Westy's Weekly Blog

  Have you ever thought seriously about where you might be, five minutes after your last breath?   I’ve often asked people, who had a major health scare, a similar question: If you hadn’t survived that operation, where would you be now?   Some folk quickly change the subject.   To consider where they might be, five minutes after their last breath, is too confronting.   They take the ostrich approach.   They bury their head in the sand!   What I find sadder is the typical response, “Don’t start on that John, there’s absolutely nothing after death!” I’m presently reading a book about “The Final State” and a chapter that deals with the immortality of the soul.   The author presents several arguments that support the idea of life going on beyond death. For starters he points out that it’s the assumption of just about every religion in the world that death is not the end.   Why is that?   Is that just wishful thinking?   Or perhap...

  Some older female readers may identify with the lady who said, “Sometimes I wake up GRUMPY early in the morning...!“   And then she added: “At other times I let him sleep till he’s ready to get up by himself!”   It reminds me of that 1993 movie with the title, ‘Grumpy Old Men’.   I mention this because I’m at that stage of life where I pray a little more often, “Lord, please keep me from being a grumpy old man!” My family may have different recollections but I’ve generally thought of myself as a relatively even tempered person.   In contrast there was a cobber of mine who often swung between extreme highs and lows.   I envied him in those moments when he was on top of the world and nothing could daunt his enthusiasm.   But his lows were sad to see and difficult for friends and family to navigate. The dictionary defines ‘mood’ as a temporary state of mind or feeling.   All of us – unless we are psychopaths – know all about moods – good mood...

The docket from the Coles Supermarket checkout looked just a little different.   Okay, they often use their dockets to inform customers of various promotional schemes.   I’d already noted earlier that the promotional had changed from cookware to kitchen knives.   No, this was something else.   There was a logo of sorts at the bottom of the docket that included some dot-art that one usually associates with Australian indigenous paintings.   And then, in very tiny print, there were the words, “Coles Group acknowledges the traditional custodians of Country throughout Australia.”   The rest of the message humbly expressed respect for Elders (past, present and emerging) and to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and their culture.   Forty nine words in all – amazing how much you can print on a shopper docket...! Well, I hope the folk who make up the Coles Group are sincere in their recognition of Australia’s original inhabitants, their desc...

  Our local shopping mall has a special desk for fund-raisers, just inside a main entrance.   The causes seeking support there vary from week to week.   I find myself wondering whether the popularity of the charity might be in inverse proportion to the number of people at the desk.   That seemed to be borne out by the most recent occupier of the fund raiser desk.   Just one person at the desk!   So shoppers were not required to run the gauntlet of charity fundraisers soliciting handouts.   The charity was the well-known Fred Hollows Foundation – which cares for eye-health in deprived communities around the world.   The late Fred Hollows (who died in 1993) together with his wife Gabi established the foundation that is now active in 25 countries and has facilitated the restoration of sight to more than three million people worldwide.   All made possible by the overwhelming support of the Australian public. One is reluctant to make any kind of...