Dialogue: Paradise lost and found in many places

By ELISABETH EASTHER

It was suggested recently that I would not know one end of paradise from the other, that I might benefit from taking the time to appreciate or even acknowledge some of this country's beauty spots. Perhaps I had not stopped to smell the roses.

In my defence, I have seen the roses. I also know they have thorns. In some quarters, Aotearoa has a reputation for being paradise on Earth. But what is paradise?

According to my dictionary, paradise is heaven, where the good go after death.

It is also described as the Garden of Eden. But isn't Eden also home to a serpent? Doesn't yang have to have yin?

The melancholic among us, who insist the glass is half empty, may actually enjoy moments of bliss. But we can never completely forget that, while heaven may seem near, all hell is still breaking loose nearby.

Locally or globally, there is wonder everywhere, just as there is shameless deprivation and suffering.

Can paradise really be as simple as a lovely view or a state of mind? Or is it a moment that depends on an opposite to have its desired effect?

People who claim we have paradise in New Zealand are charmingly cheery, and I applaud their optimistic attitude. It's a gift to think your cup is running over when the rest of us know it's running out.

I canvassed a few friends. What did they think? One said paradise was being loved, another it was a myth, while yet another said it just was not affordable.

I searched on the internet and was offered thousands of choices - paradise for Jedi, vegetarians, tourists, home buyers and animators, not to mention the explicitly religious and the just plain explicit. You don't really have to be a genius to realise Birds of Paradise is not actually an ornithological site.

The one thing I did learn from surfing the net is that paradise is a word bandied about too often.

Still, I'm keen enough on the concept of paradise to have chosen my internet service provider purely on the basis of its name. It's satisfying to tell people that I am elisabeth@paradise. It has such an air of hope.

But just because I go to paradise each day to get my mail, it does not follow that I am any better off in knowing where to find it outside the net.

Seriously though, mightn't it be irresponsible to pay lip service to our, admittedly, comparatively great country - to appreciate the view - while not acknowledging the problems?

Yes indeed, we are a lot better off than other nations, we do have so much to be thankful for, but there are still improvements to be made. People would have to have a narrow field of vision for beautiful sights alone to convince them that all is well on Earth.

By all means, find bliss in individual moments and enjoy beauty within them, but never should we cease to strive to make the world a better place, in whatever way we can.

To recognise or acknowledge problems is surely a step closer to finding solutions.

I have a little shack in the Far North located by a small but perfectly formed bay. Even there, in a kind of paradise, we still pick litter off the beach and do our best to avoid the squabbles and feuds that can characterise small-town living.

In this idyllic place, with a population of fewer than 100, three groups of residents vie for support. Even in paradise people can have too much time on their hands. People behave badly and don't always raise their eyes to the sunset. Sometimes, they even raise their glasses to a fight.

When I was at school, it was very popular to describe New Zealand according to that reputation it had of being heaven on Earth. We had everything, we would smugly learn in social studies - the milk and the honey, no racism, sexism or any of the other "isms" that might have made life less lovely.

All this we would proudly boast as our state-owned enterprises were being sold off wholesale and rugs of care pulled out from beneath the feet of the needy.

After much thought and research, I have decided that paradise is a personal thing. It is where the heart is, what you think it is or what you would like it to be. Surely, though, it's not a reason to become complacent, to prevent us from making essential improvements.

The important thing is to recognise paradise if we blunder upon it. So, here's to paradise, good luck to those who look for it and congratulations to any who find it, if only for a moment, and glimpse a promise of perfection on Earth.