Month: February 2022

This piece provides lifestyle advice for Gen-Zers, people born between 1995 and 2009. It includes advice on some matters likely to have been beyond Polonius’ ken, such as internet usage and how to deal with alternative facts.

A few weeks ago we had special guests for dinner. Ella took the opportunity to encourage two of the others – her adult grandchildren – to be guided by the advice Polonius gave his son Laertes (Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 3). In sum, Polonius’ advice was that Laertes should be balanced, smart, and honest; neither a borrower nor a lender; and, above all, true to himself.

The two young women – both Generation Z-ers or ‘Digital Natives’ – felt that Polonius’ advice lacks some 21st-century currency.

Accordingly, I have updated Polonius’s speech in both content and style. The scope of the new advice includes topics dealt with in Polonius’ original, with the addition of advice on matters that were beyond his ken, such as internet usage. I await the verdict of the two granddaughters as to whether this revised version has more contemporary relevance.

Going to uni? Well that will be nice.

Please let me give you a little advice.

Think before speaking; be slightly reserved –

Slave to one’s impulse is never well served.

After your work is well balanced with life,

No mind to old roles like ‘husband’ and ‘wife’.

Fancy a partner (the oyster’s unfurled?) –

Select any you like from across the wide world.

Choose where to work, it really won’t matter,

Unless you’ve a foot on the property ladder!

Value your real friends and keep them quite close;

But don’t be too open with many of those

New to your circle. Argue with contacts

With a clarity that’s based on plain facts

If it’s important – for why waste your time

On argumentation not worth a dime?

Digital natives (or ‘zoomers’) take heed:

Hypercognition’s not all you will need.

Sleep deprivation’s a real thing for you;

Widespread depression – it’s sad but it’s true.

Subject to allergies, poor mental health,

Good education the key to your wealth.

Love for your fam’ly is what you do best

Honest and loyal when put to the test.

Fall out with people may bring you no loss

In enemy form. But some to your cost.

Be a good list’ner; speak rarely, be kind;

Don’t try to hide what is true to your mind.

Critics will sometimes get right up your nose.

Credit broad meaning from any of those

Who contradict freely – want to take sides  –

Argue unceasingly black is now white,

Will take a position right back to taws

Believing their facts are better than yours.

Sometimes let contrary points be unmet

If outcome’s benign – no harm from it yet.

Try to retain your good reasons for views;

Straw man’s absurdity try not to use.[2]

Take many selfies; and stream Taylor Swift;

Three hours on the phone – and more if a rift.

Less  drinking, less sex: you’re quite risk averse:

With voice-command apps instead of a nurse?

Sleep with your mobile – use YouTube and text;

Worried when one of your Friends becomes sext.

(A picture it’s said’s worth one thousand words

But life with just Gifs would be surely absurd.)

If you wear flashy clothes – even French in design –

You won’t please good people: show them your mind.

Try not to mix any business with pleasure;

Spend as you can but in sensible measure.

If needing a loan a co-op is best

For banks are not loved – let their lending lie rest.

Key to it all – take this message away:

It’s absolute truth should always hold sway.

gg 25 Feb 2022

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[1] ^{Generation Z consists of those born between 1995 and 2009. The name is a reference to the fact that it is the second generation after Generation X, continuing the alphabetical sequence from Generation Y (Millennials). Other proposed names for the generation include iGeneration, Homeland Generation, Net Gen, Digital Natives, Neo-Digital Natives, Pluralist Generation, Internet Generation, Centennials, and Post-Millennials. The term Internet Generation is in reference to the fact that they are the first to have been born after the mass-adoption of the Internet.}

[2] ^{I am grateful to Allyne for this, attributed to Voltaire (1765): “Certainement qui est en droit de vous rendre absurde, est en droit de vous rendre injuste.” Translations include: “Certainly anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit injustices.”}

Don Beer’s family said all the right things about Don in the funeral director’s small chapel in North Canberra where they farewelled him. He was patient, generous and understanding with those with whom he came into contact. He was an accomplished scholar who taught modern history to University of New England students from 1964 to 1998.

In his later days Don researched and wrote a history of the National Botanic Gardens in Canberra.

Miracle on Black Mountain – A History of the Australian National Botanic Gardens, was a very substantial ‘retirement achievement’. It should inspire (or shame!) all of us who fail to undertake successful projects after a standard ‘working life’. Don came to love the botanic Gardens as a volunteer and researcher after he and Ella had moved from Armidale to Canberra. Miracle on Black Mountain is highly regarded; it covers the period from the very first days of Canberra to the present.[1]

During the earlier years in Armidale with them, their place at 24 Curtis Street had been a second home for us. Don was witty and learned in a crafty under-stated or modest fashion. He was a wonderful companion to Ella and a terrific grandad.

The portrait of him mounted in the corner of the chapel during the ceremony saw him beaming down on us and caught him beautifully with his grey eyebrows and confident, knowing grin. (Given his wishes for a send-off that was modest in every way, it’s not certain that he would have used the word ‘ceremony’, given its suggestion of formality, ritual and symbolism. ‘Service’ would have been worse, with its religious connotations. He would have known the best word.)

The word or characteristic I would add to those selected by his family in their tributes is ‘class’. Don was a class act in terms of the way he went about his business, whether his professional teaching and writing, his performances at bridge and with a cryptic crossword, or as a carer who actively extended his gentle concern to others around him, especially those less fortunate.

Ella, Gill, Joe, Tom, Josh and his Canberra granddaughters did a fine job in their contributions to the event in the chapel. They performed with class and distinction that reflected well on Don. It was unfortunate that Tom and Jenny and their children were unable to attend in person due to the constraints caused by the pandemic. The event was streamed and I hope Tom and family felt a close part of it.

Tom mentioned his dad’s prowess on the squash court. Many of my personal memories of time with Don are from the hockey and cricket fields. In these pursuits as others Don was a class act. That’s not to say that he was always the best on the field, but he respected the essence of the game and those with and against whom he played. He may not have stopped the ball on a sixpence like Vern Turner, or accelerated past a defender like Keith Ellis. But he knew the game, fitted into the team whatever was expected of him, and knew the value of physical balance and aesthetic style.

In his sport as in other aspects of his life, Don displayed grace. Which is what he now deserves, given his passing.

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[1] ^{The book is available from the Botanical Bookshop at the ANBG.}