The PR Blog

As a kid, there was no room for sooks or cry babies. We played in the mud, we dropped food on the floor and picked it up and ate it. And, if we got hurt, our mother would shove some iodine on it, tell us to stop our moaning and go outside to play.

I remember when I was told, when having a tantrum or a hissy fit “ if you want to cry, I’ll give you something to cry about. “

We weren’t tougher back then. We just weren’t allowed to get away with shit.

Here in Australia we don’t give much heed to what happens across the Tasman and mostly thoughts about the NZ in ANZAC come as an afterthought. Not that there is any malice in that. It’s simply a case of we never think about it. NZ is a tiny country compared to ourselves but they do have a habit of punching way above their weight. Of all of the allied nations in WW1 and WW2, NZ would be the flyweight if one thinks of sheer absolute numbers. The biggest contributor to WW2 was Russia by a large margin, then the USA, Britain, Canada and Australia.

If you look at it another way, in terms of giving most of what you have to give,as a proportion of their available manpower of military age, NZ was the biggest contributor to WW1 and second biggest to WW2.

In 2017, Sonya Carson passed away aged 88. She was the mother of Dr Ben Carson, world-renowned neurosurgeon , writer, politician and man of faith. 

As Dr Carson said at the time of her death:

“All that I am is because of the love of my mother. She was one of God’s greatest blessings to me, and it was her foresight and discernment that pushed me to reach my dreams.”

So here is a story about a true America hero. Sonya Carson. Oh, and her son, Ben.

When I feel sick or down in the dumps, I try and distract myself with something that is uplifting and cheerful  As William Shakespeare said so eloquently in " The Tempest " Misery makes strange bedfellows. " 

My old Gran used to tell me that misery loves company - in other words, don't feel sorry for yourself or you will end up surrounded by people and thoughts who make you feel even worse.

And so it does. If you feel miserable, it is often tempting to wallow in self pity and surround yourself with those who feel as shitty as you do. But often, you can find yourself in the company of people or thoughts that are in themselves the opposite to your frame of mind or circumstance. 

" Alas, the storm is come again! my best way is to creep under his gaberdine; there is no other shelter hereabouts: misery acquaints a man with strange bed-fellows. I will here shroud till the dregs of the storm be past. "

And so I turned my mind to something, somewhere , someone who could distract me until the storm passes and I feel more human again. I needed to seek the company of positivity when I am so tempted to feel downright miserable. 

And I came up with just the right tonic.

Ming The Merciless was a nick name given to one of our most outstanding Australian military commanders of WW2.

His name was Lieutenant-General Sir Leslie Morshead. He was the Commanding Officer of the 9^th Division of the 2^nd AIF, Commander of the garrison of Tobruk during its period under siege from April to December, 1941, the chief Rat of Tobruk one might say, and still in command when the 9^th got around the German defences to break the deadlock in the Battle of El Alamein in October, 1942.

He has been rightly described as “The Hero of Tobruk and Alamein”

His greatest achievements were against the German General Erwin Rommel, known as The Desert Fox but Morshead outfoxed him at every throw of the dice.