Why do nutters always sit next to me?

Back at Stanley, where I spent a beautiful starry night on rocks nears I awoke early, and found a quiet spot to quietly do some yoga. Not long after I had completed the ashtanga sequence, in that wonderfully calm state, an old man strolled strolled by...

The chap would be exactly the person you would paint, to illustrate the story of a zen master, from his pointy beard, billowy trousers down to his simple reed sandals. “You daoist?”, I answered in the negative, “but I have studied the Tao Te Ching...”. Before I could continue, he launched into the nature of dao, and how we must nurture the earth, and fully treat it as our home – like it was a brand new idea to me, I did not tell him where I had slept ;) He practiced daily tai chi, Kung Fu and meditation and sounded like me when I go off on one, but for much much longer...

He did offer a lovely image of death being like the pupating stage before becoming a butterfly, then wandering off chuckling to himself.

Fast forward to night before last, when I took a ride up to the peak, a viewing platform full of designer shops looking over the city lights. The ride up, on cable car is very special, the floor of the carriage is angled to prevent one falling forwards. It reminded me, when I get back to ride the Aberystwyth Cliff railway, something I still have not done.

As I was losing myself in the view, another chap approached me, with the now familiar greeting “You Arabic?” I get that a lot whenever I get tanned, and allow my beard to become unruly. For best part of half an hour he told me how the Koran was infallible, and contains no contradictions, original sin was a misnomer, how god was totally just, but would condemn non-believers to the fiery pits, giving them new skins as each burned off hardly pausing for breath. I suggested he relax, and even wished peace upon him.

Tiring of his soliloquy I asked him “What sex is god?” He replied “he is so great, he is beyond gender, fucking and such...” I asked why he said “he” rather than she in that case, or it, or simply god? Though I think he was a lost cause, reiterating “he is not male or female” failing to see the irony.

I don't know why people feel the need to tell me how things are, I cannot help wondering, if they really truly believed these things, would they have the same drive to try to convince strangers?

I would have loved to get him and Mr Miyagi from Stanley together, I don't think it would do anything to increase understanding, or international relations, but it would be an entertaining fight to watch ;)