Tag: dailyprompt
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What Were You Thinking?
If you could have dinner with any philosopher who would it be? Last year I read Warren Ward’s Lovers of Philosophy. I read it one chapter at a time, sometimes I couldn’t wait for the next chapter. Ward writes about philosophers and their intimate lives. Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Sartre, Foucault, Derrida. Men with large…
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Listening to Fear
How do you handle fear and self-doubt? I have faced plenty of self-doubt over the years, mainly in the form of imposter syndrome. When I started my doctorate, I had a nagging sense that I would be found out. I felt as though they had let me in by mistake. Not a clerical error, but…
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Unsettled
What’s a moment that made you question reality? Fifteen months ago we went to Antarctica. It was my wife’s birthday present. More than that, it was something she had wanted to do since she was a little girl. I had known this about her for years. Some people want to see Paris or the pyramids…
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Out of My Depth
What’s a movie you expected to hate but ended up loving? A couple of years ago my wife and I went to see Corners of the Earth: Kamchatka at the Avalon cinema. It was not a film I knew anything about. My wife loves Avalon and knew that it was showing on one of those…
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An Infinite Hunger
What is the meaning of life? At the beginning of the year I sat with a student who was trying to decide whether to change degrees. He had come to the college office after lunch and had waited near the doorway until I looked up from my desk. He said he only needed five minutes.…
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To Be Honest
What is a word or phrase that annoys you? There comes a time in every conversation when someone takes a deep breath, lowers their voice slightly, looks you in the eye, and says the three words that should make every sensible person reach for cover. “To be honest…” At which point I always want to…
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Planned Enough to Be Surprised
How do you plan the perfect road trip? I am not sure I have ever planned the perfect road trip. I am not sure such a thing exists. Every road trip is different. Some are carefully mapped. Some are held together by a rough idea, a few necessary bookings, and the hope that something good…
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Stronger Than We Knew
What is a moment that made you realize you were stronger than you thought? The COVID lockdowns were a hard time for student accommodation providers. In one sense, we saw it coming before it hit in full force. We had protocols in place early. Then the university sent out an email saying classes would move…
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It’s a Gift to Exist
What is a simple pleasure in life that brings you joy? I have not always understood this, but walking is one of the great simple pleasures of life. Not walking for fitness, though that matters. Not walking to get somewhere, though that helps. Just walking. I often follow the same route. The dog beside me.…
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Before Oz Became Oz
If you could erase one movie from your memory and watch it againfor the first time which one would it be? One of my early school memories is a girl in our class singing “Over the Rainbow.” I was six years old. I had not yet seen The Wizard of Oz, but somehow the film…
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Curiosity Needs a Container
How do you stay motivated when learning something new? Learning is central to life. We learn from the day we are born. Children learn because the world is interesting, not because they have long-term plans. Children do not learn to walk because they are motivated by productivity goals. They fall, laugh, cry, get up, and…
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A Single Day
What’s a book that completely surprised you? Years ago, a writing teacher recommended Anne Tyler’s Breathing Lessons. It had won the 1989 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, so I knew it came well regarded. Even so, I read it mostly out of respect for my teacher. Then I loved it. I wrote a few days ago…
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Training for Freedom
How can you build a regular fitness routine? Fitness matters to me, although I can always do better than I am currently doing. The one thing I do without fail is walk. Every day. Even when it is bitterly cold. Even when it is wet. Even when I do not especially feel like it. I…
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Ordinary Life Is Strange Enough
What is a classic book that you think is overrated? I read Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Unconsoled in 1995 because, at the time, it seemed to be the book everyone was reading. It was described as a modern classic. It had literary ambition, critical attention, dream logic, and enough bafflement to make you wonder whether the…
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The Wealth of Less
What are the biggest benefits of minimalist living? My father started each day with a cup of tea. The cup was huge. Not quite a mixing bowl, but close. On it were the words: I’m not greedy, but I want enough. I never knew the story behind that cup, but I understood the joke. It…
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My Childhood Obsession
What is a thing you were completely obsessed with as a kid? I was six years old when some people turned up at school unannounced and asked if anyone wanted to play soccer — or, as SBS TV would later teach us to call it, “the real football.” I did not know what soccer was.…
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The Grace of Welcome
What’s the most interesting local custom you’ve encountered? The most interesting local custom I have encountered is not interesting because it is quaint. It is interesting because it asks something of us. I am thinking of Welcome to Country or Acknowledgement of Country ceremonies. They are not the same thing. A Welcome to Country is…
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The Library I Cannot Carry
If you had to describe your ideal life what would it look like? I was still in my teens when my grandmother looked at my bookshelves and declared that she had never seen so many books. At the time, I took this as a compliment. Or at least confirmation that I was becoming the sort…
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The Festival That Failed
What is the best concert you have been to? The best concert I have ever been to was Narara Music Festival, on the Central Coast of NSW, at the end of January 1984. It had a great line-up. INXS. Mondo Rock. Sandii & the Sunsetz. Simple Minds. The Pretenders. Talking Heads. Eurythmics. Cold Chisel. Australian…
The Afterword 