Hermit in training

It has been almost a week since I flew back from Canberra. Mary and the kids stayed behind to spend more time with family there and I returned home to work another week before the Christmas holiday. Sunday afternoon, I will begin the drive back to Canberra and meet up with them. Hopefully Monday afternoon we will be united--barring any uneventful meetings of my car and a kangaroo or wombat.

In the mean time, I find myself with long stretches of silence. It is Saturday and I could spend the next 36 hours without talking to anyone. Sure, I will probably end up calling Mary's mobile a few times to discuss how much I hate Christmas shopping, but I consider that more bleating than conversation. I may also say "thank you" or "screw off" to the occasional checkout clerk, depending on how far along I am in the shopping process. But on the average, not much talking. It is not exactly the monastic lifestyle, but I do have a lot of time to reflect on things.

You don't notice things until they are gone. I read in an essay written by a brain scientist that babies mainly respond to stimulus that is ordinary and adults mainly respond to stimulus that is out of the ordinary. (I was going to cite the book for reference, but this is the internet and I can type what I want without worrying about backing up my assertions.) This makes perfect sense in my mind from an evolutionary point of view and may also explain why those generic, yet quirky, corporate boy bands are so popular with kids whose brains are stuck halfway between learning to discern common from extraordinary.

My point is that my life for the past week has had no rhythm, apart from being required to show up for work and even that wasn't consistent. It is because the people that form a significant part of my schedule are absent. To illustrate my point: it is 4:30 in the morning; I fell asleep before I could finish cooking dinner last night, woke up an hour ago feeling perfectly refreshed and am now eating chocolate cake, ice cream and cherry pie filling.

I think this is why Obi-Wan Kenobi seemed slightly insane when we first met him in Episode IV. After a few years of this lifestyle, I am sure I would develop a few quirks.