Living in the present

Hello friends, old and new. Welcome to my new blog. It hangs on the coattails of my recent career change.

Last Friday 27 May was my last day in Canberra (and the public service) for the foreseeable future. This after two and a half years in the toilet seat of power. I'm off to a regional mining town to work for an NGO representing traditional owners in negotiations with mining companies. In September I'm going to Mecca on pilgrimage (Umra) and Palestine with my surgeon-uncle (as one does).

I can't say I'm entirely excited just yet everything is still a bit of a haze at present. But I’ll definitely be buzzing when my journey begins this Sunday. More than anything I look forward to the possibility of (relatively) uninhibited creativity be it through my work or by virtue of all the spare time I imagine I'll have. I say that because I've found the Canberra experience particularly stifling on the creativity front. Or perhaps I'm just weird?

Whatever the case, the submissiveness of the public service has taught me a valuable lesson in the virtues of creativity. By that I mean the ability to conceive of issues in ways that are different or antithetical to the dominant paradigm. Creativity requires courage, because it often challenges the most cherished of notions. Canberra's public service has several cherished notions. None of them are particularly creative. Perhaps I can elaborate on that in the future.

For now I'm pretty hectic organising my journeys. In time, I hope this blog will be a space for gossip and comment on all manner of issues. Expect a photo archive and links to other bits of the universe. There’s a space for you to comment too, so don’t be shy!

I.K.