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And At This Moment In History, Our Core Value Happens To Be The Raw, Aching Truth Of The Human Predicament. It May Also Be The Only Belief That Can Save Us As A Species. A Species That Will Continue To Find Comfort And Delight In The Companionship Of Animals, The Miracle Of Birds, The Colours Of The Corals And The Majesty Of The Forests. We Are In It Together, On This Blue Spinning Marble In The Cold And Silent Void. And We Must Act On That Belief, If We Are Going To Be Able To Continue To Live A Good Life Here, In This Beautiful And Fragile Country, On This Lovely Planet, Our Only Home.

-Geraldine Brooks

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And At This Moment

Geraldine Brooks

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And At This Moment In History, Our Core Value Happens To Be The Raw, Aching Truth Of The Human Predicament. It May Also Be The Only Belief That Can Save Us As A Species. A Species That Will Continue To Find Comfort And Delight In The Companionship Of Animals, The Miracle Of Birds, The Colours Of The Corals And The Majesty Of The Forests. We Are In It Together, On This Blue Spinning Marble In The Cold And Silent Void. And We Must Act On That Belief, If We Are Going To Be Able To Continue To Live A Good Life Here, In This Beautiful And Fragile Country, On This Lovely Planet, Our Only Home.

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You Can't Write About The Past And Ignore Religion. It Was Such A Fundamental, Mind-shaping, Driving Force For Pre-modern Societies. I'm Very Interested In What Religion Does To Us - Its Capacity To Create Love And Empathy Or Hatred And Violence.

Instead Of Idleness, Vanity, Or An Intellect Formed By The Spoon-feeding Of Others, My Girls Have Acquired Energy, Industry, And Independence.

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I Think That You Can Honour The Sacrifices Of A Common Soldier Without Glorifying War.

The Sarajevans Have A Very Particular World View - A Mordant Wit Coupled With This Unbearable Sadness And... Truckloads Of Guts, You Know.

Writing Is Like Bricklaying; You Put Down One Word After Another. Sometimes The Wall Goes Up Straight And True And Sometimes It Doesn't And You Have To Push It Down And Start Again, But You Don't Stop; It's Your Trade.

What's Wrong With Leading The Way? We've Played That Role Before, After All. We Gave The World The Secret Ballot... That Did So Much To Raise Living Standards And Improve Conditions For Workers Worldwide. We Were A Leader In Extending To Women The Right To Vote. We Were Barely A Nation When We Set The Bar For Bravery And Sacrifice By Common Soldiers In Foreign Wars. We Grew Up Out Of Racism And Misogyny And Homophobia To Become A Mostly Tolerant, Successful Multicultural Society. We Did These Great Things Because We Know We Are In It Together. It Is Our Core Value As Australians.

They Say The Lord's Day Is A Day Of Rest, But Those Who Preach This Generally Are Not Women.

I Had Been Afraid Of Breast Cancer, As I Suspect Most Women Are, From The Time I Hit Adolescence. At That Age, When Our Emerging Sexuality Is Our Central Preoccupation, The Idea Of Disfigurement Of A Breast Is Particularly Horrifying.

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While I Love To Read Contemporary Fiction, I'm Not Drawn To Writing It. Perhaps It's Because The Former Journalist In Me Is Too Inhibited By The Press Of Reality; When I Think About Writing Of My Own Time I Always Think About Nonfiction Narratives. Or Perhaps It's Just That I Find The Present Too Confounding.

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