I've always worried that Australians are becoming more and more like battery hens. This article proves it. It is absolutely pathetic. Miserable and sooky. It may be real, but that's why it's as pathetic as the poor battery hens. These people and the pathetically focussed author need a change of life fast. Better they be shipwrecked on an island than continue as they are. And the same with those following them. I am so very very sad for you. Please take a good focus on divine existence, lift your head, take practical measures and shine.

Deboxit 55

Men suffer from lack of time with one another. In Greek vilages men sit in the sun, hold hands, talk and drink coffee and wine.

Our social isolation, sprawling suburbs and loss of the village is killing men. They become isolated and depressed. Women spend a lot more time networking.

Work has its own rewards but it also restricts social interaction. Men are also more like lone wolves and don't cluster together as readily in our society. However I make time now to have breakfast with friends, to look after myself mentally and physically, and to give myself treats and not just my family. We need to laugh and cry more too.Men need to love themselves more.

I can speak out now in meetings and in the media where once I would have been afraid. I can sit alone in a restaurant anywhere in the world and enjoy myself even if my wife is not with me. We have to find peace within and also be able to realise that contentment does not come from a partner primarily. There is another dimension. Appreciation of the present tense is essential. Laugh at yourself more in the mirror.

Life is an Odyssey...a climb up a mountain with fresh vistas at each turn....a charting of unknown seas. I would not be 20 again. It is a restless insecure age. I enjoy the adventure as I sail the wine-dark sea. I am also fortunate to have found my Penelope and my Ithaca.

Thou speaks wisdom Odysseus, every house in Australian should come with a mandatory shed in back yard. The nest is the nest, the shed is our shed.

Thank you, Sire.

The Odyssey shows that Homer knew that contentment comes from the hearth and not from the glories of the battlefield of Ilium. Many men prefer the distractions of battle and neglect their Ithaca at their very peril. When the cat's away...

War is at the very heart of our malaise...war by men against men, and war against our souls...while girls and women watch from the battlements in bewilderment.

However women now seek the same folly because they are now liberated to enter the world of men...but that is another story in itself...viz. the article here on domestic violence.

Today Odysseus would have been arrested for domestic violence and homicide for killing his wife's rowdy suitors despoiling his home and herds, and seeking his wife's hand in marriage. There would have been no happy ending...no dénouement..just a third book about a court case...Homer's sequel to the Odyssey.

Men are no longer lord of their own domain or their own property. If one comes home and the locks have been changed by one's wife...one has been evicted from one's castle without redress. Hence the plight of modern man.