Between Two Suns: A Day of Quiet Reflection

It had been a beautiful day.

A red-hued sun slowly takes its time as it traverses the sky to sink behind the pale blue-grey shadowed hills over Chiang Mai –  an appearance so similar at this time of the day and under these conditions to the red sun of Krypton, Rao.  Not that I remember –  it’s merely just a fact studied from a long-ago history rather than my own experience. The thought of the phrase, “The last son of Krypton”, raised a brief, melancholic smile on Kal-El’s face with its wordplay.  Sitting on this apartment balcony as Clark Kent, not only do I get to experience the extraordinary beauty of this sunset, but I also benefit from the photonucleic effects of Earth’s sun that give me my powers here.  A win-win, you could call it. 

Batman can look after Gotham and Metropolis while I’m gone. Gotham is on a fast track to hell just now. A new generation of pond scum had been elevated to power off the backs of the foundations laid by the old school and the likes of Lex Luthor and The Penguin. While Penguin and the others hid in the shadows while running their empires, they lacked the raw, naked ambition and greed of these new robber barons to bring all asunder, undoing decades of societal evolution and progress. The first to fall and open its gates was Arkham Asylum. The inmates were now in charge. Gotham PD were powerless. Corruption is unleashed and seemingly boundless in its reach. Bruce can handle it.

He had had his fill of the place. I just need a break. When you first start to take those tentative steps towards freedom from the life you have known for so long, only then do you begin to appreciate how it has worn you down over the years. When the world is large, make it small.

A chance after so long for a peaceful unwind. No looking back, at least for a while. For someone that can span the globe in seconds, memory possesses the supreme power, triggering the ultrafast firing of neurons in recall, instantly taking me to the place and back in time to relive the moment, however good or bad (but for some reason it's aways the bad ones that rise to the surface).  Let’s just live in the here and now, okay? The past with its hope and hardships, struggles, and successes is gone; nothing can change that, but tomorrow is always tomorrow.

Today, though, was a beautiful day. Earlier, lunch, like yesterday’s, was a delicious crispy pork belly with garlic at a quiet, unassuming restaurant nearby run by a lovely, hardworking family of mother, father, and daughter. If measured, my blood lipids would be off the charts, but one could argue this man of steel needs some oil to lubricate his parts now and again. A bonus was the distinct lack of coriander, so commonly used in Thailand. Coriander is a little like kryptonite to this supertaster. “A genetic variation resulting in the overexpression of the taste receptor olfactory receptor gene OR6A2, which leads to a sensitivity to plant aldehydes”, some geeky scientist once told him.

There was some humour too. He overheard a (mainly one-sided) conversation between two travellers. The woman sounded Scottish – someone they might call a “wee Hairy Mary”. Kal-El had picked up some of the lingo a few years back, responding to what he thought was an urgent call from a Glaswegian for Superman to help fix a squinty bridge...  Anyhow, this woman was tired and complaining about the heat and no shade as they explored Chiang Mai and berated her long-suffering husband for a lack of empathy. Adding fuel to an already explosive situation, the husband made the mistake of referring to her as “Sweaty Betty”, a comment he soon regretted. There are some situations in which even Superheroes don’t get involved.

Thousands of miles from Metropolis, there was peace here. From his vantage point, he gazed down at the tiny neighbourhood below, a microcosm of a world seemingly living in quiet harmony with each other, going about their early evening.   “Make it small…” In this little world, life unfolded in a delicate rhythm.

An elderly lady takes her equally elderly canine companion out for a walk. Both have long since lost their sprightliness in their steps, worn smooth by the years and each shuffles slowly together in silence in the quiet intimacy of the evening.  

A baby nuzzled and fussed over by a grandparent upon its return and carried high indoors.

Along an alleyway, a carefree child happily skips alongside her mother, her laughter dancing through the fading light as their voices mingle in a duet of the adventures shared.

A seasoned couple moved through their backyard with quiet determination and a steady rhythm, completing reps of their makeshift exercise circuit with practised ease.

This was no utopia—far from it—but it was theirs, a patchwork of struggles and small victories. Within its imperfect embrace, they made do, shaping a life not of grandeur, but of quiet resilience.

Dusk continued to blanket the land in deepening hues, signalling to flocks of starlings that the end of the day was fast approaching. Clark watched as the birds descended in droves upon the treetop canopies, but their rest was fleeting. Soon, they lifted in small groups, weaving between the buildings to go further into town toward the tangled webs of power and data lines that lined the streets—an unmistakable hallmark of Thailand. Perched here, in a teeming chorus, they exchanged the day’s tales, their voices rising in a deafening cacophony—a nocturnal symphony both chaotic and mesmerising.

It had indeed been a beautiful day.

Author’s Addendum:

I feel I must explain what inspired the Superman theme for this blog, so I don’t get called a nerd!

Travellers to Thailand and SEA will find many challenges adapting to things over there – heat, rain, insects, (spicy) food, noisy birds, traffic, etc. However, one of the things that raises a “WTF???”, is when you go to do one of the great British traditions - snacking on a pack of crisps.  You will find that, for some reason, the crisp packets over there use some amazingly strong molecular bonding techniques to seal the bags. They don’t just tear open like they do in the West – you need scissors or the strength of Superman… So emasculating!  😉 This is the same with many food items sealed in plastic bags there – so keep scissors or power tools handy unless you just happen to be someone from the Planet Krypton on holiday...