Every so often, some reader of this blog asks me, "Why don't you write a book about your life?", to which I always reply, "I know my limitations". I might be able to write, like Charmian Clift once did, a column for a weekend paper but never a complete book. Anyway, Albert Facey already used the title which would best describe my life, for his own book.
Should I ever feel the urge to put pen to paper, it would be because I wanted to pay homage - and please, don't pronounce it like 'fromage'; that would be on the nose, as it is now an English word - to the many people who have helped me on the way: to my primary school teacher, Herr Sapper, who gave me that special personal reference which helped me overcome my lack of higher education; to the "Bezirksdirektor", Herr Weber, who signed me up for my articles in a profession which was usually reserved for those who had achieved "Abitur"-level after twelve or thirteen years of schooling; to the German-Australian I befriended on board the ship bound for Australia, who suggested I should come to Canberra which ultimately led to my joining the ANZ Bank, thanks to its bank manager, Mr Reid, who took a huge gamble in hiring me fresh off the boat; to the partner in a firm of chartered accountants, Mr Barry Weir, who gave me my big chance in entering a new profession long before I knew what a real balance sheet looked like. And the list goes on and on and on and on ... perhaps I ought to call my book "With a Lot of Help from My Friends", so as not to run foul of the Beatles' legacy.
At a stretch, I could call my book "In the Right Place at the Right Time", because that's how things always seemed to pan out, but I still prefer "A Fortunate Life". If I could use that title, I would also end it with the same sentence, "I have lived a very good life, it has been very rich and full. I have been very fortunate and I am thrilled by it when I look back". All I would do is replace the comma after 'life' with a semicolon.
Go and read Facey's book; it's better than anything I could ever write.
