is nothing short of a ‘God’; and yet it was the cream as facts may have it, on this particular evening, pastry moist and chocolate sweet, that it went haywire.

The cream in this éclair was custard. Let me just enforce this- THE CREAM WAS CUSTARD. So what was going on in the minds of those who had crafted this pastry? What had led them to so freely turn their back upon their craft? What has happened to the entire western world we live in, when one can’t expect to taste whipped cream on the tip of their tongue after the first bite of a chocolate éclair? For the first time I was witnessed to the rapid epidemic of sloth and hence my quest began.

In short we no longer take pride in what we do. We live in a world that has become lazy and yes everybody cuts corners; we are only human. But you only need to look at the cream of an éclair to see where the ethics of the world have gone. Fast food, fast cars and reality television- a lifestyle that expects us to do things quickly and yet not so efficiently. It’s a lifestyle that expects us to settle for second best. We are on a downhill slide. One moment we are walking to the shops, the next we are driving and finally we are just having food delivered. Reports show that obesity in Australia is killing as many people as cancer and daily, to put it bluntly, we are a fat people and a lazy people. A people who aim low to avoid disappointment, eat chocolate in the car park to avoid meltage, achieve the mediocre and then still wonder why we are not happy.

I have been down to the front line. I have walked the trenches and seen the devastation. I have followed the trail of the beast and found it lurking in schools, in parks and in shopping centres. I have seen it dwelling within the minds of my family and friends. I have seen the beast in my wildest nightmares, but how to tackle it? Things need to be done properly. There are certain rules and etiquette with the way certain things should be done. The hidden treasures of our lazy world, that could be argued, may just be table manners, but surely not.

Our lives have become cluttered with the reasoning that quantity outdoes quality and things are better when they are done faster.

If there is an easier route or someone to blame, we will take it. When typing on the computer, we find it easier to dictate, when something needs fixing, we find it easier to buy new and when the phone rings and someone asks us to answer it we reply with “well you’re closer” or even worse “but you touched it last”. The easiest and ironically the laziest thing to do would be to place blame on the remote control. Never has a piece of equipment instigated as much sloth related trouble as the humble remote. It’s one small click for a big fat man, but a huge and obvious nemesis for our integrity and our waistlines. But I argue that we can go further back than the éclair and the remote, to see where humanity slid off the rails. Sloth as I first see it, first reared it’s ugly head the moment we waltzed out the primordial ooze and Mother Nature, and her not so infinite wisdom, gave us the gift of intelligence. From that very moment we have used that ‘gift’ to create things that simply don’t require its usage! It’s the mindless objects, mindless past times and a use of the friendly world that makes it easier for us to get by without thinking for ourselves.

I have been down to the front line. I have walked the trenches and seen the devastation. I have joined in the search for a hidden treasure of a lazy people. I have battled the beast and I have waged a war…against custard! At the beginning of the play ‘Prouder’ the villain lying on the roof says, “You are born in a tragic world. Tragedy is bred in your bones”. And he does not tell a lie.

We are born in a tragic world although we never stop to question it.

That is of course until we experience a moment of divine clarity and begin to take a serious look at what it is that we are doing with our lives.

Recently at an annual school’s cross-country running event, in the last race of the day, in the setting sun, one little boy, Trent, crossed the finish line dead last but by no means alone. Struggling to breathe and struggling to move, Trent raised his arms in silent victory. When he had been asked by the men in the first aid ute if he wanted to jump into the van and get a ride back to the finish line, Trent simply replied “no way” and ran on. Which isn’t bad for a boy with a spine difficulty, not bad at all. And for a moment everyone in the audience forgot about the evening’s television, their email and so on and so forth, and cheered for Trent; because for Trent the hidden treasure was pushing himself a little harder and becoming the best he could. I too had a moment of clarity, feeling, as the cancer researchers must have felt when they heard that there is a South American plant, which might hold the answer to their problem. Maybe Trent held the answer to mine.

The chocolate éclair, however insignificant, needs to be addressed. Now is the time to dig in our heels, grind our teeth, clench our jaws and push a little harder, before, achieving the best of our ability becomes like a perilous trip to the summit of Everest; attempted by many, but achieved by few. I want to live. I want to be able to stand up, walkover and change the channel. I want to walk to the shops to fix my shoes. I want to aim high. I want to cross the car park without eating the chocolate. I want to be able to feel true happiness. I want to pick up the phone no matter how close I am to it, or who touched it last, or whether or not it’s even ringing. I want to defy this tragic world. I want cream in my chocolate éclair and I want cream in those I make.

Yes! I have been down to the front line. I have walked the trenches and seen the devastation. There is a war going on in our own backyards. A war that we cannot see, hear, taste, touch or smell; yet one that surrounds us at every turn – sloth. It’s a war that infects everyday people and claims innocent lives. It’s a war in which we need to fight against members of our own family, friends and ultimately ourselves. However it is also a war that we can win. As Winston Churchill once did not say- “I shall never surrender to custard” and nor will I. Like Churchill before me, I stay here in times of peril and I say…sometimes quality is better than quantity, sometimes cream is better than custard and sometimes the most priceless hidden treasure of all is simply a state of mind!