Stranger in the Night

This is a story. There might not be a point. Proceed no further if you have something important/more interesting to do. You have been warned.

Earlier today (what is now two days ago), my journey from Byron Bay to Melbourne began. After an hour bus ride from Byron to Casino (the beef capital), the whole SIT gang boarded the train down the east coast of Australia, bound for Sydney. The overnight route down the coast makes many stops, finally arriving in Sydney tomorrow morning, about twelve hours after it begins. I am currently sitting in my seat next to Megan, who is sound asleep to the sounds of John Mayer. I have also just had quite an interesting meeting.

Although it happened but an hour ago, Michelle and I began speaking with a woman who is sitting several rows of seats behind our group. She introduced herself as Beck, though not until we had been speaking for over three quarters of an hour. At the end of our conversation, when Michelle asked for her email address, Beck happily obliged, and below her email, she scribbled “the women you met on the train.”

Our conversation began with Michelle and I speaking about our group and the kinds of environmental classes we are taking. As it turns out, Beck knows Eshana, the leader of our recent eco-philosophy workshop. Having last spoken to Eshana three years ago, Beck lived with her in a rented flat in Lismore. The living spaces were cheap apartments for environmental activists who were essentially volunteering their time. Eshana was then the girlfriend of one John Seed, who was the man sponsoring the activists, and who is the head of the Rainforest Information Service.

Beck appears to be in her mid to late forties. She is travelling from Lismore, where she has spent the past few months, to her home in Canberra. She is an environmental activists, and has made a point since university not to work for a living. She dropped out of medical school at Melbourne University after her third year, and went on to get a degree in philosophy of science, having majored in philosophy as an undergraduate. Michelle, Beck, and I spent much of the conversation talking about contemporary environmental issues such as the recently approved 5% carbon emission cut by 2020 under the Rudd administration. However the most intriguing parts of the conversation for me were those about Beck’s chosen lifestyle and her worldviews.

Since Beck’s realization of herself as an environmental activist after dropping out of medical school, she had travelled all over the world, wherever her volunteer work takes her. She has since spent time living in Oxford, England, has gotten a degree in environmental resource management, and has travelled around the United States. I was surprised to hear that she makes it a point not to work for her living, and I was intrigued by the idea. As she said, her parents were always well off, so she never felt the need to work. She also has never wanted to take a paid position in environmental work, because she has always feared that someone else could do the work better than her.

Beck is a soft-spoken, intelligent woman with quite different life experiences than I have heard before. She laughs often, and happy wrinkles appear at the corners of her eyes when she smiles. She wears an orange and red, patterned hair band, a bright orange fleece, and old, worn-in jeans. She is only carrying a small, green pack with her; she left her belongings in a train station locker in Lismore by accident. “Someone will have to rescue my luggage for me,” she says with an unconcerned air.

Beck lives in an area of Canberra called Billings Cliffs. Originally founded as a commune, a utopia of people living with the land, twenty five years ago, it has stayed from the principles on which it was founded, laments Beck. The countryside is beautiful, and dwellers form relationships with each tree on their two acres due to the relationship that its inhabitants have with the land. However, Billings Cliff has suffered from some interpersonal issues, at least in the six years that Beck has been living there. Every attempt at a communal garden has failed, and the majority of the denizens of the 150-unit community are on welfare. For these environmentalists, once on welfare, it is tempting and easy to stay on it; you can live on government money if you cut some corners. Some grow their own fruits and vegetables, but many of these environmentalists have switched their two acres to cannabis, a more lucrative and indulgent cash crop. Though they must not make much money from it, given how much Beck says they smoke.

Over the years, the inhabitants of Billings Cliffs have become lazy from weed and government handouts. Beck believes that she is ready to leave. She loves living in nature, but she thinks that is almost a fool’s paradise, removed from the real world. How can you affect change when you live apart from the rest of society? I believe one of the tasks of environmental activists is to find a balance between spending time with the nature they wish to protect, and reaching out to those they wish to educate, often not willing to meet them in the wilderness. Beck will continue to travel, perhaps when she moves out of the doldrums of Billings Cliffs. She has not been to New Zealand yet; she’s saving the beauty of Australia’s neighbour for her old age.

One fellow passenger on the train = one new friend, Beck.

(the women you met on the train)