A few months ago, I watched a tv show about German Jews leaving Israel and returning to Berlin. To live. Most were 3rd generation Israeli citizens. It was a most uplifting story.

During December, I enjoyed having signed up to the TED Talks “31 Days of Ideas.” Each day, a different idea would arrive in my inbox – notes about why this talk was chosen, and a link to the talk. The last talk, on 31st December, was this one: Poetry, Music and Identity.

Looking back over the past 10 days since Donald Trump won the US elections, the topic has rarely been out of reach. As usual after such a significant event in our human story, many people are jumping in to analyse what happened and what it means for the future. I’ve been listening, and beneath the fuss and upset I have heard this…

One recent hot weekend in Perth, when the cool indoors called, I made my way through a pile of newspaper articles dating back to 1997. The first article was dated 20th December 1997 and called “Last Anzac fought for family values.” It told of the death of Ted Matthews a few weeks earlier. At 101 he was the last original Anzac. The journalist interviewed his daughter, Irene Phillips, about him.

“The Book Thief” – surviving the holocaust with hope intact.