is the word 'diary' better than the word 'blog'? probably not.
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i was in Fiji.
Ever since I was a kid I had a deep wish to go to an island in the South Pacific. I think it started with reading Pipi Longstocking books and ended up being a kind of a trope for my idea of being far away from any of the worries of my day-to-day life. Also, of my top ten flavors, the first two are passionfruit and coconut, so I was meant for a tropical island.
In 2011 my friend Peter asked me to come and give a plenary address at a conference in Melbourne, Australia, which was a big honor, and exciting, because I’ve never been to Australia and at that point in time had never given a plenary address. As I mentioned in a talk I gave about writing my book recently, it was one of those things I said yes to over the years even though I wasn’t sure I should say yes—because it would involve risking my ideas to an audience that might not be open to them (that is, talking to professors and students at a law school about philosophy). It was, all around, a great risk to have taken. My talk was well-attended and well-received. I got lots of great feedback and some helpful critical commentary. Imagining how to talk about the topic to that audience also helped me formulate some important parts of what ended up being the book. And I also ran a graduate seminar for a day where I met a lot of really interesting students working on the boundaries between law, policy and ethics.
So I said yes to that. But as soon as I said yes to that I knew I had to find some way to make sure I went to an island in the South Pacific on the way there or on the way back. I thought to myself, given how my life and level of wealth has gone so far, who knows if I’ll ever have the opportunity to do this again?! And it is a life-long dream!! Etc. I think I said to Gus, multiple times, “I CANNOT GO ALL THE WAY TO AUSTRALIA WITHOUT ALSO GOING TO AN ISLAND IN THE SOUTH PACIFIC.” Every time I would say this it would truly be in all caps. So he agreed to join me in my plan. That is how I ended up going to Fiji for 5 days.
This is not one of those stories about how something you’ve wanted all of your life can’t possibly live up to the expectations you have once you get to do it in real life. IT WAS FREAKING AWESOME. We spent a night in a big hotel on the main large island where planes tend to land and, even though we got to the hotel at like 5am they let us check in right away. We napped, woke up to the sun rising on the beach right outside our window, went and sat at a pool where they brought us passionfruit panna cotta. We basically just lounged all day in the Disneyland of that resort and then had an awesome curry and fish meal and went to bed early to prepare for the next day’s 5-hour boat ride to a remote island with an eco-resort and nothing else. [If you know me you know that a lot of research went into every single thing we had planned in advance. It is my way.]
The boat ride was (yes, long) but so beautiful! It was a mid-size catamaran that just dropped people off near various islands (you’d jump from one boat to another with your luggage) and then continued on its way. If you ever go to Fiji, this is what you must do. You must get off of the island where the large planes land and go much farther.
We stayed on an island (called Nanuya Lailai) with no roads or internet, in a cute hut on the beach. We ate glorious fresh foods and drank tropical drinks all day every day. We took a motorboat ride to a nearby island where we went swimming in a cave. We hiked over the top of the island and around its edges. We laid around in hammocks and relaxed, reading books, sleeping, just enjoying how amazingly beautiful and quiet it is there. And we felt—because we were—like we were in a different world, far away from anything we might ever have to worry about.
If you need your own little piece of Fiji right now, click here. And here.
There are much longer and more detailed stories to be told about this trip, and about the larger world in which trips like this happen, and also about the awesome week we spent in Melbourne. But my purpose in telling the story right here right now is to say that, to this day, when I’m having a bad day or week or month, I just say to myself, “I was in Fiji.” And it works.
6:03 p.m. - December 09, 2015
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