When my daughter Tamara was born I was fortunate to have a sensible down to earth mother who encouraged me to breast feed. This was 1971 when it was becoming fashionable for young women to ditch the breast and take up formula feeding. I happily followed mum’s advice and never regretted it for a moment. Breast feeding is natural and of course really convenient and more importantly a perfect feed […]
If you think your life is difficult, or that your future lacks promise, well check out Girlhood, a film by Celine Sciamma, released in France as Bande de filles, or Girl Gang. Many reviewers have written that this film was about female empowerment but I fail to see how they have come to this conclusion. Instead, I think that Girlhood is a stark reminder of the struggle which continues for the needs and […]
Daddy, what did YOU do in the Great War? Taken from Chiaroscuro, Melbourne award-winning poet Sandy Jeff’s new book in which she explores the tension of a world that is a place full of dark and light and where humour and sadness intermingle in a show that must go on. The Sergeant Daddy, what did YOU do in the Great War Well, darling, I saw the young men come […]
It was common at the start of the 20th century to speak of ‘ Australian Ideals’. What are our values and ideals today? Perhaps those who so generously supported the 5000 Poppy campaign could use their goodwill to help Australia progress rather than feed its militaristic tendencies. And rather than answer the call to knit or crochet a poppy perhaps these resources could be spent on the many social problems […]
My sister and her partner are going to marry. Both had long previous marriages which they were happy to leave. They had brought up their children and once they were gone found the marriages over, pointless, empty and left. My best friend left me and married again. Thanks Loretta for telling me that you married your best friend – formally my best friend. I would never have imagined him remarrying […]
What happened to the opinion page? Remember The Age when it was a broadsheet and there were three or more opinion pieces in the middle pages that bordered the letters to the editor. These were lengthy pieces of analysis on topics relating to current public debate. Usually 800-1000 words of worthy content engaging the reader and leading to enjoyable swapping of ideas and information among family and friends later in the day. Of course […]
Petra White wrote this evocative poem, published in The Age on Saturday October 11 A History of the Siege Dark days are here. Nothing can stop them, they crowd like hair around the temples, everyone knows and now we can say, at last, it is dark. On Manus, they are walking along fine edges of themselves, under a borrowed moon, a borrowed sun. Nobody follows them, they would lead only […]
Are you sick of this market-driven world? You should be, writes George Monbiot. These words speak to those of us who feel at odds with life. I live across the road from a new housing development, the creation of which has disrupted my tranquil mornings, my peaceful days, and heightened my angst with ‘the self serving con of neoliberalism’ that Monbiot claims has eroded the human values the market was supposed to emancipate’. […]
You’d better get yourself some anti-depressants, Helen, advised Rosie, my concerned colleague as I burst into tears yet again and told her I would have to go home. ‘Don’t let him do this to you’. ‘You don’t want to end up in a psychiatric unit,’ she cautioned. For weeks when anyone asked me how I was, or even looked at me, I cried. My mouth was forever dry, my breaths […]
There are few jobs that land you smack bang right in the heart of a family quite like nursing. And so on Saturday night I again found myself in this most intimate of circumstances; this time in eighty-year old Ron’s bedroom. Ron has terminal cancer and is now very weak and consequently has been taking many falls on his way to the bathroom. So the plan was to install a […]
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