Fears and Phobias

I'm no stranger to mixing with dangerous and toxic critters.

It was a daily occurrence during my fourteen years in politics, and that was just the other politicians.

Add in a batch of pushy lobbyists, some feral leftists, the mercenary media pack and a few punchy members of the public, and there was danger around every corner.

Not that I'd change any of it. In fact, I loved every minute, even the bad times.

You see, the bad times never seem as bad when they become memories.

What may have been a disaster at one time or another becomes just another saga of survival when you are out the other end.

It's the same with many things in our lives.

I'm sure all of us with children can look back at some of their misdeeds and now see it wasn't as bad as we first thought.

I remember telling one of our boys off for some particularly unwelcome behaviour while hiding my inner hypocrisy and suppressing all laughter.

You see, I'd done the very same thing when I was his age. And yes, it was wrong for both of us, but I understood the forces within that resulted in the behaviour.

That actually happened more than once, and now we are all adults; we swap childhood stories like trading cards to see who got away with what and when.

On some occasions, it becomes three generations of Bernardi men channelling similar childhood memories.