A global village?

 

 

 

No introduction needed for the people featured in the photo for my last entry.  Remember it?  It marked the occasion of President Trump's recent meeting with Pope Francis.  I shared this photo not to make fun of anyone but to make a serious point about our world in the west as I am experiencing it. 

I posted this photo on my Facebook page and it made quite a splash.  Yes, I was being funny and, yes, I could see a political point being made by this shot.  I am not naive.  However, I got a response I would never have expected, a response that upset me. 

Firstly, I discovered that in Facebook your posts can be seen by all sorts of people, people I do not even know.  Secondly, I saw my friends who do not know each other connecting with each other but in ways I would prefer not to encourage.  So what happened? 

I had one I do not know coming in and expressing with great vitirol how the media is biased and how Trump is achieving.  Another came in with equal vitirol opposing this person.  I had one friend being insulted by another friend of mine (neither know each other) just becasue she signalled a dislike for Trump.  My little Facebook world was becoming a battleground.

A friend being insulted through my posting really did upset me as the two are strangers and what was originally expressed was quite innocent.  My friend who expressed an anti-Trump stance  did not deserve the response she got from the other friend as it was just insulting.  Why attack a stranger just because they express an opinion? What purpose do aggression and rudeness serve?  What is to be achieved?    

So this week, I am seeing in my small corner how divided and aggressive the west is becoming or has become, and I do not like it.  This is the new norm I am hearing about.  I have to say that it worries me as it is leading to a more divided world.  It is an emerging reality in the west but what good will come out of it?  People disagree and can do so robustly but there is no need to get aggressive and insulting.  That is so counterproductive.   

I have struck this behaviour before.  It was when I was a parish priest.  Some people in the parish did not like what I was doing.  I was only doing my job and doing it as I judged best to do it but the opposing, conservative side in the parish came in with aggressive, personal attacks.  There was no need for that and was totally unproductive, only creating more division and upset. 

We live in a global village?  What good is it serving if we abuse the opportunities it offers us for good?  This I must ask after my Facebook experience of this past week.  People are able to communicate with others all over the world and what do we do? We can use it for good or we can be destructive and hurl abuse at others who do not agree with us.  Abuse happens where people come into a social medium to make political mileage by simply hitting others they disagree with over the head.  They may not even know each other and probably never will.  In a world that allows for greater connectedness, more people seem to use today's tools for communication to be more disconnected.  These people do not want to engage anyone in dialogue but just make their point in anti-social ways in an anonymous environment where no one has to take responsibility for what they say.  This is upsetting and achieves nothing but more harm in a world that needs more coming together.  How sad and how unnecessary and what a waste of an opportunity! 

Life can be Shocking

My Google dictionary defines "shocking" as that "causing offence or disgust".  When we think of shocking events, we think of the images and events of life that display incredible levels of suffering, carnage and damage.   We may see more and more of these happenings in today's world but we still expect them to be the unusual rather than the usual, to generally stay behind the scenes.   

Then in the week that is, this photo comes my way and I see the Pope giving a classic look.  It is just something to behold!  It tells me we can experience the shocking at the most unexpected of times and in the most unexpected of places.  It is not just in the great disaster stories that we experience the shocking in life but in our everyday life, in the little events of our life.  It is not always the big slap in the face.  We just don't know it.

A comment is made in our presence and it shocks us.  A look comes our way or we see the unexpected and it shocks us.  An unexpected story unfolds about someone we know and it is just unbelievable.  It can even be funny but it is still shocking.  Life does take its toll and we may not be even aware of what is going on around us.  Then the great tragedy, disaster or calamity happens and we are put in touch with that other side of life that is going on continually but we just do not feel comfortable confronting but at times we just cannot avoid it. 

I am at a conference on children caught up in the migration movements in our world.  I am hearing of what is part of our world's reality - child brides, child labour, child prostitution, child trafficking.  Unbelievable but it cannot be denied.  Yes, this is tragic and shocking but it still happens and goes on and on.  So what are we going to do about it?  Yes, this is not the whole picture and it is not the lot of the world's vast majoruity of children but it is still happening too often and to too many.  We are so unaware while the shocking is happening in our midst and we only gain a glimpse of it when the shocking hits the news or the shocking becomes too much or crosses that red line such that we can no longer ignore it. 

Rule of thumb is "once is too often".   So let us keep our eye open for the shocking. 

Worth Remembering, Worth Celebrating - Life is WOW.

I always place my photos using medium size but this photo deserves to be big.  This is not because of me but because of who is with me and what this represents.  You see this photo was taken 30 years ago on the occasion of my ordination which I am remembering this Sunday.  It was an event, a celebration, a commitment in my life that belonged very much to my parents who are here pictured with me at the time.

They are now dead and perfectly okay with God.  I am thankful to God for that.  More importantly, I am ever thankful for them as they were good and kind people who loved me and simply did the best they could by me.  They could do no more.  So why be anything else but thankful?  It is the very least they deserve to be remembered with kindness and thanks.  .

30 years!  Amazing!  One third of that time has been spent here in Bangkok.  Absolutely amazing that I have spent so long in one place as that is not my style but that is how life turned out.  I didn't plan it this way.  I couldn't have planned it.  I just found my little corner along my way in the strangest of places - Bangkok.

My journey so far could not have been planned by me as it would have been impossible for me to do so and handle it all in any style.  After so much questioning and challenging, to finally find such fulfilment in a Bangkok, which is such a crazy place, tells me that God surely is an integral partner in the journey.  How else could all that has happened in my life be?

And I have shared this journey with such great people, absolute classics - good and kind people like my mum and dad.  I am very gifted by God and I am most thankful.  What more can I say or do I need to say?  Keep the journey going.  As I shared last Sunday at Mass, life is a WOW event.  We just might not appreciate how WOW it truly is.  

A Change is Refreshing and Nourishing

There is an annual Buddhist Holy Day that remembers Buddha's birth, enlightenment and death. All three supposedly happened on the same day of the year, just different years, or that is what I am told.  This day is Vesacha Bucha Day and coincides with the first full moon in May which was 10th May for this year.  As I do every year on Buddhist Holy Days, I go to the temple and join in the ritual with Om, my Buddhist mentor.


On these days, crowds flock to the temples to make merit.  Each day has its own ritual to be followed.  On this particular day, the simple ritual begins with buying a lotus, three incense sticks and a candle.  You then light the incense sticks and proceed to walk around the temple three times in a clockwise direction.  When finished this short journey, you place your incense sticks and  the now lit candle into a sand box at the front of the temple.  You then place the lotus before the temple and finish with paying homage to the Buddha image in the temple.  It is all an impressive and simple ritual, done with fervor, or that is my outside observation.


This year Om and I did it a little differently as we decided to go to the local temple in my area.  You see we usually go to a major temple in a central area which is so full of people and as a result difficult to access on the day.  All a bit much and so we decided on a change and see how that went.  In doing so, we found a temple easily accessible and also refreshingly quiet with a tranquil and conducive environment for the sacred.  The experience was not one of dealing with crowds while trying to deal with the physical tasks of a ritual in their midst.  This meant that lighting the incense sticks and candle and keeping them alight was not a major challenge which can be the case when surrounded by so many people.  It also meant that you could more easily focus on a task, instead of the crowds, this simple task that gave meaning to the ritual.

What I experienced this year in going to my local temple was a pleasant surprise as it allowed for me a special experience of a Buddhist feast and ritual which is the way it is meant to be. What I also discovered is that I live near a lovely temple within a quiet and nourishing space.  It only took me 10 years to discover it.  Just goes to show that exploring is the way to discovering good change .

It is the Simple Things that Matter Most

You may ask what is this picture about?  It is very simple actually.

I was at church this morning and this man goes around giving everyone a holy picture.  I get mine and look at him.  He appears as nothing extraordinary.  My image of the sort of person doing such activity at church comes to mind and I figure a simple enough, churchy person.  All may speak of my experience or bias.  Anyway he goes to his car and there it is - a lovely, new, whits BMW.  It blew my mind as the car did not go with all my preconceptions.  This guy was undertaking a simple act that he sees as worthwhile and good but his own life may not be so simple.

I am on the bus on the way to church and I am part of a simple, everyday act of kindness.  An older woman needs a seat and when one becomes free, I tell the younger woman helping her.  Then I notice both the man near me and myself reaching out and helping the woman to the seat.  Nothing complicated.  Very natural thing to do.

Then I think back to my encounter of a month ago with one of fellow workers at the office.  Remember, he was angry with me?  One of his key points was that I am a foreigner and he does not understand foreigners.

Well, today, it struck me in these simple experiences arising in my day that life is rather simple.  Why complicate it?  It is not where we come from or what position or nationality we hold that matters.  It is about our sharing a common humanity.  We naturally share the same day, no matter who we are.  We all have limited bodies and needs during the day.  It is natural for us to help those we see along the way that need some help.  So why do we make it complicated and go on about our differences and how those differences are so ingrained and important, being the cause for separation or annoyance?  It makes no sense.  

Then I had another little insight from work yesterday.  The guy's basic issue is not with me and how we are different.  His real issue is with his own and how he is unhappy or frustrated by the workplace system of authority set up by his own.  It is just easier to blame someone else, an outsider.  Now this is not so uncommon.  It just is that it does not deal with any issue and makes everything all the more complicated.  Let's keep it simple.