A team aligned behind a vision will move mountains. Sell them on your roadmap and don’t compromise — care about the details, the fit and finish.
— Kevin Rose, Founder of Digg and Partner at Google
Growing Illawarra Natives
Medium: Marian Turski, speech at the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, 27th January 2020. “Dear friends, I am one of the few still alive of those who remained in this place almost until the very last moment before liberation. My so-called evacuation from Auschwitz began on the 18th of January. Over the next six and a half days it would prove a death march for more than half of my fellow inmates, with whom I marched in a column of six hundred. In all likelihood, I will not make it to the next commemoration. Such are the laws of nature. Please then forgive me the emotion in what I will now say. This is something I want to say above all to my daughter, my granddaughter, who I thank for being present here, to my grandson: it concerns those who are the peers of my daughter, of my grandchildren; a new generation, particularly the youngest, those who are younger even than they are…
And this is what I want to tell my daughter, what I want to tell my grandchildren. My daughter’s peers, my grandchildren’s peers, wherever they might live, in Poland, Israel, America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe. This is very important. Thou shalt not be indifferent in the face of lies about history. Thou shalt not be indifferent when the past is distorted for today’s political needs. Thou shalt not be indifferent when any minority faces discrimination. Majority rule is the essence of democracy, but democracy also means that minority rights must be protected. Thou shalt not be indifferent when any authority violates the existing social contract. Be faithful to this commandment. To the Eleventh Commandment: thou shalt not be indifferent. Because if you are indifferent, you will not even notice it when upon your own heads, and upon the heads of your descendants, another Auschwitz falls from the sky…”
The Story of Two Monks and a Woman
Something shitty just happened to me. (Don’t worry, I’m alright!) But after it happened, I was pretty preoccupied by the whole thing: feeling victimized, rehashing the stupid mistake I’d made in my mind, wondering what I should have done differently, feeling shame about it all. This incident was on its way to ruining my day and perhaps even my next few days. Then I remembered one of the stories from the lovely Zen Shorts, a book I used to read with the kids.The tale of two monks and a woman is a well-known Buddhist parable. The story goes that two monks were traveling together, a senior and a junior. They came to a river with a strong current where a young woman was waiting, unable to cross alone. She asks the monks if they would help her across the river. Without a word and in spite of the sacred vow he’d taken not to touch women, the older monk picks her up, crosses, and sets her down on the other side.
The younger monk joins them across the river and is aghast that the older monk has broken his vow but doesn’t say anything. An hour passes as they travel on. Then two hours. Then three. Finally, the now quite agitated younger monk can stand it no longer: “Why did you carry that women when we took a vow as monks not to touch women?”
The older monk replies, “I set her down hours ago by the side of the river. Why are you still carrying her?”
The story is a reminder to not dwell on the past in a way that interferes with living in the present moment. I’m glad to have remembered it today — I’m feeling much better now.
A tale of two summers for beach loved to death, then deserted
This
time last year, up to 5000 cars a day were trying to park at Hyams
Beach, in Jervis Bay. Then the Currowan bushfire came roaring up the
coast.