Extract from ABC News
Analysis
Do you know why penguins waddle?
Yes, they're fat, and short, and those tiny little arms aren't much use for anything — but that's not it.
They waddle because their knees are tucked up inside their body. That's some dark Darwinian humour right there.
Now I know this because like more than a million others this week, I tuned in to one of the first ever live streams of Phillip Island's famous sunset penguin parade, when all the little penguins come gliding home over the waves after a day of feasting, back to their burrows, back to their homes.
It's the world's largest colony of little penguins and the parade has been a Victorian institution since the 1960s. But the bleachers have been empty for months now and like every other business struggling through this pandemic, the nature park had to figure out another way for the show to go on.
Necessity, invention — and a digital stream.
The first night was a smash. Ranger Skye Nichol, who narrated the show with a charm so guileless it sounded it as if it was her first time there, too, became an overnight sensation.
The comments stream next to the feed flew so fast it was illegible. But I could see there were many, so many little red hearts.
They'll get up and do it all again
I had this marvellous image of hundreds of thousands of families at their kitchen table all around the world, but particularly in locked-down Melbourne, forks poised over yet another bowl of spaghetti bolognese made to last the week, and cheering on the little tackers as they braved the wild surf home.
More than that, just to know that we were near the bitter wind and brilliant water of Bass Strait felt like a liberation.
I keep thinking of that staggering moment of hopelessness and endurance from Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot: "I can't go on. I'll go on."
The suffering of so many in this lockdown is real and not to be easily dismissed. So many days home again with small children or with out of work partners or with no-one at all, and the feeling is overpowering: I can't go on. But then — I'll go on.
And there on the screen, a surfing safari of mad little penguins stumble onto the shore to embark on a fraught two-kilometre waddle to their homes, exposed to predators and the perils of the dark, and a million other humans cheer on the brave quest they undertake night after night. They can't go on! They'll go on!
They make it home. They'll get up and do it all again.
Dances of sorrow and joy
This weekend we have so many brave souls for you, pushing on.
There's the amazing retiree who eschewed her husband's late-life crisis of fast red cars and instead took up pumping iron; and how many friends does it take to be happy? As many as will fit in your Zoom room? Or maybe not...
Have a safe and happy weekend and if you still need a few more cute critters in your life, may I direct your attention upwards to 367 Collins Street and the home of the famous Melbourne peregrine falcons, where the news is: we have eggs!
Click on the 24-hour webcam to see how the couple is doing. I don't know about you, but every time I log on, I swear Mrs Peregrine sharply swivels her head to stare right down the barrel, glaring at me to bugger off and leave her in peace. That's a scary beak she's got there.
And no matter where you are, light a candle, a torch or flick on a Bic lighter Countdown-style for frontline health workers everywhere tonight at 7.30. It's called Spark in the Dark — we'll see your light waving from here.
The COVID-19 death toll came close this week, when a dear man I've known since I was 21 contracted the virus in aged care and died.
Nathan Fink's love of life was exhilarating. I put myself through uni working at Elly Fink and Gila Rudzki's Arts Bookshop in Armadale, and Elly's husband Nathan was the force of nature who danced them through all the celebrations of their lives.
I danced with him at every one that I was lucky enough to attend.
This song is for Nathan and Elly and for everyone who dances through life — the dances of sorrow and the ones of joy.
Raise a tent of shelter now, though every thread is torn
Dance me to the end of love
Go well.
Virginia Trioli is presenter on Mornings on ABC Radio Melbourne and the former co-host of ABC News Breakfast.
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