resilience

I think everybody is resilient though, that's my other thesis in the book. That I think resilience is the stuff of life. I think it is the life force. I think it is regeneration when you go into the bush and there's been a fire and you see this charred stump of a tree and this absurd and wonderful triumphant crown of green, and you realise it's life kicking back again. With humans it's different because we have a developed consciousness, so we're able to be aware of what's happening to us, and hopefully to learn wisdom from it. So you learn from the things that happen to you, that are difficult, that are sad. And we don't always do that. You have to allow everyone to be human and fall down in a heap sometimes.
Anne Deveson and Resilience on ABC TV Compass

Caught this half-way through - so I was glad to read the transcript.

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Comments: resilience

"You have to allow everyone to be human and fall down in a heap sometimes."

Generally and foolishly us blokes aren't all that good at that sort of thing. Hawkie went some way to assist. (In his pre "I'm taking John Curtin as my role model" days, his falling down in a heap might have been for quite a different reason.)

Annie is a fine lass, resilient above and beyond the call of duty.
Posted by Sedgwick at March 2, 2004 12:23 PM

Yes - life trips us up eventually.

"I think life is chaotic. I think that we fool ourselves if it's not. We try and pin things down and we try and make things predictable. Life is not predictable, nor is it permanent. And I think a certain amount of chaos is fine..."

(btw, perhaps not good blogging form to link to one's self, but boynton@blogspot once went looking for John Curtin.)
http://boynton.blogspot.com/2002_12_29_boynton_archive.html#86856077
Posted by boynton at March 2, 2004 02:36 PM

Sometimes one has to be self-referential. No one else is going to do it for you.

Though I do baulk at the oft 'eard "I myself personally think that ..."
Posted by Sedgwick at March 2, 2004 06:15 PM