100 Days of Wonder – #10
Perspective is a funny thing isn’t it. I like spending time at the Animal Kingdom, lots of time. I like the way taking time to watch the animals can flip the perspective. Who is watching and who is being watched? And I like the way the animals can also inspire stories in interesting ways, either because we can watch them from our very human perspectives, full of assumptions and preconceived ideas about life and the world, or for the opposite reason. What can we learn by watching if we try not to make any assumptions about what is happening? I spent ages watching the hippo half swim half walk a few laps on the bottom of their ‘lake’ before settling down as we see it in the picture. Almost immediately the bird came and used the hippo as a convenient perch in the water. What the picture doesn’t capture is how most adults didn’t see the hippo and most smaller children didn’t see the bird. Everyone was just looking at their eye level not bothering to look up or down. That’s what made me take the picture – I wanted a reminder that we rarely see the whole picture and if we want to get closer to doing so, we need to consciously deviate from our normal eye line. We might be surprised by what we see.
100 Days of Wonder – #9
As I recover from Covid and try and pick up my training for the 2025 Dopey Challenge again, I am reflecting on running and what it has taught me, what it means to me and where I am with it now. There’s lots more about my running on my running blog including a write up of this particular run. I loved this run. That’s rare. I am still not entirely convinced I actually like running. But it means a lot to me because it has taught me a lot about myself. I have always been pretty good at everything I do but that’s simply because I just don’t do things I am not good at. Running is the exception. Running has taught me to stick at something, that doing something just because is a good enough reason to do it, that not being good at it doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy it. I am more patient with myself and others because of running, I struggle less with the inevitable failures of academia because running taught me I don’t have to excel at everything and it’s ok to have a bad run (a classic reviewer 2, a not perfect teaching session, a not so great meeting). I have (mostly) let go of the competitive streak in me because the world didn’t end when I came last in a race. Running has also taught me to celebrate and ‘bank’ the wins, the glorious runs – like this 5k – where everything feels right, the sense of achievement when you cross a finish line, run a new distance, go faster than you ever have or have recently or the wonder of kingfishers, herons, kites, deer and all sorts of other wildlife you stumble across on early morning trails. I try and note and enjoy the joyful teaching moments, the ‘your paper has now been accepted’ emails, the invites to go talk to interesting people about cool stuff because there will always be another long ploddy run in the cold rain and its academic equivalents – they need doing, they help make the magic happen but having a memory bank of of what the magic feels like definitely helps!
100 Days of Wonder – #8
I promised you yesterday I’d be back in the Happiest Place on Earth today but, for those Disney Nerds amongst you, you will know that I haven’t actually posted anything from there yet! The Happiest Place on Earth is Disneyland in California. So today’s picture is from the Disney California Adventure in Anaheim. It’s from November 2016 when the ride in the photo was called Mickey’s Fun Wheel (now Pixar Pal-A-Round). I quite like the photo but that’s not why I chose it. It makes me laugh because it is a reminder that sometimes I can be impulsive, not think things through, have a panic as things unfold but then just get on with it because there’s no choice. I don’t like ferris wheels, I don’t like heights, I get motion sick and did I mention I don’t like heights… well for some reason I decided, much to Kath’s surprise and bemusement, that on the 12th November 2016 I had to go on Mikey’s Fun Wheel. As the universe would have it, there was no queue to make me pause, think it through and make me change my mind. We were pretty much at the top when the reality of my decision hit me. WTF was I doing on a ferris wheel (there was much more swearing than that). I couldn’t do anything about it though so while swearing and breathing a little too fast, I settled in to admire the view. So even though I hated the ride and being up there, like high up there, in a moving thing… and have you read the horror stories about ferris wheels (neither have I but I bet they exist)… the view was fantastic, the laughter drifting up to us infectious, the holiday we were at the end of absolutely amazing, the company perfect. Even in really uncomfortable moments there is so much joy to be had, we just need to stop hyperventilating for long enough to see it. Would I go on it again – hell no. At leas that’s my answer sitting here on my sofa but once at Disney, anything can happen.
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