We Need to Talk About Kevin

Lionel Shriver and Matthew Condon at
 St. Finbar's Hall, March 1st, 2014

I drove down from Brisbane to Byron Bay yesterday to hear/see a talk/interview of Lionel Shriver's. 
She is the author of a book that I haven't read yet but did see the film adaption of ... with my son, Kevin.

Now, the weird thing here is that the church up the road from the school hall this talk was held in is named St.Kevin's, and it is what inspired me to name my first son Kevin 22 years ago when I passed that church on my honeymoon.

Saint Kevin's Catholic Church in Bangalow

I wrote about this in a post last May here -
St.Kevin, Hollywood, 42 and Reflection ... 
and here - 
Kevin, Walls and Bridges
So, it was extremely weird that an American author of a book titled
We Need to Talk about Kevin, a book about the aftermath of a high school massacre, should do a talk in a small Australian town named Byron Bay in a Catholic school hall adjacent to the Byron Bay high school and on the same road that leads up to the town of Bangalow and the St.Kevin's church I would name my son after.
I mean, come on really, what are the odds?

St. Finbar's hall, where the
 talk was held yesterday

Lionel Shriver on the St. Finbar stage,
  Byron Bay.

The fence of Byron Bay High, right next door

One of the Ibis I snapped wandering
 around the high school grounds

Inside the hall

Lots of bird synchronicities yesterday, too.

The calendar hanging from my desk has a picture of pelicans for the month of March and I set off for Byron Bay on the 1st of March with the plan of visiting the Crystal Castle at Mullumbimby for which I had a free pass to get in.
Then down to Bangalow to walk down the main street, 
and then down the road (literally) to Byron Bay and the talk at St.Finbar's.

When I was going to the Crystal Castle I had to drive through Mullumbimby to get to it, 
and across the road from the welcome sign to Mullum is a park with a totem pole with a carved pelican sitting on top of it.

Of course, totem poles are Native American structures and nothing to do with Australia, so it's odd to find totem poles in small Australian towns.  
Native Americans use arrows as well to hunt, which is rather weird when it comes to the book/movie, We Need to Talk About Kevin, because ... 
SPOILER ALERT...
Kevin kills his classmates and a few others with a bow and arrow.
I got the free pass to the Crystal Castle when I went to the

Mind, Body and Health expo to see Scott Alexander King's talk, which I wrote about here -
Mind, Body and Spirit Festival; June 29th

In Scott's book,  Animal Dreaming he says the Pelican as a totem animal stands for piety.

"The mother Pelican pecking her breast to feed her 7 babies. 
The pelican feeding her young with her blood is a prominent symbol of the Eighteenth or Rose Croix Degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, and was adopted as such from the fact that the pelican, in ancient Christian art, was considered as the emblem of the Savior."
Grand Lodge Of Ireland Freemasons' Hall Revealed

 

Pelican/piety?

Funny thing was if you read the post about Scott's talk at the MBS festival -
Mind, Body and Spirit Festival; June 29th 
there were all the crows outside the windows while Scott was giving his talk, and crows outside while Lionel was giving her talk.

A crow flying out of gum tree at
St.Finbar's primary school

Crows flying around the sporting fields

The first thing I saw after the
 talk at St.Finbar's. Crows

I actually walked the entire labyrinth
yesterday and it' s longer than it appears

http://www.crystalcastle.com.au/

In the grounds of the Crystal Castle

The last time I payed a visit to the Crystal Castle was when I wrote this post -
Sychronistic Sunday Surprizes

My first purchase from the
Crystal Castle a few years ago

The funny thing also was I took my new Imagine Dragons CD
Night Visions along on my ride and just played it continuously on loop.

Night Visions (album)

The World Peace Stupa
wasn't here on my last visit

When I went on the Rainforest Walk I noticed a very familiar cartoon character on the billboard at the entrance.

Michael Leunig at the BBWF

Leunig the Troublemaker;-)

On the Rain-forest Walk

So, after a few walks around the grounds, I was feeling quite centered in more ways than one.

But what does a fool do? 
He keeps on walking his journey.

When I got to this statue I was tossing up whether, or not to leave a silver coin on it.

I decided to put a 5c coin between her fingers, as if to see her flipping a coin to make a decision.
Because, if I used my 50c coin I wouldn't have enough money in my pocket to buy a coffee ice-block at the end of my warm walk.
But a voice in my head laughed and said, "you call yourself a gambler, but you aren't prepared to trust your inner voice that if you leave your 50 cent piece the universe will somehow still get you the money for the ice-block?"
You have to take a risk and trust that things will work out beyond your rational fears the voice was trying to convince me. 
I thought OK, but I have a feeling that there is going to be no ice-block at the end of this journey, now.

So, I placed a 50c piece on her throat and a 10c piece on her third-eye.

Then I spotted a bench in the shade and went to sit down, so I could cool down and take a picture of the tree the statue was under, since I was convinced I blew my chance now to get an ice-block at the end of the walk.

As I was taking a picture of the statue under the tree a bug flew onto my jeans and it wouldn't leave, so I just gently tapped the ground with my shoe to get it to fly off, but it wouldn't.
When I looked down at my shoe I discovered I had unearthed a $2 gold coin, which someone must have dropped while sitting on the bench.

So now I had more than enough to buy an ice-block and the voice proved itself right.
Maybe that was a gambling bug that landed on me?-)

After visiting the Crystal Castle and literally feeling on top of the world I headed down to Bangalow, the town where St. Kevin's church is located.

I went into a shop called the Windhorse Gallery 
and found these beautiful cups for $12 each.

Anyone who has been reading this blog long enough knows the significance of the Sacred Kingfisher and the Rainbow Lorikeet to me.

I also found this glass paper weight for $99 that I just had to buy.

From the top it looks like you are viewing the earth from space.

From the side to looks like a jellyfish, or tornado.    

Byron Bay lighthouse seen
from just outside Bangalow

The views of Byron Bay driving down from Bangalow to St.Finbar's have to be seen to be believed.

http://www.echo.net.au/2014/02/shriver-
feels-weight-body-image-aesthetic/

^"Steve Bisley has moved to the hood..." !? ^

 Interestingly, the front page of the Echo in the pink band has written in it,
"Steve Bisley has moved to the hood and has a new act".
The last line of the book "We Need to Talk About Kevin" has the line - 
 "A copy of Robin Hood lies on the bookshelf. And the sheets are clean".
When I was at the Crystal Castle I picked up a copy of the local paper The Echo and found a story about Lionel Shriver printed in it, so I took it with me for something to read before the talk, as I didn't know that much about her.
Oddly enough, with this being a post in progress I was stunned to see Mike Perry's comment about an Echo right before I was about to add the photo to the post.
 Mike Perry said...I think you could write a book of your synchro adventures. 
If this is a day, what could happen in a week or month? 
I'll echo Trish's words 'beautiful countryside' - it's always interesting to see your photos. Great! 

 Also in the Echo was a story about an author I've met a few times at the Writers Festival in Byron Bay and who was telling me the first time I met him how he was thinking of moving up to Byron from Sydney.
The Steve Bisley Sync: BBWF
Well, now I see that he has made that move.
He was staging a show at the Bangalow Bowls club the next day, but unfortunately I would be back in Brisbane.
Afternoon of Letters Hosted by acclaimed Australian Actor, Steve Bisley

March 2 @ 3:00 pm - 6:00 pm

Bangalow Bowling Club,

21 Byron Road, Bangalow, NSW 2479 Australia

+ Google Map

Actor, Writer, Steve Bisley presents an “Afternoon of Letters” as 10 local Men & Women share memories of their Mums and Dads. A string quartet will entertain guests during the show and give a great ambiance to the afternoon. Tea and scones will be served at the intermission. Doors: 3pm Door: $25 Presale: $20 (+bf)

.

Lucky I brought my three Matthew Condon books with me as well, because I was at the hall early and got to chat to Matt, who had arrived early, too.
He told me he and his wife were thinking about moving to the area, too.

Condon's first book was printed by
Arrow, the weapon Kevin uses to kill:-)

I think Matt was surprised someone still had a 1995 copy of his short stories A Night at the Pink Poodle.
Anyway, that just about sums up my day at the Bay, but I just thought we had to talk about Kevin at least:-)

Can't wait to read Lionel's two books I bought at the talk.

Matthew Condon interviewing
Peter Carey in Byron Bay 2013

Oh, and I should mention that Matt was the guy who interviewed Peter Carey at the BBWF in 2013, which I wrote about here - 
Sync Book 2 Sync Too?