We visited one of my father's cousins in Canberra. He had been a successful barrister, involved with the War Crimes trials in Japan, and had worked for the Government in various roles.
This cousin persuaded my parents that education was the key for the children's future. My elder brother was just about to start high school, and it was realised that in Canberra, unlike Mackay, most of the students were 'expected' to go to University.
My mother was always interested in education and learning, although circumstances had prevented her from attaining her potential (as was the case for many of her generation – particularly women). So this component of the argument was sufficient to persuade them to move to Canberra; with the bonus that my mother's Land Army girls friends from WWII years had married and both lived at Batlow, only three hours 'drive away.
Our relative was active in the Repertory Theatre, both acting and writing for the stage. He was also an established part of the (then) very small Canberra society, and used to hold cocktail parties that were frequented by and senior public servants as well as professionals, and by several politicians who could – in those days - go out and about visiting friends without being shadowed by security men as they are today.
As we grew a bit older, my brother and I were occasionally assigned tasks as official party 'servers'. If only we had realised whom we were meeting at those parties!
All this leads me to a Women's Weekly magazine I found in the family archive recently, dated 3rd January 1968, which had a photograph of the Prime Minister, Harold Holt, who had disappeared two weeks' earlier during a regular swim at his holiday house at Portsea (Victoria). His body was never found.
Harold Holt and our Canberra cousin had been very close friends, and my brother and I had probably met him more than once at the cocktail parties at which we were 'servers'.
Many families have these 'brushes with fame' without realising the importance of the people they meet. Another acquaintance remembers that a party was held at her parents' house after an important RSL meeting to honour the guest speaker, who had been John Gorton – later to become Prime Minister after Harold Hold had died. At that time she was about thirteen years old, and she remembers this important guest sitting down and talking to her about working hard and following her ambitions in life.
Unlike these stories from myself with Harold Holt and my friend's acquaintance with John Gorton, Jesus did sometimes tell people who he was when he met them in casual or unexpected circumstances. The story about meeting the woman at the well, who was someone of possible ill repute is an example (John 4:10-14).
This is a double-edged story, as many of Jesus' stories are. Firstly, the Samarian woman was surprised that this 'unknown Jew' would even ask her for water, as Samarians and Jews had been enemies for generations. So she gave Jesus a drink. He then revealed who he was, and told her he could give her 'living water', and she was able to spread the word of his coming.
Unlike the 'brushes with fame' that we do not realise are important at the time, we can all accept the 'living water' from the presence of Jesus in our lives.