Week 28/2025: A week of reflection
Week of 7 July 2025
This post is wholly researched and written by me. I do not use AI in my writing. I will always bring you my stories in my real human voice.
A week of reflection
I had a week off from worrying about hip injuries and hearing devices, though the trial was continuing. It was a good week for reflections, moonrises and theatre.
Strength, vision and legacy
This week is NAIDOC Week, an annual week to celebrate and recognise the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
I attended my workplace’s Yarn on Country, which was a very generous sharing by some of our Aboriginal colleagues about their thoughts on this year’s theme The Next Generation: Strength, Vision & Legacy.
The theme is beautifully represented in the poster Ancestral Lines by Jeremy Morgan Worrall, which shows “the lines and ties that follow a generation and the songs that come with it”.
In talking about their connection to Country, our colleagues spoke especially about the Mountain, Kunanyi, and its importance to Tasmanian Aboriginal people.
And they invited us to reflect on our own strengths, vision and legacy.
One point that really struck a chord with me was a conversion about listening, and how important this is. One of the speakers observed that often people say they’re listening but they’re still going into interactions with biased constructs, which influences what they hear during that interaction.
I think this is a point I need to be mindful of a lot more.
Love and murder
On Saturday I went to the fabulous Playhouse Theatre to see Hobart Rep’s production of A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder. I read somewhere this show was something of a cross between Agatha Christie and Gilbert and Sullivan, and how could anyone fail to be intrigued by that?
Apparently, it’s based on a 1907 novel by Roy Horniman called Israel Rank: The Autobiography of a Criminal, which is also the inspiration for a 1949 movie called Kind Hearts and Coronets, starring Alec Guinness.
The basic story is that, after his mother’s funeral, clerk Monty Navarro learns he is ninth in line to the Earldom of Highhurst. He is, in fact, the “son of the daughter of the grandson of nephew of the second Earl of Highhurst”, a member of the snooty D’Ysquith family, who are unaware of Monty’s existence.
He manages to find himself on a journey to murder all eight of the heirs who stand between him and the earldom, at the same time as he’s juggling the affections of two strong-willed women. The D’Ysquiths all meet their ends in the most unfortunate manner, and some prove to be harder to do away with than others.
As is tradition in this show, the entire doomed D’Ysquith family (it’s pronounced DIE-squith) is portrayed by the same actor, in this case, Ian Williams, who is well-known within the Tasmanian musical community. Among the eight D’Ysquiths are a bee-keeper, a reverend, a terrible actress, and a do-gooder named Hyacinth, along with Lord Asquith D’Ysquith Senior, an elderly banker.
I mean, Asquith D’Ysquith?!
I can’t stop saying it.
Hilarious.
And I can’t get the song “Why Are All the D’Ysquiths Dying?” out of my head.
It was a wonderful show.
Habit tracker
Existing habits
- Go outside first thing (7 days): 6/7
- 15 minutes morning exercise sequence (7 days): 7/7
- Hip exercises (5 days): 7/5
- Walk (7 days): 6/7
- Walk 8,000 steps (7 days): 5/7
- 9.00 shutdown & dim lights (6 days): 1/6
- Evening routine (6 days): 3/6
New habits
- Fill water bottle in the morning (4 days): 4/4
- Carry a notebook with me when I walk (6 days): 4/6
- Mid-day journalling (7 days): 4/7
- Thinking time (4 days): 4/4
- Read aloud (7 days): 7/7
Summary of the week
Some positive things
- Working at home
- I got my final result for my English class at uni. I got a high distinction. This is great!
What did I learn this week?
I was listening to a live version of the They Might Be Giants song ‘James K Polk’, which is about the 11th President of the USA. There’s a line in there which I had always misheard. I thought it was “From Nashville came a dark horse riding up. He was James K Polk, the voyeur of the stars” (whatever that might mean).
The actual line is:
He was James K. Polk, Napoleon of the Stump.
So what does that mean, I wondered?
Napoleon of the Stump
Turns out, part of the clue is in the line “his oratory filled his foes with fears”. According to the the Tennessee State Museum, Polk was sometimes known as ‘Napoleon of the Stump’ due to his short stature and his powerful speaking abilities, both of which are attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte.
The ‘stump’ bit relates to the way politicians would deliver ‘stump speeches’ while running for office. Candidates would stand on an actual tree stump while giving their speeches, presumably because these are solid, elevated platforms to stand on, and there were a lot of them around the countryside at that time.
Interesting.
JKP was also known as ‘Young Hickory’, which is also referred to in the song. This is said to be because of his friendship with former President Andrew Jackson. Jackson’s nickname was ‘Old Hickory’, which his troops in the War of 1812 gave him, due to his determination and strength in returning them home after they’d been dismissed by the War Department. This they compared to the strength of an old hickory tree.
A diversion.
Polk’s short stature also got me intrigued, and I looked this up too.
Turns out JKP wasn’t particularly short for a man of the period. He was 5’8”, a whole four inches taller than the shortest president James Madison (President 4) and six inches shorter than Abraham Lincoln (President 16). So he was one of the shorter presidents. However, he was president from 1845-1849 and a quick internet search suggests that the average height of American males in the Civil War (1861-1865) was 5’7” suggesting he was around the average height for the time.
The other Napoleon
Speaking of leaders of average height, Napoleon Bonaparte’s short stature is also legendary, but is it true? Britannica tells us that Napoleon’s height was recorded as 5’2” but this was in the French scale, where an inch is longer than today’s inch (let’s not go there), which means he was probably around 5’6” or 5’7”. This was average for the time he lived. The belief that he was short possibly stemmed from caricatures by cartoonist James Gillray, whose ‘Little Boney’ character was a tantrum-throwing brat.
And so the legend lives.
What did I notice this week?
Beautiful light over Kunanyi.
The full moon.
It’s what made me walk to the beach after work on Friday.
What was the best thing this week?
Going to the theatre.
What am I reading this week?
- Into the Woods by John Yorke
- What is Poetry? by Michael Rosen
- Year of Wonder by Karen Brooks
- Twelfth Night by Shakespeare
What am I watching this week?
- Masterchef Australia
- Resident Alien
- Bay of Fires
- A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder (Hobart Repertory Theatre Society)
- Doctor Who: The Visitation
What am I listening to this week?
- They Might Be Giants 2024 Instant Fan Club collection
- Spacemakers Season 3 podcast
- Spacemakers Season 1 podcast
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