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Keywords: Mortality

  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Here we are now, entertain us

    • Barry Gittins
    • 01 May 2024

    The raw power of ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ blasted Nirvana past the mainstream and into the realm of music immortality. So what was it about Cobain’s music that resonated with young people in the early 90s and continues to find vast audiences 30 years later?

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  • AUSTRALIA

    The Easter immortality project

    • Justine Toh
    • 27 March 2024
    2 Comments

     As the world grapples with the promise and perils of technological advancement, billionaire Bryan Johnson's quest for eternal life underscores a broader societal fascination with defying death. Can science truly outpace the inevitability of mortality? 

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    What is the good life?

    • Barry Gittins
    • 24 May 2023
    2 Comments

    The Personal Wellbeing Index in Australia points to an all-time low in life satisfaction, particularly among young people. Could it be that the path to living well lies not in grand pursuits of wealth and fame but in the smaller, modest moments of joy, peace, love, and hope? 

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Near life experiences

    • Barry Gittins
    • 18 April 2023

    Near-death experiences can serve as stark reminders of the fragility of life, prompting us to cherish the moments that transcend routine and monotony. Whether it's the wit of a child, the intimacy with a partner, or the tranquility of nature, these moments awaken us to the gift of life. 

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  • RELIGION

    Thereafter

    • Bill Uren
    • 13 April 2023
    15 Comments

    In a world where we are constantly faced with life's fragility, it's no wonder that we find ourselves wondering what lies beyond. Is it the bright promise of immortality, or the endless cycle of birth, life, death, and rebirth? Or perhaps nothingness? When contemplating the 'thereafter,' what can we hope for?

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  • RELIGION

    From dust to life

    • Simon Smart
    • 04 April 2023
    3 Comments

    In a culture that shies away from ageing and death, the annual ritual of Ash Wednesday is a sobering reminder of our vulnerability and mortality. However, it also invites us to reflect on our failures and fallibility, and to recognize that life is not all about us, but about how we relate to others and contribute to their betterment. 

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    The Fall of Man

    • Barry Gittins
    • 02 March 2023
    1 Comment

    Autumn's arrival may bring with it uneasy visions of creeping mortality. With younger and keener generations marching on, the impetus for older generations is to share the wisdom we've gathered and remind ourselves we're still breathing, still contributing, and still sound of limb and mind.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Intimations of immortality

    • Gillian Bouras
    • 06 December 2022
    8 Comments

    The child, Wordsworth thought, is able to witness the divine in nature, but gradually this ability fades. Whereas once everything seemed apparelled in celestial light/ the glory and the freshness of a dream, four stanzas end with the questions Whither is fled the visionary gleam? Where is it now, the glory and the dream? We know this development happens to us all.

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  • RELIGION

    Facing the final innings

    • Joel Hodge
    • 17 March 2022
    21 Comments

    While we have been (barely) coping with a pandemic and natural disasters, the death of a larger-than-life figure like Shane Warne — an ordinary-bloke-cum-sporting-legend, an ever-present companion to Australian audiences, and seemly untouchable — has really brought home the fragility of life. It has drastically reminded us of our mortality: that we don’t live forever.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Coming soon or late

    • Gillian Bouras
    • 14 February 2020
    13 Comments

    That’s it. People in mid-life fear death for many reasons, but disappointment must be one of them, for there are always so many things to do, so much in the world to see and to experience, a whole host of people to get to know, various ambitions to be realised, a great number of projects to be finished.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Clive James' poetry of memento mori

    • Philip Harvey
    • 29 November 2019
    12 Comments

    Obituarists sharpened their quills in 2014 when word had it the death of Clive James was imminent. Since then we have witnessed a late flowering of poetry, reviews and articles tinged with mortality that revealed to the last his Twainian flair for journalistic self-promotion, albeit in the internet age. Now the quills are out in earnest.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Singapore punishes women for living longer

    • Sangeetha Thanapal
    • 07 August 2018
    2 Comments

    Singapore has one of the world's lowest mortality rates, with a general life expectancy of above 80. Singapore's women outlive men by about five years, making the country second in the world for how long its women live. It seems the Singapore state has decided to punish women for it.

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