List 10 things you know to be absolutely certain.

NOTHING IS MORE CERTAIN THAN UNCERTAINTY

Today’s topic is certainly challenging. We live in an age of uncertainty, never knowing what is going to happen from one day to the next. That uncertainty is that the global level has a regional context, impacts upon countries, and influences outcomes in the states, territories, And local government areas. (That’s looking at it in an Australian context).

Against this overriding awareness of not knowing what is going to happen from one day to the next, what is going to happen between sunup and sunset, what is going to transpire overnight, there is the thought of what things are certain.

When it comes to politics, economics, weather events, the behaviour of countries through their leaders, and so on the panorama of uncertainty widens and deepens.

I think of what my mother and father used to say to me when I was a boy; you do not know the end from the beginning. That lack of knowledge can be on a short-term and long-term basis.

So against the backdrop and an overhang of uncertainty, I would posit from the viewpoint of my life as Henry Gray, the following certainties.

1. I will always love and respect my nuclear family.

2. I will always be thankful for how my wife and I were able to bring our children to a place of care, responsibility and respect for others in this world.

3. I will always be glad for having learned that what I should do in life has been helped by my learning about what not to do.

4. I will always be thankful to my parents, particularly to my Father, who taught me the wisdom of avoiding debt and having the means to go forward without having to borrow against future income. I will value forever the fact that he taught me the importance of saving and that intern I was able to pass that on to our children.

5. I will always appreciate the prime minister of the time the Honourable John Howard, for introducing ‘values’ into the thinking of Australian schools through the education department of the various states, the need for a focus on values that support life and living. These principles were valuable to me as an educator and indeed reinforced what we had always tried to do as parents and teachers. This action gave certainty as to what should be very important educational parental priorities.

6. It’s certain that as the world evolves, queues for service in Stores and businesses will, notwithstanding the advent of modern technology, continue to grow longer and longer.

7. Sadly, there is an absolute certainty that crime, domestic violence, damage to property and attacks on people – both physically and through the use of social media – will continue to grow and probably exponentially.

8. I believe there is an absolute certainty that there will be very little abatement of pollutants that are turning the world on its climatic ear. There will continue to be a great deal of talk and a lot of posturing but very little meaningful action outcome.

9. People of all ages and all over the developed world will certainly continue to escape reality (or try to) by escaping into a fictional world of entertainment or immersing themselves in a total sense in following sports, the arts, theatre or other activities that defocus them from the realities of day to day living.

10. I am certain that uncertainty will continue to dominate the pathways we all tread in life’s world.