Updated May 05, 2017 10:52:26 <\/p>\n
She walks the corridors of power, but Lee Rhiannon's focus is the green spaces she glimpses through the windows. <\/p>\n
The Greens senator from NSW still reads botany books in bed and keeps a list of the species of birds she spots from within the walls of Parliament House (she's just reached double figures). <\/p>\n
For her, the fascination with the natural world has a spiritual dimension. <\/p>\n
Rhiannon is a firm atheist her parents were atheists and told her school she wouldn't be going to religious classes. <\/p>\n
But she says she has a strong sense of wonder at nature and believes in \"non-god-centred spirituality\". <\/p>\n
\"I really want to use the word 'spirituality' carefully, because for a lot of people it does mean spirits, like things out there,\" she says. <\/p>\n
\"I don't see the world at all like that. <\/p>\n
\"I find it hard to find the right language but particularly for my love of the environment, my fascination with people, you do feel a deep connection, you do feel these extraordinary bonds.\" <\/p>\n
But she says she learnt to respect other people's beliefs from her parents. <\/p>\n
\"I grew up in what I suppose these days might be an activist household.\" <\/p>\n
Senator Rhiannon and her parents would discuss the state of the world around the dinner table. <\/p>\n
Even years later, when her father was suffering Alzheimer's, her complaints about the local pool brought him a moment of clarity. <\/p>\n
\"All of a sudden he said to us, clear as a bell, 'And what are you doing about it?',\" she says. <\/p>\n
\"It was sad in one way, but it made me laugh as well because it was like all his brain cells or whatever goes on in your mind all lined up. <\/p>\n
\"And that was like how I grew up.\" <\/p>\n
Rhiannon's parents campaigned on issues such as Aboriginal rights, the Vietnam War, anti-Apartheid and women's rights. <\/p>\n
But during her political career, the focus has often been on the fact they were Communists. <\/p>\n
She says it reminds her of McCarthyism. <\/p>\n
\"Some of the things that go on these days do actually remind me of the Cold War that I grew up in, where people throw around names, throw around slogans, and they don't actually look at what people did,\" she says. <\/p>\n
\"I've seen my parents vilified, but that doesn't mean they did bad things.\" <\/p>\n
Senator Rhiannon travelled to Russia with her then-partner in the 1970s and studied political economy, philosophy and Marxist philosophy. <\/p>\n
She said it was an enlightening time experiencing life under Brezhnev. <\/p>\n
\"We were in the middle of the Cold War, remember,\" she says. <\/p>\n
\"And this is a country that's been invaded so many times and that rigidity, in terms of how they interact with their own people and the world, I think is explained by that. <\/p>\n
\"It was a rigidity I found I could understand, but I was pleased I lived in Australia.\" <\/p>\n
She says she's learnt over time not to be too trusting of the media. <\/p>\n
One example of that was the reporting over the years on the reasons for her chosen surname. <\/p>\n
She decided on \"Rhiannon\" with the help of friends, as an alternative to returning to her maiden name. <\/p>\n
But somewhere along the line various reports emerged it was based on the Fleetwood Mac song, or styled after a Celtic goddess of wetlands. <\/p>\n
\"None of them are true,\" she says. <\/p>\n
\"My friends were very helpful and I wanted to change my name.\" <\/p>\n
Despite the frustrations, she says politics has brought a \"richness\" to her life and a sense of hope. <\/p>\n
\"When I was growing up, I never thought the Vietnam War would end, I never thought Apartheid would end,\" she says. <\/p>\n
\"When I talk to people these days who often feel quite hopeless about whatever their campaign is, I give those examples. <\/p>\n
\"You never know you do your little bit in life and you can have a breakthrough.\" <\/p>\n
Topics: government-and-politics, parliament-house-2600, nsw <\/p>\n
First posted May 03, 2017 06:02:38 <\/p>\n
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\nKeeping the faith: Lee Rhiannon on balancing atheism and spirituality - ABC Online<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"