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Socrates said that the unexamined life isn't worth living - what he actually said looked something like the inscription above - to which Plato is said to have replied, "Keep it in the jar with the lid on or it will all dry up!"
Anyway, there are two words I don't want to find myself uttering as an old man, and they are "If only ...". We all have our own "if onlys". If only we had studied harder; if only we had stuck with that job ..."
My trip back to Thursday Island in April 2005 was to eliminate one "if only" and to confirm in my own mind that I couldn't have stayed much longer on the island even if my then boss, Cec Burgess, had been less of a crotchety old bastard. If only.
My short sojourn on Thursday Island in 1976 (or was it 1977?) had a far bigger impact on my life than I expected it to have then or would like to admit now. It was meant to have been the start of my "domesticated life" after years of aimless wanderings around the world. If only.
Instead, I heard the call of the wild again, and I continued my aimless wanderings, at great personal cost to myself some years later. If only.
Here then is the journal of my journey to Thursday Island and another pointless examination of my own past: My trip to Thursday Island.
