This is insane, but it’s what lifelong love can do

Yesterday, Melbourne felt like Antarctica. It was icy, wet, and bucketing with horizontal rain. A very Melbourne thing.

And yet, in Fed Square, our much-loved, much-debated public square, chairs were set out in the rain for a free outdoor screening of Ocean with Sir David Attenborough.

It was shown to celebrate his 100th birthday, which is today, 8 May, the day this newsletter lands in your inbox.

People arrived wrapped in coats, scarves, boots and beanies, clutching thermoses filled with hot chocolate or, if they were wise, mulled wine. They sat together in the biting cold to watch a film about the natural world, made by a man who has spent a lifetime teaching us to look at it with awe.

How lucky are we to grow up with Sir David Attenborough?

His documentaries were the first nature films I remember watching with my brother and sister growing up in India. His work gave us a lifelong love of animals, oceans, forests, birds, strange insects and all the weird, wonderful creatures that share our planet.

But his real gift is not just knowledge.

It is wonder.

And honestly, that is beautiful communication. The kind that brings people together, even in the freezing rain, to sit under a grey Melbourne sky and remember that the world is still astonishing.

Happy 100th birthday, Sir David Attenborough. Thank you and we love you.

P.S. What do you give a legend who turns 100 and has taught the world to love animals? His six-year-old superfan had the most delightful, heart-warming answer. No, I’m not crying.