With increasing frequency and growing vehemence, you hear people saying they are ashamed to be Australians.

It's Australian to do such things because, however uncivilised they may seem, it's human to do them.

Actually, I can't imagine anything more tedious than a perfect person, especially if it was someone who also demanded perfection from me.

The yearning for strong leadership is more about strength of purpose - clarity of vision - than about merely 'getting tough'.

But the rule seems to be that the bigger and more life-changing the decision, the less it will seem like a decision at all.

It seems inevitable that the magic of the written word will fade.

Indeed, in the present climate of mistrust of institutions, many people who yearn for a more meaningful and fulfilling life would regard the church as an unlikely place to go for guidance.