The Hobart Chronicles XXII: The Milk (Chocolate) of Human Kindness

“I am the milkman of human kindness
I will leave an extra pint.”
- Billy Bragg, 1987

“I only use my gun whenever kindness fails.”
- Mosquitos, 1999

Easter this year was odd, but in a good way. On Easter Sunday I was visited by the Easter Bunny. Really.

Sunday morning I opened up the front door, and there on my doorstep were three Easter Eggs. No explanation, nothing.

I suspect it was my next-door neighbours (I acquired these ones in place of the noisy boys about 8 months ago; we hail one another in passing, and the first to collect their own rubbish bin from the kerb collects the other’s as well), but really, it doesn’t matter WHO. What struck me was the act of kindness – a small gesture, a surprise, and no expectation of recognition or return. I feel like hiring a billboard to declare, Kindness is not dead!

Then again, maybe the confectionary was planted by the Witnesses who come visiting every couple of weekends (if I am not there, or even, ‘not there’, they slip tracts under the door). Does kindness count if your Higher Consciousness made you do it? Does it matter? The chocolate tastes the same…

Prior to the Easter Bunny’s visit, I had a Good Friday visiting Grandmaster B and Lou who had made a short trip across the Strait from their new abode in North Fitzroy to the northern city of Launcesspool. Travelling in the company of parental figures, they had been booked into a remarkable accommodation complex on the edge of town, styled in the Swiss Village mode. Yup. Hard to imagine – and even harder to look at. Sort of insults your sense of logic, never mind your intelligence. Tasnarnia, a tourist’s paradise and all that. Happily, they were in excellent spirits, and it was a pleasure to catch up.

There’s been so many of my favourite people visiting the land of Tasnarnia, I’ve been very lucky. Now it’s my turn for a short sojourn – I am heading to Sin City Sydney for 4 weeks, so the Chronicles (‘Chronic-les’?) will be coming to you from a distant town for a short while.