I often get asked the question - What is my most valuable possession?
This is a difficult question to answer as one needs to separate materialistic and non-materialistic possessions. Obviously, my health and the health of my family members is the most valuable non-materialistic possession; without our health, nothing else really matters! Our physical and mental being cannot be purchased or replaced at the local supermarket -- we only have one body which cannot be replaced (although my friend the plastic surgeon would disagree).
Trying to choose which is my most valuable materialistic possession is a lot more difficult. Is it my car, my beautiful home or my antique camera collection? All of these possessions are replaceable and as they age will probably be replaced; although in the case of my antique camera collection, perhaps enlarged rather than replaced.
My most valued materialistic possession is not any of the above, nor any of the other possessions that clutter my home and office. My most valued possession is a small little blue booklet with the Australian emblem on the front and the following words inside:
“The Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia, being the representative in Australia of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second, requests all those whom it may concern to allow the bearer to pass freely without let or hindrance and to afford him or her every assistance and protection of which he or she may stand in need.”
As you will have by now guessed, the blue booklet to which I refer is my Australian passport. This booklet allows me to travel to many destinations around the world, but most importantly, it allows me to travel back to Australia, and to live here with my fellow Australian mates; it allows me to call myself an Australian of which I am proud; and it allows me to vote in our free and democratic elections.
Oh and yes, it also allows me to support the Wallabies, the Socceroos, the Matildas and our other great Australian sporting teams!
Ozzie, Ozzie, Ozzie Oy, Oy, Oy
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