Posts by Garry
Family
Strangely, I raise my head above the lip of now and turn my head: first, towards my father, who has always receded before me but now in desert spring he continues to young as I age; then, towards my brother who stoically proclaims that the virus was an engineering project gone wrong, protocol overrun perhaps…
Read MoreFiction
It is a strange thing to rediscover reading in the midst of tragedy. There are too many impossible stories from every direction: friends, friends-of-friends, loved ones of all ages. And reading seems a bourgeois luxury in such a time, one afforded only to those with space and health and paychecks still arriving today. But, truthfully,…
Read MoreClimbing.
Ascending. Vertical progress. A predictable dose of a sense of achievement. Inconsequential goals. My partner and I were regulars at the climbing gym. Twice a week. I always looked forward to it, as it was a togetherness-activity that helped cement our relationship. We gained skill and ability at predictable increments, climbing harder and more technical…
Read MoreTime
I have been an independent scholar writing my doctoral dissertation on and off for the last twenty years while working as a full-time high school teacher. Confined at home for two months now, I have found time to organise myself, keep up online with my students and to highly improve my thesis.
Read MoreThe touch of my children
My younger children live in New Zealand and I haven’t been able to travel to see them, or for them to come to Melbourne. I wasn’t able to be present for my daughter’s 16th birthday. While messenger, skype and zoom still connect and provide us with spaces to story, to laugh, and to hear buttery…
Read MoreThe need to know the non-human other
The coronavirus opened my eyes to the fact that we need to establish real contact and communication with the non-human “other”. I used to talk and think of nature as something weak, something that needs our protection, and something that is a victim. But talking about “nature” as a category is in itself very limiting.…
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