Category: Daily Prompt
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From Pet to Companion
What’s something you do completely differently from how you were raised? We are dog people and have had dogs for most of our married life. Not all of it. There was a ten-year stretch when we were renting and persuading a landlord to accept a dog was almost impossible. That was before the laws changed.…
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Five Apps, One Common Thread
What are your favourite 5 apps on your phone? These are the five apps that get the biggest workout on my phone: Kindle, AntennaPod, Australian Newspapers, BBC Sport and YT Music. Looking at the list, I realise they have something in common. They are not primarily endless feeds engineered to keep me there. They all…
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A Miniature Philosophy of Justice
What’s the best thing you’ve ever found randomly on the street? When I was eight, a friend and I were walking to school when we found a banknote lying on the ground. In today’s money it would probably be worth about $30. Not exactly a fortune. But when you are eight, $30 is enormous. It…
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A Platform of Kindness
What’s the kindest thing someone has ever done for you? Every Sunday my grandmother arrived with lollies. There were enough for all of us, and they were divided with great precision. At the time, that was probably what I noticed most. Grandmother had arrived. Grandmother had lollies. Life was good. I understood much less about…
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Work Worth Giving Yourself To
If the salary was the same, what job would you be doing right now and why? If the salary were the same, what job would I be doing right now? The same one. That answer is easy for me because money has never been the main reason I have chosen a job. Of course salary…
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The Windowsill Garden
Share a hobby you’ve picked up recently — what got you into it? It wasn’t gardening, exactly. Not the glossy kind. Not raised beds, designer pots, carefully planned courtyards, or Saturday spent wandering through nurseries. It was COVID. A five-kilometre radius. Closed borders. Cancelled plans. Too much time indoors and nowhere much to go. I…
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The Week Someone Else Became Me
What’s the weirdest coincidence you’ve ever experienced? I have always had a fairly naïve faith that if you tell the truth, things will eventually sort themselves out. One small and stupid episode from many years ago shook that confidence. I received a court summons for fare evasion. Apparently, I had caught a train into the…
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The Book That Beat Me
What’s a book you never finished but still think about? Many years ago I took The Brothers Karamazov on holidays because I thought this was what holidays were for. I imagined lazy afternoons with Dostoyevsky. A chair somewhere quiet. Maybe a cup of coffee. Enough uninterrupted time to wrestle with God and freedom and suffering…
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Happy Feet
Which fictional world would be the most fun to vacation in? If I could vacation in any fictional world, I think I’d choose Happy Feet. Partly because it would be fun. Antarctica, but with dancing penguins. Vast sheets of ice, deep blue water, enormous skies, music everywhere. There would be something wonderfully ridiculous about sliding…
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The Dancing Man
If you could go back and witness any historical event,which one would you pick? If I could go back and witness any historical event, I think I’d like to be standing in George Street in Sydney on 15 August 1945. There are bigger moments. More important places. More famous people. But I think I’d rather…
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Three Small Words
If you had to get a tattoo right now, what would it be and why? I have never been drawn to tattoos. I have always thought the human body is attractive in itself, without needing further adornment. But if I had to get one, I think I would choose three tiny words from Micah 6:8:…
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Narara Music Festival
How did you meet your significant other? We really met at a music festival over forty years ago. We had crossed paths before. We were both on a beach mission team at Ulladulla on the South Coast of NSW. We had a common friend, and I remember her singing one night in a coffee shop.…
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Democracy Sausage
What’s a cultural tradition from your country that you love? One Australian cultural tradition I love is the democracy sausage. On election day, after voting at the local school or community hall, you can often buy a barbecued sausage in a slice of bread, usually with onions and tomato sauce. In some places, the whole…
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The Last Day in Antarctica
If you could relive one day from your past, which day would it be and why? If I could relive one day from my past, it would be our last day in Antarctica. It was the culmination of a trip we had saved towards for fifteen years, a celebration of a significant birthday for my…
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Yes, Yes, Yes
What’s the last movie that made you cry? I watched Song Sung Blue on the flight home from Vietnam. My brother had recommended it, and I had never quite got around to seeing it at the movies. There is one scene I found strangely moving. Mike and Claire are in the middle of an intense…
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What If Television Had Never Been Invented?
If you could erase one event from history, what would it be? I sometimes wonder what evenings would have been like if television had never been invented. Not in any grand sense. Just ordinary evenings. People would have read more, probably. Listened to the radio. Played records. Gone outside. Talked to neighbours. Sat around a…
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What Happened to Making Things Well?
What’s a conspiracy theory you actually find believable? I bought a Tivoli Audio radio about 25 years ago. Part of the attraction was the philosophy behind it. Henry Kloss had spent decades designing audio equipment and, late in life, returned to something wonderfully simple: one really good radio. No screen. No app. No software updates.…
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From the Known to the Unknown
How do you deal with uncertainty? A friend put it well the other day: move from the known to the unknown. She’s smart, and I think she’s right. When things are uncertain, there are usually still some things we know. Facts. Experience. Values. What has worked before. What matters most. Start there. Use what you…
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When You Realise You’re the Adult
What’s a moment when you realized you were officially an adult? Adulthood is a series of progressions. You get your driver’s licence and discover a new freedom. You vote for the first time. You start work and begin finding your way in the world. You move out of home, get married, perhaps buy your first…
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Firedoor
Which is the best restaurant in your city? Last year, for my wife’s birthday, we went to Firedoor in Surry Hills for lunch. It was expensive. But it was also a special occasion, and it turned out to be a memorable meal. The food was excellent, the atmosphere relaxed and warm, and the service managed…
