NOT a day goes by when someone among us suffers the effects of disaster – death, financial loss, marriage failure, job loss, house fire, vehicle accidents, to name a few – which will knock the hell out of people, both emotionally and physically.
That’s only at home, so what happens when the reliable fourbie decides to toss in a cylinder somewhere in the middle of the Simpson Desert? Or you run off Cahills Crossing because you misjudged the power of the water and the crocs are closing in on you? The bushfires and floods on the East Coast are perfect examples of what can go wrong when a benevolent Mother Nature turns on man and beast.
Like many of you, I have been stressed to the limits, with my earliest memories being of an artillery barrage sending deadly missiles across the Dutch border in to German lines a few kilometres from our farm. I was just over two years old, but I remember sitting on my mum’s knee, with my younger sister perched on the other, both bawling our eyes out every time the English artillery fired, and the concussions shook our cottage.
I STOOD UP AND SAW ITS UGLY HEAD A METRE BEHIND THE TINNIE
Some years back, a mate