July 1967 School Magazine

Brisbane Girls' Gramma: School Magazine

July, 1967

July, 7967

Brisbane Girls' Grammar School Magazine

..THEY'' It vras January, \966, a Friday, the last Friday of the holidays' A southerly -swell had been coming up for three days now, follow- ing the pattern after the totrential rain last rveekend. It was pnthi.tg up eight to ten foot vraves off the point .at Schnapper, ivhich the early morning sur{er v'ould have caught but which was now moving across the Bay and rolling off the point at Greenmount. After positioning, Fred Nurk lay for perhaps two minutes contemplating his wipetout. The third to be exact! He had done evetything right, what had made him wipe after reaching the bottom and pulling to turn? "Nurk, pull yourself togeth-er!" he said out loud, then r.gretted it as another surfer paddling by gave him a look as if to say "\7hat sort of a nut talks to himielf like that?" Fted was paddling out to the lineup now and as his board slid through the vrater he told himself he didn't c:are if the guy thought he was silly, what did he know about it anyway? Tbey ptobably weren't going to gel' him! He sat across his board and rvatched the svrells coming off the point. It vras a clear sunny day and the steady movement as his toard rose and descended made him feel more relaxed and comfortable. He began to think back. Back to the early sixties -when he had b.en ^ scrawny teenager dragging a battered sixteen footer down to the surf. ihere hadn't been many boatdriders about thsl-1h6ss early days of balsa boatds, peroxided hait, and loud red baggies-loti of waves for everyone. A11 those days when he had*skipped school when he knew the surf was really good' Yeah, they had been good times . . vreekend safaris to Bog- gingar and Byton where you would have been lucky to see a Cozen surfets. Now look at them! Fred was about to reassure himself there vrould be lots morc days of surf for him-after all he was- only twenty-then his sqile ttrined to a worried frown that they might get him. This ghastly thought jogged his wandering mind back to the present and i"rt i" time, as the first wave of the approaching 1et wavered at il'r. top reaiy to spill its forceful load of gallons of watet-down, trred paddled furiously and just managed to push his board-through the too. He was t"f. . . . for the time being at least. He took a quick look outside and saw a huge wave approaching. . ..4' puidl.d quickly into the take-off position, noting rvith delight

AND WHAT OF YOUR LEGACY ? He slept, and vzhile sleeping a vision of cedar scent forests in sadness and peace came. The vision took form, he conceived a figute of tender, sad features. It wept sorrow, pain, pity- tears of angelic emotions. Tears sank deep to his heart and he woke. This hermit, this seeker of truth and shunner of mankind would search {or that forest, that grotto, that cedar, and create a Passion, His Passion in wood. He saw in its hardness durability of Christ Strength; he felt in its grain tenderness of Christ Child and he thought of the blood stains. Feeble, mystic fingers pulsating gently as if to a rhythr-n of sighing and moaning. Infused with the life his hands gave it, the statue stood finished. Sadness it seemed-all sadness. \Tretched and tortured and emaciated but 1o, in His eyes (they seemed really His eyes ) moved soul. Two souls as the symbol of life s1s11al-seul of creator and Creator's Creator. They gleamed mutely and promised Paradise to all who searched humbly and wholly. Poor eyes - you seem doomed to see your own soul's death. Vill they cast you to the cobwebs in dusty corners?- will your soul's reality be denied? You are questioned you know. You are torn by the ignorance of the educated to a lowly intellec- tually conceivable position and if in this position you are un- explanable, if logically you do not exist, what then? Yes! - You vrill die! -K. DENMAN, VC, Gibs:n.

THUNDE,R AND LIGHTNING

What is it that I hear at night, lYhat is it tbat I know by sieht, 'Vbat is it that will roll and nrmble, Vhat is it tbat will lall and tunrble,

Yes tbunder and liehtning througb night and day, This is wbat I heard and saw as I lay in the hay.

Form 2C, Lilley.

-E. CZARKOWSKI,

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