I’m depressed. There’s no coating it, there’s no glossing over it, and there is absolutely no point in pretending that I’m not having an episode of deep depression. There is an argument floating around that writing about dark stuff on a personal level reduces readers, that people don’t want to read about the horrors of…
Stream of consciousness
I wrote a post about gun laws, but I’m not going to post that today. Another day perhaps, maybe later in the week. The truth is I’m tired. I’m too bogged down with what is going on in my own life, in my immediate vicinity, to make the effort to scream across the water at…
Because that is business
A cloud, a dark cloud, has settled over our house. It isn’t visible, and if you come to visit you will never suspect that it is there, obstructing our view, preventing us from seeing the future, a bright future, a future that fills us with hope. Oh, of course, we have to remain hopeful, for…
Asylum seekers – the political ping pong of our time
I woke up this morning to find that Peter Dutton, our Minister for Immigration, had been on the campaign trail informing the good people of Australia that asylum seekers are illiterate and innumerate and would languish on the dole and take Australian jobs, thus justifying, poorly, the incarceration of these disenfranchised and displaced people of…
Autism, the puzzle piece that refuses to fit, and thank goodness for that
“I’m dropping out of school!” The words ring in my ears. Desperation. Hurt. Anger. Anguish. I see all of these things when I look into his eyes. “Love…” “Don’t talk mum, I am DROPPING OUT OF SCHOOL!” He has reached implosion point. “I’m 18, I don’t fucking well have to stay in school.” It’s true,…
View from a bed
I’m in bed. Recuperating from a hysterectomy. I have a way of downplaying things that happen to me. I tend to speak about seemingly big things like they aren’t big things at all. I think if I do this I am in effect minimising the magnitude of what has happened to me. I downplayed my…
Human Intolerance
I stand and watch as the procession of the corpse passes by, his body laying lifeless on the metal trolley. He must be at least 6 feet tall, his muscular physique a shining mark of a life lived in health. I wonder what he was like in his prime. His eyes have clouded over and apart from…
Dear Mr President, Barack Obama
I have watched in amazement, and with incredulous disbelief, the rise of that odious human being that is Donald Trump. I have American friends who refer to him as “the one who shall not be named” for fear of giving him even more power than his narcissistic self demands or deserves. I have watched YouTube…
Bearing witness to death is bearing witness to life
The last two weeks have passed in a blur; acceptance into university, preparations for Master J as he enters his last ever year of high school and assisting my mother and father-in-law as they prepare for the end of her life. She isn’t dead. And it is likely that she will live a number of…
On David Bowie and the non-love of music
David Bowie died yesterday. I am an 80s child, and he was an icon in the era of 80s music. Yet, whilst I am sad for the loss his family will feel — so very sad for that — I am largely unmoved. Everywhere I look, people are mourning. Tributes are pouring in and the…