Reverend Tim Costello, has said that “gambling has been one of the silver linings”
With $1.5 billion saved from going down the throat of poker machines in the six-week lockdown. (Half a billion dollars more has been saved at the casinos, he said.)
In a wide-ranging interview for The Covid Conversation podcast,
Reverend Costello has had pokies addicts tell him how they have “gone cold turkey”, unable to access machines because the pubs and clubs have closed.
Having broken the dark spell upon them, they have told him “they’ll never go back”.
And he has hopes that the break in gambling industry’s revenue flow might open up a serious conversation about reform.
One of Reverend Costello’s many crusades is with The Fathering Project, which aims to “inspire and equip fathers and father-figures to positively engage with the children in their lives”.
Reverend Costello said the shake-up of the state of fatherhood was another COVID-19 silver lining.
“I think a lot of fathers have had a wake-up call as to how much domestic chores and parenting, emotional sustenance and care-giving their wives do,” he said.
He added that many men had woken up to the fact that they’d long used their bread-winning status as an excuse to say, about the running of the house and caring for their children, “not my responsibility”.
He lamented having been such a father himself, noting: “Whether God or evolution got it wrong, why is it that we’re hitting our straps in terms of our careers, when it comes at the time that our kids need us around the most?”
“What we all share is existential angst, having not chosen to be born, and knowing that we will die, what is the point?” Reverend Costello said. “I think … the most profound human longing is to work out the point.
“So does my life matter? Is there some purpose? Where do I find meaning from? I think (asking these questions) is incredibly important for depression-proofing, and drug-proofing and crisis-proofing yourself.”
As part of a discussion of this idea, Reverend Costello mentioned a piece he’d read written by Nick Cave, who talked about the importance of prayer, regardless whether or not people believe in God.
To hear more go to the The Covid Conversation.
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