Table Of ContentA meaningful life
A.C. GRAYLING GEORGINA REID JAMIE WHEAL ALISON THOMPSON PALISA ANDERSON
‘In one way we think a great deal too much of the atomic bomb. “How
are we to live in an atomic age?” I am tempted to reply: “Why, as you
would have lived in the sixteenth century when the plague visited
London almost every year, or as you would have lived in a Viking age
when raiders from Scandinavia might land and cut your throat any
night; or indeed, as you are already living in an age of cancer, an age
of syphilis, an age of paralysis, an age of air raids, an age of railway
accidents, an age of motor accidents.”
In other words, do not let us begin by exaggerating the novelty of
our situation. Believe me, dear sir or madam, you and all whom
you love were already sentenced to death before the atomic bomb
was invented: and quite a high percentage of us were going to die
in unpleasant ways. We had, indeed, one very great advantage over
our ancestors—anaesthetics; but we have that still. It is perfectly
ridiculous to go about whimpering and drawing long faces because
the scientists have added one more chance of painful and premature
death to a world which already bristled with such chances and in
which death itself was not a chance at all, but a certainty.
This is the first point to be made: and the first action to be taken is
to pull ourselves together. If we are all going to be destroyed by an
atomic bomb, let that bomb when it comes find us doing sensible
and human things—praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to
music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends
over a pint and a game of darts—not huddled together like frightened
sheep and thinking about bombs. They may break our bodies
(a microbe can do that) but they need not dominate our minds.’
C.S. Lewis
“On Living in an Atomic Age”, in Present Concerns: Journalistic Essays
COLOPHON
DUMBO FEATHER
ISSN 1838-7012
Issue 70-August, 2022
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Berry Liberman
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Kirsty de Garis
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
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Well this is exciting.
Dumbo Feather
I am delighted to be here. I have loved since I
first clapped eyes on it way back when Kate Bezar was editor,
in the early 2000s. And I am thrilled to join the team as editor.
This is my first issue, so welcome!
When we were planning this issue, we started talking about
what a meaningful life is all about. And the answer is that a
meaningful life feels different for everyone.
I am excited to share five conversations with such varied
representations of meaningful lives: restaurateur and organic
farmer Palisa Anderson, British philosopher and author
Professor A.C. Grayling, publisher and writer Georgina Reid,
Doctor Alison Thompson OAM, a medical first responder in
Ukraine, and social philosopher Jamie Wheal, who urges us to
both know our home and to be useful.
Dumbo
You will notice a few changes to the magazine, and
Feather
will continue to evolve in future issues as we
incorporate more elements into the mix. This issue we hear
from neighbours Kate Stroud and Emma Lang, describing
their shared experience during the disastrous floods that
engulfed Lismore in northern New South Wales earlier this
year. Senior Zen teacher Gillian Coote shares the history of
the life of Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh,
including her experience of working closely with him, and we
explore the possible for a good night's sleep. In the
concluding pages of the magazine, Melanie Owens guides us
through how to define your personal ikigai – a Japanese
concept connected to finding and serving your life's purpose.
It's fun and very hands-on, leaving you with something to
return to on multiple occasions as your life journey unfolds.
My ikigai lands me right where I am today. I've enjoyed a
challenging and varied career in newspapers, documentary
film and magazines and more recently, at TEDxSydney,
working with speakers to refine their ideas and prepare them
Dumbo
for the stage. What I am most excited about in joining
Feather
is a return to the written word, which is my first love.
There is no quick-fix replacement for the deeper engagement
we can feel when we hold a beautiful artefact in our hands.
I will always believe in that, and the potential we have to explore
the lives of the people behind the ideas that shape our world.
As we forge a future together, Jamie Wheal's thoughts on
being useful deeply resonate. We are all working with what we
have, and we can only start where we are. What if we each
use the ikigai process to discover what our roles are that are
timeless, and ours alone to do, then get out and give ourselves
to the doing of it? Imagine what the world would be.
Pass it on.
Kirsty
Contents
30
JAMIE WHEAL
MEANING 3.0
Berry Liberman
44
ALISON THOMPSON
RESPONDS WITH HEART
Hugh Bohane
14
How to live a meaningful life
Daniel Schmachtenberger
16
Living in the Great Explosion
56
A.C. GRAYLING
Pierz Newton-John
SAVOURS THE WORLD
18
Bridges
Berry Liberman
Kate Stroud and Emma Lang
22
Kindness – the key to a
meaningful life
Hugh Mackay
70
GEORGINA REID
24
The Transcendentals CONSPIRES WITH
Nathan Scolaro
NATURE
104
The life of Thich Nhat Hanh
Kirsty de Garis
Gillian Coote
108
The snooze paradox
86
Kirsty de Garis PALISA ANDERSON
CULTIVATES JOY
114
Find your ikigai
Melanie Owens Kirsty de Garis
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“Atoll life is not always how it seems on
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Over the years, while scouring the
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Scan to connect with local
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Captain Liz Clark takes her place as the “I” in #ClimateActionNow,
somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. Jianca Lazarus © 2022 Patagonia, Inc.
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