Tag: dailyprompt
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If I Had One Wish
The genie grants you a wish. What is it? If a genie appeared and offered me one wish, I don’t think I’d need much time to decide. I’d give the wish away. I already have enough. I’ve lived a fortunate life. Of course there are things I could wish were different, but I don’t feel…
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Meaning-Making
What are your favourite side-hustle ideas? A lot of people have a side hustle. Usually it means paid work done alongside your main job. Sometimes the reason is economic. A person’s main income may not be enough to cover housing, food, education, debt or family responsibilities. For others, a side hustle provides some extra money…
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How to Get Fit While Watching TV
What are five simple exercises to do at home? When I was younger, I knew a guy who seemed able to do push-ups forever. I watched him one day. He just kept going and going, with no obvious sign of getting tired. “How do you do that?” I asked. His answer was surprisingly simple. One…
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The Long Mirror
Which relationship has taught you the most about yourself? Marriage is a long mirror. It involves the slow discovery of who you are through decades of shared life. You learn your habits, blind spots, strengths and loyalties. You also discover the difference between loving someone in theory and adjusting your life around another person in…
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Simple Habits, Healthy Eating
What are your best healthy eating habits? I don’t follow a complicated diet. Most of my healthy eating habits are quite ordinary. One of the simplest is that I try not to eat something just because it is there. Rice, for example, is served with almost every meal in our Dining Hall. I like rice,…
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My Anti-Life-Hacks
What are some life hacks that you practice? Most life hacks are designed to make life easier. Mine often do the opposite. I don’t have a bin in my office. This occasionally surprises people, especially new cleaners. It isn’t an oversight. It is deliberate. If I want to throw something away, I have to get…
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Karma and Grace
Do you believe in karma? I don’t believe in karma, but I do believe in justice and grace. I don’t mean justice in a simple, tidy sense where good people are rewarded and bad people eventually get what is coming to them. Life is far messier than that. I have seen good people suffer and…
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The Truest Thing I Know
How do you write what people actually want to read? I don’t try to write what people want to read. That might sound strange. After all, if you are going to write something and put it out into the world, you hope that somebody will want to read it. I certainly do. It is satisfying…
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Dadirri
What’s the most spontaneous thing you’ve ever done? Years ago, my wife and I were driving home from a weekend away when we stopped at an art gallery and café. I saw a painting I liked and bought it immediately. That was very unusual for me. Normally I would think carefully about something like that.…
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The Myth of the Maintenance-Free Life
How do you make time for self-care? When I was younger, I did not really understand the importance of maintaining a car. At the time I was a student and had very little money. I put petrol in the car, checked the oil and water every so often, and more or less assumed the rest…
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And Yet It Felt Like Home
What’s a place you visited that felt like home? Moshi in Tanzania felt like home. That is strange, because it is nothing like my home in Australia. Mount Kilimanjaro rises only about 30 kilometres away, so close that it seems to preside over the town. You glimpse it above buildings and along ordinary streets, its…
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A Different Timetable
What’s one thing you wish you had started doing earlier in life? For a long time, I worried that I had started late. I took a different road from many of the people around me. While others were getting married, buying homes, raising families and building careers, I was walking a different path. I did…
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Muttley
If you could pick any fictional animal to be your lifelong companion,what would it be? If I could choose any fictional animal as a lifelong companion, I’m not sure I’d go for a dragon, a Pokémon, or some majestic creature from a fantasy world. I think I’d choose Muttley. Muttley is the scruffy cartoon dog…
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The Shipping News
If you had to switch lives with a fictional character for a week,who would you choose? I was asked an unusual question by an international student this week. They had identified Canada and Australia as two popular study destinations. Then came the personal question: If you could live anywhere, would you choose Australia or Canada?…
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Hannibal Lecter
Have you ever liked a villain more than the hero? Who and why? I found The Silence of the Lambs fascinating. Fascinating, and frightening. I’m not normally drawn to psychological thrillers, but Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins are brilliant in it. There is something about Hopkins’ Hannibal Lecter that is difficult to look away from.…
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Voss
What’s the longest book you’ve ever read? I read Patrick White’s Voss many years ago. At around 450 pages, it is not especially long. But Patrick White is not light reading. His writing is dense, demanding and full of things to think about. I loved it. Every spare minute I could find, I was reading…
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When the Work Is Done
What’s the best advice you’d give to someone younger than you? I was strangely moved by a story our minister told recently. He had spoken with a 97-year-old man who had lived an extraordinary public life. He was a highly decorated naval officer, had served in several wars, and had eventually risen to senior leadership.…
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More than Rooftops
What’s one thing that would instantly improve your city? Sydney has embraced solar energy. Rooftop panels are now a familiar part of the suburban landscape, and I would love to see that continue. But perhaps the next stage is not simply adding more panels. Perhaps it is learning to see the whole city differently. Cities…
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A Big Country
What’s the longest trip you’ve ever taken? Australia is a big country and a long way from almost everywhere, so Australians become used to travelling long distances. We do it because we have to. Distance becomes part inconvenience, part adventure. The longest trip I have ever taken, at least in terms of time on the…
