Welcome to Eureka Street

back to site

Keywords: Mortality

  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Interviewing Peter Steele for America Magazine

    • Jim McDermott
    • 04 July 2012

    About four years ago I had the great pleasure to spend four days with Peter Steele while he was at Georgetown. Hearing that he had died, I went back to those interviews, hours and hours we spent on things like the first time he read Billy Collins, growing up in Perth, unexpected blessings, and the never-ending catalogue of characters and words that fascinated and delighted him. 

    READ MORE
  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Peter Steele's path to something better

    • Michael Kelly
    • 02 July 2012
    10 Comments

    However sunny the greeting, beneath the exterior there lurked in Peter Steele an acute familiarity with the dark side. Nicknamed 'Stainless' early in life, the swashbuckling gait and swaggering style masked all that he knew and felt of life’s grimier parts.

    READ MORE
  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Geriatric sex and dignity

    • Tim Kroenert
    • 29 March 2012
    4 Comments

    The characters' move to India is not merely about stepping outside of comfort zones, but also stepping beyond the familiar in order to examine life in, literally, a new light. Graham has unfinished business there that dates back to his youth. Ageing tomcat Norman simply wants to get laid.

    READ MORE
  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Love with an open hand

    • Various
    • 13 March 2012

    When I'm with you, I take off my rings, unlatch my watch and untie my hair. And it's so quiet, so so quiet, like a film without a soundtrack.

    READ MORE
  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    When cancer is funny

    • Tim Kroenert
    • 07 March 2012
    2 Comments

    We follow 27-year-old Adam from his diagnosis through the hazards of chemo to still more hazardous surgery. He is aided along the way by the world's worst doctor and a therapist too inexperienced to be of any help. Some cancer stories are as funny as they are tragic.

    READ MORE
  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Catholicism at high speed

    • TIm Kroenert
    • 18 August 2011
    5 Comments

    Accused of conflating his Catholic faith with indestructibility, Brazilian Formula One driver Ayrton Senna responds, ominously, that he is ever conscious of his own mortality. His story is a tragedy of the highest order. You don't need to be a racing fan to be deeply affected by it.

    READ MORE
  • AUSTRALIA

    Demystifying famine

    • Ben Coleridge
    • 26 July 2011
    4 Comments

    If one were to believe the news cycle, the current crisis in Somalia would seem to have arisen without warning. But it is part of a pattern we have had plenty of opportunity to observe and recognise. In fact Eastern Africa is historically well acquainted with famine.

    READ MORE
  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Harry Potter's victory over Christian wowsers

    • Tim Kroenert
    • 14 July 2011
    13 Comments

    Harry Potter has been with us for nearly a decade and a half. Contrary to the predictions of some wowsers, the series has not led generations into paganism. Instead they have been exposed to a simple but profound message lifted straight from the gospels.

    READ MORE
  • ENVIRONMENT

    Opportunities on a crowded planet

    • Bruce Duncan
    • 05 July 2011
    14 Comments

    Unless countries are prepared to implement draconian birth-control policies like China's, realistically there is no alternative but to prepare for a world of 9 billion people. But the increase in global population need not provoke a catastrophe.

    READ MORE
  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Last-ditch confession

    • Tim Kroenert
    • 19 May 2011
    2 Comments

    First he built a church, an act of penance and a bribe to God. Next came 40 years in self imposed isolation. Neither act could replace the course he needed to take: to confess and accept responsibility; the only true salve for guilt.

    READ MORE
  • AUSTRALIA

    Philippines bishops' contraception conundrum

    • Fatima Measham
    • 18 May 2011
    30 Comments

    While Catholic bishops in the Philippines have opposed modern forms of birth control, the public paralysis this has engendered over sexual health care has led to high rates of abortion. The Philippine Catholic Church can thus be seen to be at odds with its ministry for the poor.

    READ MORE
  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Gospel bit players

    • Philip Harvey
    • 21 April 2011
    7 Comments

    The conventional homily on the miracle of the lame man focuses on his faith and hope. But Irish poet Seamus Heaney draws attention to the faith, hope and charity of the man's friends, who will go to any trouble to help their mate in his hour of need.

    READ MORE