You’re There It is dark but I feel your hand on me. I hear you breathing as your fingers rest gently on my arm. I lie beside you and do not want to move. This nothing touch is nothing you are capable of any other time. Its rarity moves me. Sometimes I chase this flicker […]
Episode 8 of the podcast has me taking a good look at madness and placing it in a context of conflict and self-defence. My knowledge of karate and the systematised code of conduct in that world informs the discussion. I find counsel from one of the great fictional madmen – The Joker, and the words
Drawing the line at madness – Episode 08 Read More »
In this episode of the podcast I go from outer space and isolation and space music to cricket, and my attempts to introduce the finer points of that game to my daughter. From there it is a short jump to baseball and a deep dive into The Natural, both the Bernard Malamud novel of 1952
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“Houses have their own ways of dying, falling as variously as the generations of men, some with a tragic roar, some quietly . . . while from others the spirit slips before the body perishes.” EM Forster, Howard’s End “It was the sort of house that you never seem to come to the end of,
Staying in the room Read More »
“Are we living in end times? … Either way, it is hard not to feel that we are being shown a glimpse of a future to which we should expect to become accustomed. And when the world around you is physically changing, it is almost impossible for your perspective not to change with it… It
Michael, the great prince, the protector of your people, shall arise (Daniel 12:1) In a crisis, I look to myself. It is rarely my first instinct to seek help or counsel elsewhere. I partly do this because I have a certain amount of faith in my own resources, and I partly do it because I
The air is polluted and it is unsafe to be outside. What looks like early morning mist is in fact a deathly haze of smoke blown west from the bushfire-ravaged eastern state. I have foregone my morning swim and cycle to work in deference to the ominous atmosphere that has dropped an unloving cloud of
I have instituted a new regime. For the last six weeks, three mornings a week, I have been getting up at 4am in order to write. Like a lunatic. Whether it’s the middle of the night or the very early morning, I am unsure. Either way, it is dark (even in Australian summer), and I
The only part of the conduct of anyone for which he is amenable to society is that which concerns others. In the part that merely concerns himself, his independence is, of right, absolute. Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign. John Stuart Mill A celebrated individual is being interviewed about
Greater than, less than, equal to Read More »
Lappeenranta, Finland. November 2004. I stood in the shadows of a darkened stairwell, another man standing close to me, nervous energy hanging in the air around and between us. He bristled with anger and intent while my mind raced over what was about to happen. I concentrated on my breathing, willing myself to be loose
Getting back in the ring Read More »
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