One True Thing
That life is both beautiful and brutal.
If anyone has missed experiencing both then they have been denied the chance to truly live.
I’m part of a generation brought up to believe in hard work, personal responsibility, always being honest, and never doing harm to another. It was also the time when the personal-development industry took flight and with it the illusory message that happiness was ours for the taking.
The ancient sages would be horrified at such a concept, as their message was far more brutal - life was hard; embrace it!
It was also the time when the Parenting Advice industry took off. If you didn’t have “the book” to guide you, many of your peers did, so there was no escaping the plethora of advice being thrown your way. It was sometimes difficult to not get caught up in the illusion that we ought to be happy and content because we live in the most advanced and enlightened times of history.
Eventually, however, those Sage voices echo through from the past to remind you that, without the dark, there can be no light.
A brief look back.
Step through the Portal…
Reading, writing and drawing were a big part of my young life, but the dream of pursuing a writing career evaded me. Life went on and fate had other things in store.
Fast forward to 2005 and the long held aspiration to study found me ready to take that leap. I applied to university, was accepted, and began an undergraduate degree in ancient history and political theory, going on to earn a First Class Honours Degree in Ancient History.
It did not take long to recognise the enduring nature of Roman Republican politics. It was a natural partnership with the study of politics. It is one thing to study the theory of civics, but a different one to experience it on the ground. After spending almost 16 years being involved with election campaigns across all three levels of government, I ran for federal parliament in 2022 in a House of Representatives seat. It was not about winning, because that was not a reality (not that any of us at the time wanted to believe that - you don’t try something without giving it your all and hoping for the best result). It was a case of not being able to sit back with so much lived experience under my belt and do nothing with it while Australia was being hurled into the abyss through decades of neglect by politicians too enamoured with their own self-interest, and seemingly not in the least with the citizens’.
Tradition Does Matter:
As a classicist, I value what the ancient Romans refer to as mos maiorum - an unwritten code based upon tradition and respect for ancestral customs and time honoured values such as respect, dignity, honour, fortitude, self-discipline, and perseverance.
Challenging experiences usually push us to places we had once thought were unimaginable to deal with. Our eldest daughter has a severe intellectual disability. As a purist and perfectionist, this would be my greatest test. It was like running the gauntlet, comprised of knives and swords of every shape and size imaginable.
But, humans are adaptable beyond our belief to be so.
The creation of a Commonplace portal is at the core of this project. Compiling sayings, thoughts, ideas or memories was a valued practice among the ancients and those in the Renaissance era.
It is fitting to end my first Musings post with a favourite - very much a “One True Thing:”
“Fortune, I have made a pre-emptive strike against you, and I have deprived you of every single loophole.” - Plutarch, Essays.
Thank you for reading. I look forward to building this site over the coming months to enable comments and feedback.
For now, Welcome!
Gerardine