Tag: writing
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Keep It Simple
What’s the best advice you’d give to someone younger than you? The best advice I would give to someone younger than me is this: keep things simple. That may sound too plain to be useful, but a lot of wisdom is plain. We often make life harder than it needs to be. We overthink, rehearse,…
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Character Outlasts Achievement
What is your top tip to be successful in life? My top tip for being successful in life is simple: character outlasts achievement. We live in a world that measures success by what can be counted, announced, awarded, or displayed. Titles, income, influence, publications, prizes, and recognition all have their place. Achievement matters. Good work…
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Watching M.A.S.H. for the First Time Again
What’s a book, movie, or TV show that youwish you could experience again for the first time? I was late to the party when it came to M.A.S.H. It was not a show we ever watched at home. Then I went to college, and suddenly it became part of the daily rhythm. Straight after dinner,…
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Practical Compassion
What is one way you have grown this year? One way I have grown this year is by learning that compassion has to become practical. Over the years I have become increasingly aware of how much pressure some students carry. International students can carry loneliness, financial stress, uncertainty about accommodation, worries about family, the need…
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Recognising the Thread
What is something you wish you could tell your 20-year-old self? At 20, I thought life was a linear progression. You chose your path, dedicated yourself to it, and then walked it. The challenge was to make the right decision early, commit to it, and stay faithful. At 20, I knew what my passions were.…
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The Cost of Being Always Available
Write your guide to setting healthy boundaries in relationships. I am not sure I am qualified to write a guide to healthy boundaries, except as someone who learned them too slowly. For 20 years I was a parish minister. That meant working in a caring profession. People had real needs. Crises happened. There were weddings,…
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Toussaint
What’s a cultural tradition from another countrythat you wish existed in yours? The tradition I wish we had more strongly in Australia is not really Halloween. It is what sits behind it. In France, All Saints’ Day, or Toussaint, is still marked as a public holiday. Families visit cemeteries. They clean graves, place flowers, light…
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Boogie Wonderland
What’s a song that always puts you in a good mood? I’m a little surprised, but the first song that comes to mind is Earth, Wind & Fire’s Boogie Wonderland. It is not really my kind of music. At least, it is not the kind of song that I would play by choice, but when…
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The Truest Sentence
What is a fear you’ve overcome — and how did you do it? I have often been afraid that I do not have much to offer. I sit down to write and wonder whether the thought is too ordinary. Someone else has probably said it better. Someone else has probably said it with more learning,…
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How Do You Build Loyal Subscribers?
How do you build loyal subscribers? I’m not sure you do. The question sounds like something from marketing. How do you build loyal subscribers? How do you grow an audience? How do you keep people coming back? I understand the question. Anyone who writes and shares their writing knows the quiet hope that someone will…
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Soulmates
Do you believe in soulmates? Why or why not? A soulmate and a best friend are not the same. A best friend is someone you trust, enjoy, rely on, and choose to share life with. A soulmate is someone who reaches something deeper in you: someone whose presence feels like recognition, not just companionship. A…
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Lunch in Lo Lo Chai
Do you believe in minimalism? At lunchtime in Lo Lo Chai, the village had gone quiet. Doors were half open. The heat sat in the laneways. People were resting. Not because the life is easy. It is not. People here work hard. They are industrious. The day begins early. Work fills the morning, pauses for…
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Lord of the Flies
What is the first book you ever finished and still remember to this day? I was sixteen when I read Lord of the Flies. It is the first book I remember finishing. It was set reading at school. Not the first book I started. The first one I remember getting to the end of. What…
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Green Wing
What’s a show that had the perfect series finale? I am not really a series person, which makes this prompt harder than it should be. There is really only one show we binge watched: Green Wing. It was a British comedy set in a fictional hospital, East Hampton Hospital. On the surface, it was a…
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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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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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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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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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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…
The Afterword 