How do you define youth? Is it an attitude? An age? A generation?
Often ‘yoof’s’ have a hopeful look in their eye. It’s a wide eyed demeanor, unsullied by disappointment or situations too difficult to easily categorize. Youth is still fresh and tender.
You can spy youth in the little kids who tear around fountains in their undies, tweens awkwardly tripping over themselves while smiling in their braces, the teenager looking scornfully at those who went before and plan how they’re like, totally going to do it differently and those in their twenties start building their new lives on their own on their first solo trips to Ikea.
Less obviously, you can also get a whiff of youth from the Grandma with the cheeky attitude, the Dad who gets down on the floor to play with his kids and when grown ups let their dignity drop for a brief moment to have some fun.
If we can identify and appreciate a young attitude maybe we’ll be able to do what the songs says and stay forever young.
“Just briefly, Mary. We’re not trying to convert, you know?” The ladies all howl with delight at Maha’s instruction. We all love Mary: her warm smile is always the first thing any of us notice when she enters the hall each week, but we’ve also noticed she has a tendency toward effusive and at times lengthy descriptions! Mary is from Egypt, and of the Coptic Orthodox faith. “Ok, ok, I’ll be brief!” she smiles. She begins her talk on the history and beliefs of her faith, translating into English what she is reading from a document written in Arabic. She goes on to introduce the dish she has cooked for us to share. It’s a pasta dish, taken from her culture, but this time prepared with the omission of some ingredients. She explains that this is because we’re part way through the season of Lent, and Mary’s daughter has chosen to fast. In the Coptic Orthodox tradition, this means eating each day only after noon, and avoiding some foods altogether.
Death is the final frontier, the vast uncharted territory from where no explorers return. Here three people were asked by Journey what they think happens after you die…
James Stevenson
Many years ago my son, then aged four, asked: “Daddy, does it hurt to die?”
It was a question that still has me thinking.
I guess it depends on what we mean by hurt.
I came to the conclusion that it isn’t the dying that hurts, but the living before we die.
The government’s recent decision not to implement a Human Rights Act (against the recommendations of their own Brennan inquiry) is deeply disappointing. It is a decision that will have a lasting effect on the very humans this act would aim to protect. The generally safe and secure situation most of us find ourselves in day-to-day tempts us all to think “I know my rights” but how many of us actually do? How hard do you have to fight for justice in this country when someone is treated appallingly? Heather Dowling revisits the case of Mr Ward to see where human rights are at in Australia.
As Bilbo Baggins says in TheFellowship of the Ring; 'it's a dangerous business, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no telling where you might be swept off to.'
Your feet can lead you to places which have seen terrible or wonderful things. Some sites develop their own gravity, drawing visitors to them from across the globe and joining them together briefly, in reflection on what has passed in that place. The pyramids at Giza, Ground Zero in New York, the city of Jerusalem or Uluru are places that draw in pilgrims with the power of their history. Glenda Blakefield, Associate General Secretary for the Uniting Church National Assembly has been fortunate enough to follow this pull to far flung corners of the globe.
Last year I went to North Korea. It can take people half a moment to register exactly where I went when I tell them. ‘You went where!?’ they yelp. North Korea is considered the scariest of the so called ‘axis of evil’ nations and isn’t the usual travel destination for 25 year old Australian females.
I went with the Rev. John Barr, from UnitingWorld, the international relationships arm of the Uniting Church. Part of his portfolio is responsibility for a very unusual project – an aid project to a town in the far north east of North Korea.
The project has been set up and run by two quietly heroic and deeply kind individuals – the Hong’s. Mr & Mrs Hong originally hail from South Korea but had been living happily in Melbourne for some years. With their three sons grown and successful in their chosen fields, the Hong’s and their church, the Melbourne Korean Uniting Church, approached UnitingWorld with a daring proposal – to set up an orphanage in North Korea.
In the far north east of North Korea, the winters are bitterly cold. So cold Russia’s main port of Vladivostok freezes over. China has no access to the Sea of Japan (or as the North Koreans call it – the East Sea) so North Korea and their warm water port of Rason is left with a rare economic advantage.
I’ve always thought of Alzheimer’s as a scary word. While I’ve never personally been touched by the disease, it represents tragedy, a loss of control, loss of memory and ultimately a loss of life.
In Australia, it’s more common that you may think. In 2008, 227 300 cases of dementia, including Alzheimer’s, were confirmed. This number is expected to rise to 731 000 by 2050 unless a cure is found.
It also carries a significant social stigma.
Most people prefer to pass of symptoms embarrassingly as a ‘senior moment’ and put the very idea that they might be suffering from this degenerative disease behind them.
This book is, quite simply, ravishingly beautiful. Just to look at it and the exquisite animal art inside it is a pleasure.
Gibson has collected some of the thoughtful writing about beasts; lions, tigers and bears included, and strung them together as a reflection on the wilderness. His selection is wonderfully diverse and covers poetry, prose, myth and travel writing.
Written as a companion piece for The Bedside Book of Birds, it is meant as a bedside tome to reflect on before descending into dreams.
We all experience moments that require a little more from us. That three hour meeting. The lecturer who speaks in a monotone. The elderly relative who insists on retelling their recollections of August 6th 1953 (or what that May 6th? now let me see...).
What most of thankfully don't have is a camera in our face recording our reactions for posterity. When looking through this gallery, spare a moment of sympathy for President Obama.
After the murder of her husband and the public rape of her daughters, Boudicca, Queen of the Iceni (an English tribe) very nearly drove the Romans from Britain; Pocahontas left her country and culture for an utterly unknown world; Mrs Packhurst demanded votes for women in a society whose patriarchy seemed unassailable, Hilary Clinton famously put "about 18 million cracks" in the glass ceiling and Oprah Winfrey, born into poverty and abuse, now reigns supreme in media and influence. These women fought for their fame and successes and fought hard.
But why don’t we see more female success stories? Why are there still so few female leaders? Why is there still pay inequality? Why do so many women spend their (shortened) lives in grinding poverty? Why are children still sold in marriage? Why don’t we have universal education and the assurance of true equal opportunity? While the answers to these questions are complex, one thing is clear: there is work still to be done. Equality is not here, feminism is still needed and we all need to face some uncomfortable truths.
