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wisdom
Magda Szubanski, 46, comedian and actor
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"The last few years have been hard for me; illness in the family, the death of my father and several dear friends. When someone you love dies, not only does your heart break, but in some ways your sense of meaning does too. All the ‘stuff’, all the little stories we tell ourselves, all the comforting clichés, just disintegrate in the face of complete and permanent loss. With no religious belief to shield me I have often been left wondering, ‘What is the point of it all?’
"Lately, I’ve felt the tentative roots of my own form of spirituality slowly beginning to bud. More and more, I realise it is based around finding the ‘good’ people and trying to make some sort of contribution. Sometimes I wonder at the silliness of what I do, putting on wigs and generally behaving like a ‘nong’. But then someone will come up to me in the street and tell me I have made them laugh and helped them through a difficult time in their life. I am beginning to realise perhaps this is not such a silly and pointless thing after all. I'm just trying to do my bit.
"To quote a line from one of my favourite books, Cloud Atlas [by David Mitchell], “Only as you gasp your dying breath shall you understand, your life amounted to no more than one drop in a limitless ocean! Yet what is any ocean but a multitude of drops?” I feel proud to be one of those drops."
Article published September 2007.
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 I’m just trying to do my bit |
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Dispatches from New York
Based in the Big Apple, journalist Rebecca Wallwork writes regularly for madison on topics ranging from celebrity and health, to the latest social trends.
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madison male
Our monthly columnist is your go-to guy on matters of the heart
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The Lipstick Jungle
Contributor Katrina Lawrence takes you behind the scenes of the beauty world
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The Fashion Pack
executive fashion editor Rachel Wayman reports from the frontlines
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