That's right, I don't have tertiary siphillis.

Every year, I do my visa and work permit for being here in Thailand.  Yesterday, I started this year's process which included going for a medical.  When you get your medical certificate for your permit, it assures you, among other things, that you are menmtally sane and that you don't have tertiary syphillis.  That may be comforting but it remains a bureaucratic nightmare. 

It makes me think of what my country makes visitors and newcomers do for visas and permits.  I believe that Australia is even worse than here with its bureaucratic demands.  We should not be naive and there should be processes in place but why do we make it so hard for people searching for a needed, new home or place to work or just wanting to come for a holiday.  Maybe we need to stand back a bit and just put ourselves in these other people's shoes and try to understand their motivation and where they are coming from.  This could lead to a greater understanding and a more hospitable world. 

It strikes me that this is so pertinent when today is World Refugee Day.  Why is our world such a hostile place for so many?  Or maybe I could ask - why aren't we more hospitable in a hostile environment? 

Aung San Suu Kyi put it even better last Saturday in Oslo when she gave her acceptance speech for her Nobel Peace Prize.  I quote: 
Ultimately our aim should be to create a world free from the displaced, the homeless and the hopeless, a world in which each and every corner is a ture sanctuary where the inhabitants will have the freedom and the capacity to live in peace.

We are all connected but ???

In my last entry, I said Goodbye to Bill and Clare, emphasizing how we all belong together and never really leave each other. That is the gift to us through the mystery of our God to whom we all belong. I believe this from a faith perspective but then I try to make sense of it when I think of why Bill and Clare had to leave Thailand, when I look at the reality of our world. In Clare's case, she had stood up against corrupt business practices in her previous workplace and as a result she had a baseless charge of criminal defamation made against her. Even when the charge was false and based on corruption, she faced the ultimate possibility of time in prison in Thailand. So she and Bill left. My basic quest is not to take up the gauntlet and run a huge campaign, but to ask the question - How? I see this as the theological question placed before us by such a case - How can we do this to others if we acknowledge that the one God shares life with us and makes his home our home? Just how is it possible for anyone to treat another in such an abusive and degarding way when we are so interconnected?

The ground between us is holy

Last Sunday was Trinity Sunday. I picked up some enlightenment from Henri Nouwen who writes of our belonging to the trinitarian communion. This belonging speaks of our true home and gives us all a place where we belong. He proceeds rather beautifully speaking of how the Christ in me connects with the Christ in you. Because we all belong together through a God of communion, we are never that far apart wherever we may be in life. The language Nouwen uses to describe this reality is that wherever we are the ground between us is holy. This is a great mystery and truth. I share this now as I have great friends from here in Bangkok - Bill and Clare. Clare has been truly a presence at the cathedral each Sunday. It has been because of her own way of presenting herself, her way of entrance and graciousness and being there, along with her strong faith that she shares. Well, Bill and Clare left Bangkok yesterday. It was a sad Goodbye as I will miss them but then I remembered the faithfilled words of Henri Niouwen and shared them with Clare in a blessing prayer - wherever we may be, the ground between us is holy. How true! How true as we have our home in the house of God - a communion of love.