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I originally intended to write a response to this question in a totally light-hearted fashion. So I will indeed start out that way - but then I will add my reflections on the contribution made by the person who obviously submitted this article title.

I have been thinking lately of how much like a koala I am! Koalas are very sedentary creatures. They spend most of their day sleeping - except when they are eating gum leaves. I expect many people know that gum leaves aren't exactly high in energy. Indeed I heard the other day that the quantity of gum leaves a koala works it's way through in a day (some 600 grams, or approximately a pound if I remember correctly) would only give the same amount of energy as the average bowl of breakfast cereal provides us. Consequently the poor old koala has had to develop a slow metabolic rate and live a sedentary lifestyle in order to conserve the precious little energy he gains from his diet. Personally I wonder why he hasn't found something else to eat that would allow him to participate more in life. I certainly have no idea how our cartoon favourites, Blinky Bill and Nutsy manage to get involved in so many escapades.

But then if koalas weren't the sedentary creatures they are, they wouldn't give us all so much pleasure just watching them sitting up in the fork of a tree, looking all cute and cuddly, would they? It takes all kinds to make a world. There are the cheetahs who can run fast, the beavers who are always industrious and creative, the otters who are so playful, monkeys who are constantly busy getting into mischief, and so on. One could probably come up with a long list of very active animals. But then there's the koala, who loves to sleep as much as possible, who is cuddly and lovable and who possibly does a lot of thinking and reflecting on life while he sits in his tree chewing on gumleaves. If he could only learn to write, he may well have some profound thoughts to impart - and may be able to come up with some great blockbuster novels for the bushland critters to read.

The world needs the koalas as well as the cheetahs, beavers, otters and monkeys. As much as I might like to be a "super-woman" type who never comes to the end of a day wondering what she's achieved, I was made more to the pattern of the dear old Aussie koala. I sure do hope that I can be valued as much as most of us value our adorable Aussie marsupial even if he doesn't break any world records in the bush athletics.

Now, having compared myself to

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