182. My Eulogy for a Friend & Systems Thinking Legend: Celebrating the 80th birthday of Professor Frank Fisher

Today is a special release ahead of this week’s scheduled episode. It was recorded with a full house of over 400 people in the main theatre at Federation Square in Melbourne, for the memorial service of my late great mate and mentor, and legend in systems thinking – and practice – in this country, Professor Frank Fisher. Mine was a humble opener for a few beautiful eulogies offered on the day.

Today would be, or is, Frank’s 80th birthday. I’ve commemorated the occasion in recent years with episodes featuring fittingly special guests – from the late Hazel Henderson, to the still thriving Allan Savory, Charlie Massy and Paul Hawken. This time, for the big 8-0, I’d been imagining Frank still being here, wondering where our conversations and experiences may have gone over the years. And that took me back to this event, and the best tribute story I could muster at the time. And hard as it was, there did seem to be a bit of magic about.

Head here for automatic cues to chapter markers (also available on the embedded player on the episode web page), and a transcript of this conversation (please note the transcript is AI generated and imperfect, but hopefully serves to provide greater access to these conversations for those who need or like to read).

This was recorded on 15 September 2012, with deep gratitude to friend and film-maker Chris Grose, who gave so much of himself without notice, to film hours of footage of Frank in the months before he died, along with this event.

Title slide: from the back of the room, with Fran Macdonald speaking (credit: Rodney Dekker).

See more photos on the episode web page, and to see more from behind the scenes, become a subscriber via the Patreon page.

Music:
Cycles, by Simon Edwards (composed for the occasion). Simon is also guitarist for the incredible Afrobiotics and Public Opinion Afro Orchestra.

Find more:
You can hear from Frank himself, with legendary ABC broadcaster Robyn Williams, on episode 24, The Wilderness Within.

And in an interview an early podcast listener sent in, from the Serbian program on SBS radio, on episode 5: Thinking & Living in Systems.

The Understandascope, founded in 2005 by Frank with cartoonist and National Living Treasure, Michael Leunig, is now home for the development of Frank’s legacy in collaboration with family, friends and former colleagues.

And the book mentioned by the publisher at the end, was Frank’s anthology: Response Ability: Environment, Health & Ever

Transcript

Anthony: 0:00

I was reading something Frank wrote about a decade or so ago that I hadn't seen. He referred to a book called Metamagical Themas. I hadn't heard of it, thought it looked interesting, but thought nothing more of it. Later that day I was eating dinner at the place where MairiAnne, Frank, myself and a couple of other friends had dined the night he went into hospital for what was to be the last time. Walking home afterwards I passed the Grub Street bookshop. And what book should be in the window? Metamagical Themas indeed.

Anthony: 0:57

G'day Anthony James here for The RegenNarration, sharing a different kind of story with you today, in addition to this week's regular release, which I'll get out in a couple of days. Yes, the voice you heard at the top this time was me, though hearing it back now that voice certainly conveys a younger me and the introvert who remembers too well struggling with being public but also determined not to hide. Then there were the swirling emotions of the moment. This was a full house of over 400 people in the main theatre at Federation Square in Melbourne. For the memorial service of my late great mate and mentor, a legend in systems thinking - and practice - in this country, Professor Frank Fisher. Mine was a humble opener for a few beautiful eulogies offered on the day. Today would be, or is, Frank's 80th birthday. I've commemorated the occasion in recent years with episodes featuring fittingly special guests, from the late Hazel Henderson to the still thriving Allan Savory, Charlie Massy and Paul Hawken. This time, for the big 8-0, I'd been imagining Frank still being here, wondering where our conversations and experiences may have gone over recent years. And that took me back to this event and the best tribute story I could muster at the time. And hard as it was, there did seem to be a bit of magic about. T he music you're hearing, by the way, was composed for the occasion by another great mate and guitarist for the Afrobiotics and the Public Opinion Afro Orchestra, Simon Edwards. It's called Cycles. You'll hear why.

Anthony: 2:53

Deep gratitude also to friend and filmmaker Chris Grose, who gave so much of himself with no notice, to film hours of footage of Frank in the months before he died. Dreams of a documentary film remain. C hris is also the reason why we've got this recording. I hope you enjoy hearing a little about Frank and thanks for listening. SPPECH:"Hi everyone. For those of you who don't know me, my name is Anthony James, a friend of Frank and his family and a colleague at the Understanders' Scope and Swinburne University's National Centre for Sustainability.

Anthony: 3:39

The most difficult public speech I've ever made was speaking on Frank's behalf at the recent Yarra Sustainability Awards. It was just days before he passed and I had just been with him witnessing his suffering at the time. This seems somehow easier now that his suffering is over. Now it's just hours we're left to tend. So here we are. This feels like an important thing to do, maybe for Frank, certainly for us. So I'm really thankful for it, for being able to share it with Frank's family and with you. I find myself feeling sad and flat, though inspired and grateful For him, you, this and everything we shared with Frank. Life seemed so much less without him, but so much more because of him.

Anthony: 4:35

Interestingly, since Frank passed on, I haven't been the only one experiencing some beautifully poetic moments. Right up to earlier this week, I was reading something Frank wrote about a decade or so ago that I hadn't seen. He referred to a book called Meta-Magical Themis. I hadn't heard of it, thought it looked interesting, but thought nothing more of it. Later that day I was eating dinner at the place where Marianne, frank, myself and a couple of other friends had dined. The night he went into hospital for what was to be the last time. Walking home afterwards, I passed the Grub Street bookshop, and what book should be in the window? Meta magical theme, as indeed, thinking about today, I remembered Frank and I speaking earlier this year on the topic of death.

Anthony: 5:31

We spoke about it with a reverence as the ultimate arbiter of all meaning, but not without trepidation as well, for the construction of that meaning takes a tremendous shake up when faced with such loss. The people left behind, as Frank put it, are faced with reconstituting themselves. Of course that was everything he was about. In life in general, not just in death, we are being asked to reconstitute ourselves continuously as we try to become something more sustainable. So here we are, further practising what he hoped to have taught us something about. Of course, life being as it is, I was acutely aware that any one of us could have passed before him and that something of what can inspire us, as it did Frank, to live more meaningful lives. It was beautifully droll and instructive when he said to a recent group of students an all good humour, aside from the crones and cancer, I have had a very good life.

Anthony: 6:40

My first glimpse of this was after knowing him only a few months. It was the first time we shared a bike ride together. This was unprecedented for me. I had been a competitive cyclist, but there I was, scooting around city streets with this bloke in his 50s, an associate professor at that. I said to him at the time Jesus, this is like being in a gang in the burge at 15 again. And he looked at me and said yep, sure is here. We were waiting at the train station, talking about what sustainability meant to each other, and he cited William Blake's line to see a world in the grain of sand. With that he affirmed a deep sense in me that this was a way of liberation and wonder. I later came to understand that this was what the bike represented to him. He wasn't a bike nut as such. For him, in the context of the city, cycling was a way of becoming something more as a person alive in the world, rather than investing our sense of self in high powered machines and exotic journeys. He helped me see that the real riches lay in what Joseph Campbell called the inner reaches of outer space, how we see the world and relate within it. He helped me understand sustainability as an outgrowth of this way, rather than the goal itself, life's wonders come into view in many guises, of course.

Anthony: 8:15

Marianne and Frank were over at our place not long ago. I had some music on that I knew he liked, and he proceeded to tell me of some more I didn't know. And there we were scrolling through Phil Glass, jacques Lucier, bach, dylan and others when he said I've forgotten how much I loved music. So when we gathered here for an event in his honour in June, I teed up a playlist with the music we were listening to that night as we were setting up. He says to me this is Jacques Lucier, you know. To which I said yep, sure is. I got that knowing, appreciative smile that many of us will remember well, and that playlist will be on as we gather afterwards today. For me that music symbolises the deep joy of sharing in the process of bringing to light the wonders in our midst in ways that don't destroy them.

Anthony: 9:11

In one of our last conversations he said if only there was something I could say or do that would demonstrate how much fun it is to participate in life in this way.

Anthony: 9:22

His way was no sacrifice, no heroism, no altruism, all figments of viewing the self as separate from the rest of nature, no invalidity, no material fillers or other high impact distractions, no getaways, no retreats and of course, no perfection, but coherence as close as he could muster to living as he used to put it in and as nature.

Anthony: 9:53

It's tempting to suggest Frank was before his time. Of course we can hope his way may yet find a more common place among us, but in our socially constructed reality to say he was before his time makes no sense. We made him as he made us, and here it continues, nominally without him, but with him, so embedded in who we are becoming, our bodies only take us so far. I hope we can gently carry that awareness with us into this day, that we might be inspired to further liberate ourselves from the material and intellectual binds that Frank spent most of his life trying to help us see reconstituting ourselves towards more meaningful, coherent and metamagical lives. M uch like the sticker that you'd see behind this coat on his bike, as if the bike didn't say it already, live simply so that others may simply live. Thanks. I look forward to seeing you afterwards.

Eva Fabian: 11:05

I thought that this was an important book, but for us we were in publishing it was another book to be done and to be loved and to be honoured. But I knew it was going to be special, and now I realise that this is the only book that was left - that he's ever done, and so I feel really privileged that we've actually made it happen. And a lot of people have come up to me and said that was a really wonderful thing to have done and I'm just so glad that we did it.

Glenda Lindsay: 11:35

I was involved in helping Anthony put the planter boxes on Frank's unused car parking space at the flats where he lived, which I thought was a really fantastic way of showing people a great use of an unused parking space.

James Tonson: 11:53

Hi, my name's James and I just wanted to pay a tribute to Frank today, who's been such an inspiration to me and to many others who, in turn, have inspired me as well. I think of him not just as a mentor, but as a mentor to my mentors, and what stands out to me about him is partly his amazing mind, his great ways of thinking very lateral, very wild, as he would put it but really the way he combines that with his amazing heart, and to me it's very unusual to meet someone of such big mind and big heart and someone who is able to bring those two together. Thank you very much, frank, for all that you've given us, and I hope that we can all do tribute to you by trying to be a little bit more wild and a little bit more present and a little bit more loving in all that we do. Thanks.