Perceptions

Guest Author Uncategorized

It is always a joy to publish your writing, Ian – you are one of the pure in heart, mind, and spirit, my dear internet friend. It is truly a privilege to know you.

(Image Credit: Fairfax)

As the snow on the roof gets whiter, the fire on the hearth banks down to a bed of warm, comforting embers and St. Peter has booked you into one of the cheap seats, you tend to take a more expansive, perhaps more perceptive, view of life, of politics – even your own backyard.

I went down the backyard yesterday. I needed to ask a question of the “folk” who live in the patch of remnant bush just over the fence. They’re indigenous and I know their proper name, though I do not speak it. It is not my earned right. The “folk” will suffice. They didn’t appear to be around so I sat on a garden bench. Enjoying the warm sun, I looked at the back of my house.

(Image Credit: Wild Watch Australia)

I saw the faded, stained cement tiles of the roof. Years of birds, overripe mulberries and various attacks by footballs, cricket six stitchers and benign tennis balls had left both their marks and memories. I then looked to beneath the tiles. Imagining seeing the joists, bearers and beams that had supported them for 70 or so years. Had all this timber come from the same forest giant? Does it retain in itself the memories of hundreds of years of growth? Have those memories enabled the roof to fulfill the integrity of its purpose? Scorching heat, cold snaps, high destructive winds. None has budged the roof … not once. The integrity of its purpose is strong. Perhaps as a political philosophy should be.

(Image Credit: DeLange)

The stains gave me cause to remember the mulberry tree. Sadly, gone now. A victim of the damage it caused to pipes and paths. The wonderful shade on a hot summers day, the sweet fruit, the pies and cordials it made. The screeching, raucus cacophony of flocks of corellas after having tasted the delights of fermented mulberries. The quieter dawn chorus when the corellas, purpled stained heads firmly under wings, studiously avoided the warblings of magpies, gentle calling of doves and the unrelenting chittery chattery of indignant wagtails. If I were given to name the flock of corellas….it would be “the Press Gallery “.

(Image Credit: Aussiebirdlife)

The rest of the garden just melts into itself. Each section a memory and part of the whole. The sour, acidic soil of a rose bed where, among the insipid pale hybrids, a strong red blossom evolved, thrived and was eventually weakened.

(Image Credit: The Amateur Weeder)

A transplant to the old, yet strong, arbour has it thriving again. Perhaps the enthusiastic input of the miniature roses whose bed it now shares has helped. I leave the sour acidic ground as a reminder of what damage can be wrought by a poison and will speak no more of it. The vegetable and herb beds take my eye. The herbs in particular.

(Image Credit: Sprout Magazine)

They’ve grown into the greenest, healthiest herbs with a depth of flavour that leaves palates with the understanding of what heaven can be and, most assuredly, is. They grow in a bed that started life as a fish pond and morphed into a wishing well. I believe the plants are fertilised with memories of wishes fulfilled and where dreams are begun. Could it not be that the filling of a wish sets free an unrealised dream? One day, perhaps, the wish of a child may lead to dreams of a nation. I wish it so.

The “folk” haven’t shown themselves and I haven’t been able to ask my question.

“How can we strengthen ourselves against the darkness creeping across our land?”

Somehow, I feel I have an answer.

(Image Credit: Reuters)

697 thoughts on “Perceptions”

  1. leonetwo
    September 5, 2014 at 11:54 AM
    Brain-dead asylum seeker Hamid Kehazaei’s organs to be donated

    This should make a lot of people hang their heads in shame but somehow I have lost my faith in human nature and I doubt that they will not see the significance.

  3. jeez ,
    Just got a phone call from the school principle personally inviting me to give the year 12 kids a talk.
    Suggested that I attend a talk that will be given earlier by a local businessman that had done them before ,so I can get a idea of what goes on.

    I think I am getting the start of a subtle pressure campaign led by I suspect ,my devious wife.

  4. Joe6pack,

    The principal’s suggestion is a good one.

    As for the person coordinating this, I wouldn’t be in the least surprised.

  7. There’s a certain smell

    Media organisations have joined forces at a corruption inquiry to fight a suppression order over a controversial chain of emails involving a “very well known person” and a Liberal identity.

    The emails, headed “Re Carbon Tax”, were suppressed at the Independent Commission Against Corruption on Thursday after questions were raised about whether publishing the documents would breach parliamentary privilege.

    Robert Newlinds, SC, the barrister for NSW Liberal Senator and former party president Arthur Sinodinos, wrote to the ICAC to alert the commission to the potential breach.

    “The letter we wrote simply said that we were somewhat perturbed that there may be a breach by counsel assisting [Geoffrey Watson, SC] and the commission of the federal Parliamentary Privileges Act,” Mr Newlinds told the hearing on Thursday afternoon.

    “I don’t really want to say out loud what the topic is because the private individual is a very well known person.

    “I just don’t want this to get out. Can we at least have a suppression order about the debate.”
    The hearing was closed to the public while the matter was discussed.

    http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/media-fights-suppression-order-over-mystery-emails-at-icac-20140905-10crsh.html

  12. I may just stand up and assert my will over my oh. Show her who’s boss,she is getting a bt uppity these days but I will put a stop to this quick smart.

  13. Curioz,

    I loved it too.

    Of course, the genre has been around for a while, but unnamed. This is a classic example of the form:

  14. Barry Cassidy – pfffft. I stopped watching Insiders a couple of years ago because I just could not stand Cassidy’s bias. Nothing has changed.

    Who damaged the relationship with Indonesia in the first place? Abbott, all by himself, almost destroyed what had been a decent relationship.

    On his first visit to Indonesia he was unable to get an agreement on his boats policy and left empty-handed.
    http://www.theage.com.au/comment/pm-stumbling-around-the-international-stage-20131105-2wz4q.html

    He also caused offence and possible committed a criminal act by refusing to allow local journalists into a press conference.
    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/abbott-broke-law-with-media-shutout-say-indonesian-journalists-20131002-2usnn.html

    And let’s not forget that infamous ‘foot on the table’ thing.
    http://turnleft2013.wordpress.com/2012/10/14/tony-abbott-shows-indonesians-his-leadership-style/

    Abbott then moved on to the APEC conference in Bali where he offended SBY (and Putin, and who knows how many others) by turning up late to a meeting and so missing SBY singing of ‘Happy Birthday’ to Putin. Such boorish behaviour might have been acceptable at St Johns College but not at an international meeting where a rookie PM should have been trying to win friends and impress by being polite and punctual.
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/australiaandthepacific/australia/10362817/Tony-Abbott-shown-iron-curtain-by-Putin-after-missing-his-birthday-party.html

    Then came the phone tapping revelations. If Abbott (and Mesma) had not already caused such offence the Indonesian reaction to that scandal may well have been a bit more understanding, there might have been a bit of agreement that it was done by a previous government. Things might not have become so cold.

    Later, last May, Abbott gave further offence by pulling out of a planned meeting with SBY, saying he had to stay home and help with the budget.
    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/tony-abbott-backs-out-of-trip-to-meet-indonesian-president-susilo-bambang-yudhoyono-20140502-zr3kz.html

    And then there was all the hairy-chested raving about turning boats back, lying about what the Indonesians had agreed to and actually sending some boats and orange lifeboats back. Abbott’s actions lead to deaths and caused expense for the Indonesians who had to rescue returned boats and those on board.

    Abbott made a brief stopover in Indonesia while on his way to Europe last June, it was an effort to patch things up with SBY.

    I could go on, but you get the gist. Abbott is a disaster area when it comes to international relationships and in particular our relationship with Indonesia. Cassidy forgets to mention that Abbott, with help from Julie Bishop, has offended every country they have visited and a few they have not. This is ‘exemplary’ behaviour?

  19. Hamid Khazaei – I don’t know what religion this young man followed, if any. The family may be Muslim, they may be Christian, they may something else or might have no religious affiliation at all. I’m not going to make assumptions. All I can say is his family are showing amazing compasion and forgiveness by allowing his organs to be used to help others.

    If the family are Muslim then remember this – Islam reveres Christ as a prophet and so follows his teachings. If the Khazaei family are Muslim then they are giving alleged Christians Scott Morrison, Tony Abbott and far too many Australians a wonderful lesson in what Christianity should be like. We should be humbled by such generosity at such a sad time for this family, and we should be ashamed that the callous actions of the government too many of us elected caused his death.

  20. joe6pack

    Too late, you’ve already bought her the car of her dreams. You’ll just have to cope. Oh, and don’t forget to get permission to take your rig to the school.

  22. back for raffles,
    Just have to do washing,vacuum and mop floors,start dinner and go get the results of my latest blood test.

    But make no mistake I wear the pants around here.

  25. leone

    Like you I see it as a kind gesture. However, others across the road have suggested that it was political. Is it possible that Human Rights lawyers spoke to the Iranian family and advised them to donate Hamid’s organs to make a point?

  26. gigilene

    However, others across the road have suggested that it was political.

    What a miserable type to say that. An opinion no doubt based on the fact that is how they would behave.in such a situation.

  27. gigilene
    Anything is possible, but if the family has been ‘advised’ then they could have refused permission.

  30. Joe…now that I recall, I had to give a little “talk” on some subject years ago…like yourself, I can roll off the bulldust when in my chosen environment, but bulk at public speaking…however, what I did that night, was to take along some intricate woodwork joints and used them as a prop to start the conversation and direct the dialogue along a subject I was in complete knowledge of…I then expanded into other areas..sort of as an aside….I’m sure you know what I mean.

  35. BK

    Will do, enjoy your evening, see you on the morrow for your much anticipated “dawn patrol” (TM – BK, pat. pen.)

  36. Abbott won’t talk about domestic violence because doing so gets him too close to that charge of indecent assault and his infamous wall punching and other violent behaviour, including all those allegations of abusive behaviour towards women while he was at uni. We can’t have that, of course, so it’s better never to mention the whole subject. MSM protection of The Idiot must come first.

  38. Deary me. A supposedly crucially important Nato meeting in Wales and look what they put outside the meeting place. The world’s most expensive paperweight aka F35. Perhaps apt.

  39. kk – I also saw a photo of an a/c with canards in what looked like the main street of Newport.

    WTF?

  40. CTar1

    The Russian UAE embassy .inspired by such Nato “wtf” put this out.

    Russian Embassy, UAE
    ‏@RusEmbassyUAE #NATO’s latest evidence of #Russian armor invading #Ukraine has been leaked! Seems to be the most convincing ever! pic.twitter.com/nMdXdILX6q

  42. wtf is Australia doing with Nato anyway.
    Last time I looked we are not anywhere near the North Atlantic.
    Libs really are warmongering pricks

Comments are closed.