In 1985, at the age of 18, I traveled to Australia to hold a Koala Bear in captivity.
I don’t recall the name of the nature reserve, but I do remember the leather touch of the Koala’s nose.
Growing up, I had a fascination with Koalas. I don’t know from where this obsession derived, but there it was: A shrine of pictures, stuffed animals, Koala Bear beer bottles, postcards, soap dishes and those little clip bears for the sun visor in your car.
Over the years, I climbed higher. Book reports were focused on the chemical reaction Koalas experienced as they chewed Eucalyptus leaves; the elixir making them sedated and well-oiled. In truth, without this libation, they were fierce creatures who could rip the face off a man.
In a stroke of genius to elevate our formative years, my mother presented each child in our family an airplane ticket to anywhere in the world for the summer before heading to college to travel and learn about the world.
We earned our spending money, but our parents provided the ticket. My eldest sister, Brinda went to France. Years later she lives in France, first working at the United Nations, now a Jungian Therapist. My second eldest sister, Kelly went to Israel and worked on a kibbutz. Years later she became a celebrated immigration attorney. My older brother Greg went to Spain. Years later he became a master of the hand-drums and a prolific musician.
I went to Australia to hold a Koala Bear in captivity and years later I became an interdisciplinary digital storyteller/streamlined business designer/virtually-spontaneous expressive media consultant and Prince Scholar.
Makes sense if you think about it.
The other day, my sister Brinda sent me a screenshot from Zurich where she now lives. She dropped an image into a portal and a millisecond later the image was in my hand.
Crazy.
The screenshot was of a comment beneath a blurry Instagram image:
thilo_hoffmann Annegret recently enrolled in an online degree program offered by the prestigious Transnational University of Random Knowledge, Fancy Facts and Post-functional Learning (aka TURKFFPFL. So far, she’s learned that Koala Bears:
1. Aren’t bears
2. Sleep 20 hours a day
3. Don’t drink
4. Absorb water from eucalyptus leaves, which for most humans and non-human animals are poisonous.
5. Are able to eat the deadly eucalyptus because they host a microbial death community in their digestive tracts established by being bold enough to eat their mother’s excrement as babies.
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With that said, the connection between the Koala and Prince makes even more sense.
-j.2u