[ I have not been blogging about every movie I see, and that will continue to be the case.  There are many movies I see where there is nothing I want to say (here). ]

Australia was better than I expected, and there are two relevant points I want to discuss:

1) “Stories”  —  This is one of those concepts that I hadn’t really thought much about, but then it started coming at me from many different angles.  There must be a reason when something like this happens!  The concept of “story” first came at me while reading Leading With a Limp.  There Allender makes the case that as leader of an organization, you must have stories to tell.  Stories that give you identity, branding…  Stories that tell where you have come from, who you are, and where you are going.  That is how you rally both insiders and outsiders around the purpose and cause of your organization.   The topic was only lightly touched on in the movie, but it surrounded the “stories” of the people involved, especially the aboriginals.

2) Of course any story about aborginal people of Australia would not be complete without a Walkabout, where a young boy becomes a man.  And this is another of those concepts that keeps coming at me from different angles.  This old Art of Manliness post says it much better than I can, so do take the time to read that in-depth post.  Here I will just say that our American culture is really lacking in this area.  There is no rite-of-passage for boys to become men in America, other than some sub cultures such as the Jewish Bar Mitzvah.  Some might argue that going to college is a rite of passage, but I think it is important to do it at a younger age for various reasons, perhaps the most important being that sending off a boy to college can be a dangerous thing to do — hopefully he will already be a man capable of handling the academic and social pressures that entails.  Somehow I want to work some kind of rite of passage into my son’s life.  I just don’t know how yet.  Luckily I have a few years since he is only three!