I had gone to bed early and woke up at about 6am, and ambled over for my breakfast about 40 minutes later. The rain had stopped and though it was a little cloudy it was obviously going to be a much nicer day. My plan was to eat, drink and take it easy.
After breakfast I got in a hammock on the beach and read “The God Delusion” by Richard Dawkins. I have found Dawkins a bit arrogant and self-obsessed before, but enjoyed this book a lot more. It’s all pretty obvious stuff, but illuminating to have it so eloquently put and frightening to think of all the ridiculous and destructive things that religion makes people do. Though I feel that people would still do these things if it wasn’t for religion. They would find some other authority for their lunacy if all religions disappeared.
At one point I looked out into the sea just in time to see a shoal of flying fish, skipping and arcing across the water, like a swarm of tiny black insects. A small French boy in the sea with his dad squealed with fear and then delight at this unfamiliar sight so close to him. It did indeed seem magical and coming somewhere new does open oneÂ’s eyes to the wonders of nature. Because we get used to the world around us and only by coming somewhere where different stuff is going on do we remember that the world is amazing. And not because God made it this way.
Later I had lunch and a cocktail looking out at the blue ocean and felt that life could hardly get any better than this. I am delighted to be here alone as it means I am autonomous and do as I please. I did find myself looking at some of the families also dining there and thinking it would be nice to have someone to share the sights with. But there is time enough for that and for the moment solitude is a rewarding and necessary.
A couple of lunchtime drinks made me feel tired and I went for a lie-down at about 2.30pm and didnÂ’t wake up properly until after midnight. This clearly is not an ideal sleep pattern to be in, but after Edinburgh (which already seems like a life-time ago) I donÂ’t think itÂ’s a bad thing to get some rest. Again if I was with someone sleeping all afternoon and evening would have been rude and probably impossible. But I need to sleep.
I was a bit confused as I thought that I had checked my watch earlier and it had been morning time, so to wake up in the middle of the night made me wonder if I had actually slept for over 24 hours and missed a whole day. But it turned out that I must have dreamt it or misread my watch. I had however, missed dinner and was now quite well rested and it was the middle of the night, but I read, watched some DVDs and snoozed. I am sure I will manage to get on to Thai time tomorrow, but enjoyed the half of the day I was awake enough to not worry about the half I missed.
Reading Dawkins reminded me of a lesson at Middle School, where the History teacher Mr Williams had asked us to name the things that humans could not live without. We listed the obvious stuff like food, water, air and doubtless would have added family and love, but we were apparently still one away from the complete answer. “Come on, it’s obvious,” he told us, “all my other classes have got this.” But we were not getting it. “It’s religion!” he declared. I remember even at the age of 10 thinking that this was ridiculous, and I think some of us even took issue with him, but he wouldn’t be swayed, possibly even getting slightly angry at our heresy. Admittedly most civilisations have had religion, but even then I knew it was perfectly possible to be a human and exist without the need for God. It was strange to have a teacher telling us we were wrong about this issue, when I knew that we were right. I was obviously aggrieved enough for that memory to stay with me for another three decades.
