The Afterword

Tag: writing

  • The Dancing Man

    —

    by

    Peter
    in

    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…

  • Narara Music Festival

    —

    by

    Peter
    in

    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.…

  • The Last Day in Antarctica

    —

    by

    Peter
    in

    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…

  • What Happened to Making Things Well?

    —

    by

    Peter
    in

    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.…

  • When You Realise You’re the Adult

    —

    by

    Peter
    in

    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…

  • Firedoor

    —

    by

    Peter
    in

    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…

  • Trust the Hunch

    —

    by

    Peter
    in

    If you had a time machine and could send just one messageto your past self, what would it say? If I had a time machine and could send just one message to my younger self, it would be: Trust the hunch. Not because every instinct is right, or because careful thought does not matter. But…

  • Where Do You See Grace?

    —

    by

    Peter
    in

    Which author would you love to have dinner with? If I could have dinner with an author, I would choose Tim Winton. But not in a restaurant. I imagine fish and chips somewhere on the Western Australian coast, sitting outside with the ocean stretching away in front of us. And there would be one condition:…

  • He Forgot. I Never Did.

    —

    by

    Peter
    in

    What’s a moment when a stranger completely restored your faith in people? I started school when I was four. I was the firstborn in my family and hadn’t been to preschool. One day I was simply enrolled at the local school. I didn’t really understand what was happening to me. All my friends in our…

  • People Were the Point

    —

    by

    Peter
    in

    If your future self could send you one sentence,what do you hope it would say? If my future self could send me one sentence, I hope it might say: “The people mattered more than the projects.” My mother often told me that I took on too much and needed to do less. She was probably…

  • Better Slightly Uncoordinated Action

    —

    by

    Peter
    in

    What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received? The best advice I have received may be this: Better slightly uncoordinated action than fully coordinated inaction. I am a pragmatist at heart. I often begin with a hunch rather than a plan. I have a glimpse of something that might be worth exploring, even when…

  • Learning to Sit with Suffering

    —

    by

    Peter
    in

    What’s a skill you consider basic, that most peopledon’t actually know how to do? Sitting with someone who is suffering seems like a basic human skill. It is also one of the hardest. As a young man in my twenties, I regularly visited people in an oncology ward. They were experiencing all kinds of emotions.…

  • John Ames

    —

    by

    Peter
    in

    Who is the fictional character you relate to the most? Of all the fictional characters I have encountered, John Ames in Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead may be the one I relate to most. Ames is an ageing minister writing to his young son. He is gentle without being sentimental, devout without being coercive, and deeply attentive…

  • The Ideals We Keep

    —

    by

    Peter
    in

    What’s a song lyric that has stuck with you forever? I was at university when Jackson Browne released The Pretender. There was a music room where people supposedly went to study, although Jackson Browne’s For Everyman and Joni Mitchell’s Court and Spark seemed to be permanently playing. I often went there when I had a…

  • Lunch with the Cat in the Hat

    —

    by

    Peter
    in

    If you could have dinner with any fictional character who would it be? If I could have lunch with any fictional character, I would choose the Cat in the Hat. He would arrive without being invited. “You were thinking of me,” he would say, stepping through the door with his striped hat brushing the frame.…

  • The Best $45 We Ever Spent

    —

    by

    Peter
    in

    What is the best purchase you have ever made? The best purchase I ever made was our first dog. We were newly married and living in Lismore on the Northern Rivers. One day we looked through the local paper and saw an advertisement for border collie puppies on a farm near Kyogle. We drove out…

  • What Kind of Bike?

    —

    by

    Peter
    in

    What’s the funniest misunderstanding you’ve ever been part of? It was probably not the funniest misunderstanding I have ever been part of, but it was the most recent. We were having dinner at the college and meeting someone for the first time. The conversation turned to what everyone had done over the weekend. He mentioned…

  • AntennaPod

    —

    by

    Peter
    in

    What app eats up most of your screen time — and do you even feel bad about it? I recently checked the Digital Wellbeing section in my phone settings. AntennaPod consistently comes out on top, anywhere up to an hour per day. I do not feel bad about it at all. AntennaPod is the app…

  • Too Busy Enlarging Our Lives to Live Them

    —

    by

    Peter
    in

    If you could erase one trend from history, what would it be? If I could erase one trend from history, it might be the belief that bigger is always better. Bigger houses. Bigger cars. Bigger companies. Bigger cities. Bigger economies. Bigger audiences. Bigger ambitions. We have learned to treat growth as proof of health and…

  • The Same Storm, Different Trees

    —

    by

    Peter
    in

    Do you think we’re shaped more by our experiences or by who we are? We are neither fixed selves untouched by life nor blank material shaped entirely by circumstance. We become who we are through the interaction of temperament, experience, relationships, choices and grace. Two people can endure the same event and be shaped in…