NEW DIRECTION

⚪️🔴🟠🟡🟢🔵🟣⚫️ NEW DIRECTION Ed. No. 146 - STOP & LOOK BEFORE LEAPING

The Old and the New [Detail] (1986)
Artist: Neville Williams
©️Arts Law Australia
Size: 100cm W x 130cm H
Medium: Mixed Media and Collage on particle board, box framed
The original artwork no longer exists.

This artwork was selected for exhibition
in the 1986 Sydney Morning Herald Art Prize.

To read a commentary on this artwork
and to see more of this artist’s work go to:-
NevilleWilliamsArt

STOP & LOOK before LEAPING

When things are difficult and we are pushed to our limits there can be a tendency to go off half cocked. Deep down we know this only leads to more discontent and disconnect.

In the heat of the moment it's better to go and treat yourself to a walk... perhaps a coffee.

Don't self sabotage. Step away.

We all think we're right.

But it's all a matter of perspective.

What I've usually found is the more people think they are right the more they are wrong.

Humans are a stubborn lot.

When it is all boiled down the unbendable self righteous are pretty unpleasant withered people. In fact the unmovable are boring people who contribute very little to their own betterment for starters let alone anything or anyone else.

Our opinions don't really matter in the long run.

You're not as important as you think you are.

Not even a fly speck in the history of the Universe. Ha!
Most of us are totally forgotten within a few generations of our passing.

If you know you're OK then it doesn't matter really. Life is too short.

We need to get on with living it.

Talk about living it... at my Mother's Aged Care home there is a lady who will be 90 years old this month and wow does that lady get out and live. She has a heart condition too. But that doesn't stop her. What a party girl. She has strong and passionate opinions too but also is prepared to take a step back and consider the other person's view. A fine quality to have.

It makes her likeable even with her strong views.

A little humility and levity surely goes a looooong way more so when it is particularly dark.

I note that my picture (detail above) doesn't have much levity unless you take in the whole canvas (HERE). Neville

⬇️ MEDIA LETTER

Maybe I should listen more to my own advice

about stopping and looking before leaping?

My letter following perhaps contains too much anger.

We just become part of the problem if you add anger.

Though I note in Chris Edye's published Herald Letter Dec. 5, 2025

responding to the same previous day's article he says...

"What a mean-spirited, small-minded mob of whingers we are."

Do comments like this (or in my letter here) help or hinder

even though true?

I believe I do have something to contribute.

But then don't we all believe that our opinions count?

We've even forgotten what making a contribution or seeing a bigger picture means. Lost, lost, lost. - N.

From: Neville Williams
Subject: SEEING THE BLINDNESS
Date: 4 December 2025 at 8:46:56 am AEDT
To: The Editor THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

Dear Editor,

SEEING THE BLINDNESS

Oh please! We become more ludicrous by the day.
(“Wells refuses to explain $190k New York trip” Herald News Dec. 4)

If Anika Wells appearance at the UN even influenced another single country to introduce under 16 restrictions to the looney bin social media networks then $190,000 was a good investment in a saner future.

The Minister shouldn’t have to explain anything. Rather the rabble rousers need to look in the mirror at their own motivations. Pathetic losers that they are.

The complainers bleating in our time is falling on deaf ears. Unless you have something real and creative to contribute the best thing to do is to keep one’s mouth shut.

Some peoples need for validation has reached the desperate when they have to diminish an action that is about making a better world.

Complainers are blind to their own ignorance.

*Kind regards, Neville Williams