MAY 2017
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IN DEPTH
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TIM WINTON
Living in the shadow of havoc
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Steve Kryger on why men have no friends. Ben McEachen on why you should take a friend to see The Case for Christ.
TIM WINTON I grew up in safety. In our home in the Perth suburb of Karrinyup there was nothing to fear and no one to second-guess. My mother did everything in her power to give my siblings and me a life free of the disorder she’d known as a child and the violence she’d endured as a young woman. She was determined to provide an environment that was predictable and nurturing. Our father was of like mind. He was a gentle man and he was careful to shield us from the things he saw as a cop. Nevertheless we
lived in the shadow of havoc. There might not have been trouble at home, but trouble was the family business, and ours was a house of accidents. In December of 1965, as he was riding back from a prang, the old man was hit by a driver who’d run a stop sign. The errant car slammed him into a brick wall with such force it crushed his chest, his shoulder and his hip. He suffered a massive concussion, and because his ribs were broken and his lungs had collapsed the paramedics found him suffocating and close to death. To save him
they were forced to perform an emergency tracheotomy as he lay in the street. When Mum was notified, she was told he’d been in a bingle but that it probably wasn’t serious, so she didn’t understand the gravity of the situation until she was mistakenly given the bloodsoaked uniform that had been cut off him in Casualty. She had two small boys, five and three, and a daughter barely six months old. No one had prepared her for what was coming her way. Her husband, the sole breadwinner of the household, was in a coma. And
ARE YOU DEALING WITH GENDER IDENTITY ISSUES? The Anglican Church in Sydney has established a committee to prepare a response to gender identity issues. The committee wants to understand the experiences of those dealing firsthand with gender identity issues (e.g., gender dysphoria, gender incongruence, transgenderism) – whether experienced personally or as family members, educators, counsellors, healthcare professionals, church staff, friends, church members, or any other relationship. We would be grateful if those concerned could help us by telling their own stories. A free anonymous online survey can be found at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/Genderandfaith The survey will close on 19 June 2017. If you do not qualify for this survey but would like to comment on gender identity issues, please send your feedback to sic@sydney.anglican.asn.au
she didn’t know it yet, but nobody fancied his chances. For days he lay in the resuscitation room at Royal Perth Hospital. There was an unspoken understanding that he would never “be himself” again, and so traumatic were his injuries that two of his colleagues resigned shortly after visiting him. Even when he finally regained consciousness, nobody could really offer Mum much cause for optimism. I was not allowed to visit. I came to suspect he was actually dead and that no one had the nerve to tell me. Mum kept up a brave front, and she was
genuinely courageous, but I was there to see the mess she hid from everyone else. When I think of that long, hard summer I remember the wordless heaviness in the house, the fog of dread we were all trapped in. My brother and sister were too young to understand what was happening. In a sense it was just Mum and me, and a kid in kindergarten can’t offer his mother much by way of solace. She must have done a lot of hoping. All the same, there wasn’t a hopeful air in the house. Even when they brought continued page 6