127 – Cancelled, Part 2: 24 December 2024

Margaret was unable to quit smoking but I loved every aspect of her, including her inability to stop smoking.  Margaret did not have cancer when this photo was taken.

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Our love was mutual.  Every moment of every day, I knew with complete certainty that Margaret loved me at least as much as I loved her.  Our love for each other grew with every year we lived together.

If anything, the horrific events that followed the barbecue on 26 January 2021 strengthened and deepened our love for each other.

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I commenced writing a letter to Anne Ryan on the day after the barbecue.  My letter told her the impact her behaviour had had on me. 

I sent my letter by email at 10.01 am on Thursday the 28^th.  I received a reply by text almost immediately at 10.17 am.

I read your email and I recognise everything you said.  I’m so sorry you had such a bad physical reaction.  I have no idea what to do about our political differences or about this rift.

This is the first half of the letter that I sent to Anne Ryan at 10.01 am on that Thursday.  I will reproduce the second half of my letter in the next Blog.

I point out that when Anne said she “recognise[d] everything [I] said”, she confirmed the accuracy of the summary of the facts I set out in my letter.

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Wednesday 27 January 2021   Dear Anne,   Re: Why I Have Decided Not to Walk At Morialta   I am supposed to walk with you and Mary at Morialta on Friday 29 January but I have decided that I will not walk with you at Morialta on Friday.  I would prefer to verbalise in your presence, what I say in this letter and I have seriously considered trying to say this to your face, but I know my emotions would get in the way and the words would all come out wrong.  As an alternative, I will try and explain in writing in this letter. Yesterday, you were an extremely welcome guest at our home for an Australia Day barbecue.  I was outside on the decking doing the cooking when you arrived, but you came outside and sat at the outside table talking to me and Chris Reilly.  While you were outside, you raised the topic of the date of Australia Day and the fact that some people prefer to call it invasion day.  Amongst other things, you said that the concept of Australia Day dated back only to 1994 and that you thought the date should be altered to a different date from that on which the First Fleet arrived in Sydney in 1788.  I said that I had lived in Australia all of my life and that Australia Day had always been celebrated on the same date throughout my lifetime.  You then said that celebrating Australia Day on 26 January was similar to the celebration of King Billy’s Day in Northern Ireland on 14 March (I may have that specific date not quite correct).  I said that I could not see the similarity because King Billy’s Day celebrated a military victory over the Irish by English forces and the triumph of the Irish Protestants in Ireland.  I said that Australia had not experienced an event similar to this on 26 January 1788. To my complete shock, you then said “I am not going to listen to this”, stood up and went back into the house. There was another occasion in late 2020 when your behaviour also shocked and surprised me. On the last occasion that I was able to walk with you and Mary at Morialta, we were in the car and nearly at Morialta.  In general conversation I said that I liked the Premiers of New South Wales and Queensland because they did not try and use their gender but simply did the job they were elected to do.  Your immediate response to this was to claim I had said something “sexist” because I would never have said this about a male politician.  I replied that you had been listening to ABC radio too much and you should broaden your range of listening. You then spoke about the troubles of Angela Merkel in Germany and Ursula von der Leyen and the difficulties based upon their gender that they had when they began doing their respective jobs.  For the record, I had never heard of Ursula von der Leyen apart from being vaguely aware she had something to do with the European Union.  I again commented that you had been listening to ABC radio too much.  I also said that what I had said about the Premiers of New South Wales and Queensland was in substance the same as what you had just said about Angela Merkel and Ursula von der Leyen, but that you had “dropped on me from a great height” for saying the same as you. I was extremely upset that someone I treasure as a close friend should accuse me of being “sexist”.  I was about to tell you to stop the car so I could get out, but before I could do this, you realised you had upset me and said you were sorry.  I believe you had no idea why I was upset and that you just felt you needed to defuse an uncomfortable situation. I did not really enjoy the walk that day.  I now feel I should have told you of the impact your behaviour had on me, but I did not do so.

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If I had had a greater knowledge of Woke religious beliefs, I might not have been as surprised and shocked as I was by the events that unfolded after I sent my letter to Anne Ryan. 

It is now nearly 4 years since those events took place so I have become accustomed to the vile behaviour of Anne Ryan and our former friends.  Nevertheless, I still find their behaviour truly shocks me to the very centre of my being.

I assume my certainty that every single human being matters, prevents me from accepting a belief system where no one matters except those who subscribe to the Woke religion.

I find it strange that the Wokists savagely criticise the Catholic Church for burning heretics in past centuries, while not recognising that their own conduct is the same as burning heretics at the stake, but with the sole difference that heretics (like myself) are reluctantly permitted to keep breathing.

In my case though, my ability to keep breathing was savagely diminished.