It’s only recently dawned on me that taking on new challenges might be one of my chronic precepts for survival. Finding new interests, new topics, new things to create, new stories to tell - gives me a buzz. I don’t mean new as in the novel-up-to-the-minute-innovation kind. Unfortunately and infuriately I have a terrible knack for cavernous yawning when faced with people who want to explain such matters to me. I apologise, but I also get that way with data-entry on excel.
My kind of new resides in - for example and not necessarily purely - the discovery of ancient civilizations or religious movements first through books and DVDs borrowed in obsession from the library; and then perhaps in getting on a plane armed with files of information, a camera and my loving side-kick next to me. I also thrive on discoveries such as a new place to buy good tropical fruit from at affordable prices. In this blue-sky Mediterranean type climate that our Perth is so famous for, it can be a rather thrilling shopping excursion for foodies like Alan and I.
New has taken various shapes and forms over the years. The death of my beloved grandmother Winifred Pereira was probably the first big one. I discovered I wanted to learn to cook after she died. I ended up burning most of everything the first few years but I really enjoyed learning to identify different spices and herbs through texture, smell and taste. It opened up a whole new gastrononic world for me and I went off Eurasian food completely soon after. Plus morbidly, I realised cremation was a better alternative to being left alone in the ground after death, the concept of which left me traumatised for many years.
Going to Peru at the age of 19 for the Miss Universe Pageant and finding the living standards of the country actually interested me far more than the actual pageant, was perhaps my next big discovery. And the fact that generally, all women get up in the morning looking as bedraggled as I do. (Tip: the only thing that separates us so called glamour girls from the rest is the art of skillful and diligent make-up application. )
I was shaken to my very core by the poverty in Peru, the instability of the government and what little information I was able to obtain about the Shining Path guerrilla movement and the conflicts which involved killing, torture, rape and Maoist-principled brainwashing of the Ayacucho people. When I came home and announced that I wanted to go back to Peru to work at Mother Teresa’s centre, my mother and others thought I had lost my mind. “Don’t waste your beauty. ” was basically the general essence of my mother’s counsel. Inside I was screaming, when did I stop being an ordinary person? I never even use a hairdryer. But I loved my mother. Knowing that she only ever wanted what was best for me, and the guilt of going against her wishes, helped me talk myself out of the idea with the most unfounded reasoning. Perhaps being unattractive was in the selection criteria for humanity aid workers - perhaps they would never consider a beauty queen as a volunteer. It's so strange, some of the most unlikely things we are able to talk ourselves into half believing - just to please a parent.
Who would have imagined that winning a title would prove to be such a challenge. I ended up spending years hiding the fact that in 1982, I was Miss Singapore, just so people would accept me and like me as an ordinary person.
My deepest admiration at this point for one of the most beautiful women in the world, who has truly found her way. UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie.
Watch this clip.
More to come …
No comments:
Post a Comment