Guess what?

Jesus did arrive as planned

Christmas did come and on it rolls just as it always does, and as it should every year.   Yes, this year, the cards no longer come as they did, there is not the same family call, some friends move on and others are just no longer.  You know what?  I am over it. 

Change does happen.  It is real.  True, Christmas is not the same and I did approach it with a sense of loss but inevitably it happened and I am so happy it did.  Yes, it was different this year but no matter what it was as good as it ever was.    I gave gifts to ones in my life that mattered for whatever reason.  I shared a message with family and friends and at mass that spoke to me of what this time is all about.  We celebrated a mass that oozed meaning and joy with gusto.  I put on a memorable Christmas dinner for a small remant that is part of me and central to my Bangkok.  What more could one want? 

Jesus did come but the truth is he is already here and always been so.  Christmas is simply that needed and timely reminder of what is.  Christmas is about a true joy for all and a deeper coming together of people.  This is what life is about at all times.  We need Christmas every day, not just one day.  Let it roll on.  Ho! Ho! Ho!

We are waiting for the baby Jesus

The crib in our chapel is ready for the big event.  

It is Christmas next week and the crib is ready for the coming of Jesus.  Are we?

My key word for this time is "expectant".  We are expectant.  That is we are waiting full of expectation.  This is different from excitement which may or may not be part of our experience at any time.  Being expectant is the nature of this time of the year, while excitement is not something naturally with us at all times.  It is like you cannot have forced fun.  However, you can naturally have a natural time of shared expectation, as with the lead up to Christmas.

As I participate this week in a workshop on change, I have a level of expectation for good change in my environment, my sphere of influence.  I agree with the presenter that change best happens when the desire for it is shared and all work together for it.  If people do not want change, it will not happen for them, despite how much change is pressed or seen as a necessity in life.  What will happen instead is that people will suffer because they did not grasp the good change on offer for themselves.

The exercise of the workshop is to name a problem and analyse what stops good change happening to deal with it.  The five categories needed for change are named. 
Awareness of the need for change.
Desire to support the change.
Knowledge on how to change.
Ability to implement new skills.
Reinforcement to sustain the change.
All five areas need to be in play for change to be achieved.

I think of the saying - old habits die hard.  How true!  As I think of my entrenched ways and how they act against my own sense of worthwhile being, I would name desire and reinforcement as the two areas that hold me back from good change in my life.  I know that good change  will lead me to a better sense of well-being and holistic life.  Yet it so often just does not happen.  The model used for change tells me that these two lacking areas in my purpose and action result in my resistance to the change I need and desire.  So the unwanted result is that I constantly revert to my known ways of behavior that lead me nowhere and only once again  to frustration.   

If I am to make wanted change happen in my life, I am to challenge these two areas.  Thus the way can be opened to my expectation being realized for a better life.  Expectation can become reality when meeting the challenges of change.

Christmas is somewhat like that.  The days leading up to Christmas are days of expectation which open us up to needed change in our lives and world.  Let me work for the change that is called for and make it happen so that the baby Jesus comes yet again and WOW!!  It is Christmas again.

It's feeling a lot like Christmas

Previously, it was looking a lot like Christmas but now it is feeling a lot like Christmas.  That is what happened for me this week.

This happened as the usually somewhat disjointed staff got together as one unit to put up the Christmas decorations in the office.  It all happened naturally and happily, and they have done a splendid job.  Despite however ones in the same social unit may fail to connect or relate at times, Christmas comes and they just gel together - Christian and Buddhist.  Everyone loves Christmas, or so I think, as I watch them all happily working to put up the funny looking decorations and build their own crib looked over by Santa Claus.  It may be theologically incorrect but in practice the activity is the best of theology as it serves to bring together disparate human beings in such a natural and happy way.  To see what happened warmed my spirit.  It is what Christmas is all about.

All I want for Christmas is ????   I know what I want - a bit of kindness, a bit of happiness, people coming together in peace and a lot of joy.

Let's pray it all happens.  Bring on Christmas.   I so love it.  Ho! Ho! Ho!

People matter

Last week saw my birthday.  With the loss of three dear friends over the last few months, I just wanted a quiet day.  That is not what I got.  Instead of the birthday I wanted, I got the birthday I needed.  Whether I liked it or not, the ones at the office celebrated my day, and celebrated it so well.  One person in particular was so kind, buying me a shirt.  I was so touched by his gift that it truly brought tears to my eyes.  I told him he never had to buy me anything to which he replied - You deserve it.   I was feted by people I never expected to be feted by.

Then, on celebrating my birthday, it was onto Siem Reap in Cambodia for a three day workshop on migration.  The return trip became the misadventure I never expected as the plane broke down which led to an 18 hour delay, waiting between a hotel and an airport to get back home.  I won't go through the whole anxiety raising event.  All I want to share is that it was a misadventure because those whom I would expect to take charge and show care never did.  The airline management never showed its face to manage the situation, to be there to talk with their customers and to offer good information.  There was just no one with any authority from the airline to be seen anywhere by the passengers.  This had consequences of rumour and misinformation, people getting frustrated and angry, people experiencing unnecessary anxiety and stress.

The two scenarios of my last week speak of two sides to the one story.  Those who should have cared never did, while those who never needed to care did.  We show that we all do matter by how we care for each other.  That care might be required under a contractual arrangement such as being a passenger on a plane or else it just happens naturally in our day because people do care.   Often that care comes from the most unexpected quarter and just because they want to.  It cones in most surprising ways and tells us in the deepest of ways that we do matter in the eyes of others, and not only in God's eyes. 

Christmas is approaching and the reason for the season is that people matter just because we are here.  Ho! Ho! Ho! 

If it is this week, it must be Cambodia

A regional workshop being hosted by Jesuit Refugee Services in Siem Reap.

It may be four weeks or less to Christmas but this does not mean that life is slowing down.  If anything, the pace is picking up.  Last week, my focus was a meeting in the Philippines with my Order but this was via skype.  It is all go.

As I look back, it is lucky, I could not go to the Philippines as I was here to literally help a neighbour in distress.  On Tuesday night, I am sound asleep to be awoken by desperate banging on my door.  It took me time to come to my senses to realize that it was real.  It sounded like there was a police raid happening.  What is going on?

It was my good neighbour arriving home in distress and without his room key as his bag with all his treasures had been stolen.  He was understandably distraught.  The task at hand was more than just get him into his room with the spare key but to listen and try, if I could, to give helpful advice.  The best advice I could give was to pray to St Anthony for the bag to be returned, and guess what?  The unbelievable happened.  The police notified him early the next morning that his bag had been handed in and so he got his bag back.  I never doubted.  St Anthony works every time.  I have great faith in him which I learnt from my dear mother.

Yes, there is a story behind the stolen bag but that does not matter.  What matters is that its finding tells me that miracles do happen, even in a Buddhist Thailand.  This is so reassuring as Christmas hastens in the midst of much activity and of an enduring sense of loss with the death in this last half of the year of three close and dear friends.  They just went but the miracle is I am here to celebrate another Christmas, while they live on in my heart and all eternity.  We are truly blessed by so much, and good friends are up there amongst the most of precious gifts we will ever be given.

So where am I?  Bangkok and approaching Siem Reap and Christmas as well, ever the most wonderful time of the year in the life of my loving parents and so mine as well. 
Ho!  Ho!  Ho!

It's looking a lot like Christmas

Just what everyone wants for Christmas

Well, it is less than 35 shopping days to Christmas and there is no shortage of offers for spending your money.  Bangkok has its brand new and most stunning shopping mall, Icon Siam.  It sits right by the river and its architecture is breath taking.  Then I read this week how much it cost to build and that is just breath taking too - US$1.6 billion.  With all sorts of hotels, condo buildings and shopping malls being built all over the place, one can see huge money being poured into development in this city.  Where do people get such money?

I see this reality in my Bangkok and then read the words of Pope Francis last Sunday at mass where he reflected that "the cry of the poor daily becomes stronger but heard less, drowned out by the din of the the rich who grow ever fewer and more rich".  I hear those words.  I want to share them for the end of the Church year on Sunday as they are gutsy words for finishing off an action packed year.  They tell it as it is but I stand back as they may be too confronting, and not just for others; and then I ask myself - who am I not to repeat them? 

And this is where you get it

In my Bangkok, I am surrounded by ones who live like millionaires thanks to debt and credit cards.  They have the cars, the condo, the furniture and keep buying but not because they can afford it all.  Does everybody need so much in their lives?  No.  What they do need in an Asian style culture is to look good.  Prestige and status are so important here.  It is about how you look to the world that matters.  Who you are comes second.  So no one ever seems satisfied with their lot.  They just keep spending and keep building up their portfolio.  So my Bangkok is full of lovely buildings which the vast majority of inhabitants cannot afford but that is not the point. 

It is looking a lot like Christmas, my favourite time of year.  And boy, do we need Christmas more than ever as it reminds us, in a world that can be so false, who we really are and what life is really about.  It tells us we are good people as we are and what really matters in life is how we look after each other, especially when we are down, and that we share a bit of joy along the way. 

Ho! Ho! Ho!

It is that time of year!

This tree has the privilege of being the first tree I saw for this 2018 Christmas season.  It will not be the best or biggest tree of the season, I am sure of that.  Still it will remain for ever the first, I am sure of that as well.  So let the season begin.

This was always the most important time of year in my family, thanks to mum and dad's love for Christmas.  The tree was ever the centerpiece.  Surrounding all the excitement and anticipation was all the activity and the busyness of the end of the year.  That busyness remains the constant.  I feel this especially this week as the season begins and I face three weeks of meetings elsewhere in the region.  This is not my normal pattern.  So as I face what may or may not lie ahead, I keep telling myself - step by step, stay calm and don't go into a frenzy.

At the end, with God's grace, I will still be here, life will go on and what is most important in life always remains most important. 

A Bex and a Cuppa

My Auntie Ron, long dead, was one of my heroes in my life as a boy.  She and Uncle Bill were just great people and great fun, or that is how they were to a ten old boy living under the much stricter reign of my parents.  I could go to them for sleepovers and it was fun all the way, beginning with the ride in their crazy cars driven by an eccentric Uncle Bill who was forever cursing every other fool on the road.  I loved it.  At their home, it was food of your choice and entertainment all night with TV of your choice, coke and chips and the ever riveting antics of Auntie Ron and Uncle Bill's incessant arguing.  That is how it was and I loved it.  Even their house was entertainment itself, with its somewhat kooky hole in the open patio that was meant to be the swimming pool.

Well, no one is perfect - not even Auntie Ron.  Life was tough, ever struggling to make ends meet, but ever joyful for her with her Billie.  When it got really tough, Auntie would take a Bex and a cup of tea.  Bex no longer exists but was a popular addition to life in Australia as the cure for all things.  Research later showed that Bex taken too often was no good for you.  So what was the cure for all pain, no longer is.  Such is what happens.

In life as we face its many struggles, its ups and downs, and try to traverse its confusing paths, we all need our Bex and a cuppa.  We just do it in different ways.   Some ways can be more destructive than others and so I could no longer find a Bex.  Maybe a cuppa is sufficient.

Through whatever confusion or struggle we face, we remain the good people we truly are.  We are just that paradox in life which can be so confusing but let it never fool us.  The basic truth is we are good people, we will get through whatever we face and we will continue to make that great contribution our world needs to enjoy from us.   As St Teresa of Avila would say to her Sisters after leaving the confessional - Keep on going!

We are Family

The birds at the condo now have their baby.  

This week we celebrate All Saints.  Most people out there focus on its eve, Halloween.  I much prefer the feast as we remember our big family, all those who have gone before us and make us who we are today.  All those who have loved us for better or worse.  I would prefer to say - all those who did the best they could for us with who they were.

Whatever we do or believe, whoever we are; life moves on.  The picture here features Om's bird family.  He cares for them and talks to them every day.  They are family and they are are a special part of Om's life.  It just is they are birds - mama bird, papa bird and baby bird.  They are a new and happy family with the arrival of their baby who is now out and about.  They lead a peaceful, blissful life together but behind this family lies a story. 

There was a different papa bird, Kitty, who died earlier in the year.  I remember how sad I felt when Om told me that Kitty had died.  Om got another male bird, Kevin, who, with the ongoing Cindy, produced a baby bird and so now it is the happy family unit.  Every happy family has a story.  A happy ending?  For now, yes.  Families don't just happen.  They take hard work and involve suffering and sacrifice but in the end it is all worth it.  Yes, this week we celebrate with joy our big family.

Church in the City

A monk making a pastoral visit.  

Bangkok is a full on hustle and bustle place, and in a land that is Buddhist, a religion based on peace and meditation.  How does it all figure?  I just look at lived Buddhism from the outside in my Bangkok, trying to make sense of what I see.

Then on my walk from the underground to the refugee centre along a busy road, I see a first with a Buddhist monk sitting at a table with a woman presumably outside her home.  It all just happens in a busy Bangkok with no one paying any attention.

I think how flexible, how adaptable Buddhism can be.  I think isn't it great that the monks go to the people.

Then my good friends here who are Buddhists tell me the monks should stay in their temples and the people go to them.  The trouble is, as they explain to me, is that as monks venture out to the markets and the streets, they are showing themselves to be greedy and opening up Buddhism to corrupt ways.  This is because coming to the people may be more about getting as much as they can from them who are very respectful of their monks and give generously to them.

Ultimately, do I know?  I just trust my friends and confidants on this one who ever give me insights into what is really going on in my Bangkok.  This could be the same in any religion.  As always in my Bangkok, all is never what it seems.  

Life is short; the Journey is long and windy.

Caritas International Global Pilgrimage taken in Solidarity with Migrants

We are all migrants, sharing the journey in life.  While on the journey, hopefully our home is warm and friendly but it surely is not eternal.  This is a good perspective to keep as we take the long and windy journey that is life.  It is a perspective I need before me as I learn that yet another close friend has died.  This is the third such loss in three months.  They have been three significant people in my journey.  Their dying makes me think about where am I in life?

This week I go to Mae Sot with my work on migrants.  Mae Sot is a town up north on the Thai side of the border with Myanmar.  It is a centre for much industry and trade, being named as a Special Economic Zone.  As such, there is a need for labour which is conveniently provided by the Burmese coming across the border, and here they come in big numbers.  They get work but remain poor, often being taken advantage of for the sake of profit.  The migrant population there is diverse, both coming for work and fleeing conflict and oppression at the hands of Myanmar military.  While Mae Sot is now the big centre for migrant workers, it has been in history more the centre for Burmese ethnic refugees.

So Mae Sot is a centre for an underclass population.  They need support and that is our job.  On our work visit, we went to one of the many learning centres, providing education for Burmese children from poor and deprived backgrounds.  Some are orphans as their parents have been killed in the internal conflicts of Myanmar.  I walk around the school.  It is big with 500 students.  It is simple and it is poor looking.  Some children live there and their accommodation looks inadequate.  That is how it impressed me but I also saw that the children do not see the same physical picture as I saw they were simply children together, playing together and enjoying each other.  They also had a school which was their school, the best that could be provided for them.  So who am I to judge their situation with my outside eyes?

Then I refer to my three great friends and mentors, all now dead.  Didn't each show me the way?  Didn't they look after me and just enjoy our being together?  Didn't they show me what really matters in life?  Our being together was never complicated, never judged by anything other than we wanted to be together.  We were friends - no, much more - companions, mates on the journey, and what a journey it is, a journey enriched by our sharing together from what little we have.

The journey is long and windy but that is no matter for what truly matters is with whom we share it. 

Safe Travels

Seat belts on  a Bangkok bus?

The journey can be arduous and tiring.  It can become unhealthily routine.  So any help or change along the way can be appreciated but it would seem I am often too cautious and so at times it is best to just fly.

This week, most unusually, I throw caution out the door and off I go to Pattaya, the popular beach destination for Bangkok.  Truth is it is about much more as it is the notorious centre for "bars and girls" which is why so many older, western males head there.  How I hate Pattaya.  I am not prudish but really "there are only so many offers of sex one can cope with in any one hour", or that is my definition of the place.

Well, here I am.  It was a rushed decision made Monday morning.  I came on the run for a Caritas Asia workshop on communications.  Truth is I made the better choice for the week.  Pattaya or no Pattaya, this has been a profitable opportunity which happened at a time when now I know it was good for me to be out of my usual environment. 

Truth is I travel too safely.  Best to let go and fly free at times.  It is good for the spirit.  Don't be held back by fear of the Pattayas of our world.

Bring him home

Even the local street cats show the decency of looking after each other.  

God on high, hear my prayer.
Bring him home.  Bring him peace.  Bring him joy.
Let him be.  Let him live.
This simple but deep cry from "Les Miserables" rips at our hearts as we are a people yearning for peace, yearning for belonging.  Such basic human quests are never met despite all the advances in our world and all the social movements for justice.  Our world is developing in some ways; humanity appears more engaged in looking after each other but, when you take a hard look at our world, you do wonder how far we have come as a human race.

Then at the start of another week in my Bangkok, I am waiting early morning at the bus stop and witness the most amazing display of care offered by the animal kingdom.  It is dark and before me on the road is a little pussy cat bleating as it is scared and disoriented. This is the middle of a big city with traffic.  So who wouldn't be scared?   I wonder what to do as I am not a great cat lover but still one must do something.  Then to the rescue, comes the adult cat - mum or dad?  It races in, grabs its baby by the back of the neck and takes it safely home.  How incredible to watch!

As one would say - even if a cat can care for its own.  Why can't humanity?

We are all Special

The Edward-Irina Wedding

Last Saturday, I approached a wedding with a difference.  It was different because I had come to know this couple more closely than most wedding couples; I had come to feel with them as if they were my friends.  I had only met them a few times but each time they were so kind and generous to me. They loved looking after me and I loved being with them.  There was something about them.  They were special but then I questioned - what does that say about all the other couples I do weddings for?

It hit me.  You meet special people along the way and they reinforce the message of truth that we are all special.  It hit me. People are not special to us for the sake of creating exclusive clubs.  Rather the special people that come our way reinforce a perspective on life that is more realistic than the negative one we are so often given in daily life.  These special people that come our way sustain us for living a better life, a worthwhile life, a good life.

Too often we do not see humanity for what it truly is as we are overcome by the negative that we so easily and readily know in life.  We too easily give in to the negative experiences of humanity that tell us the very opposite of what sustains life.  That opposite is not the message we want to matter in our experience of life.  Edward and Irina taught me that once again.

Failure is Success

This year at Church, we are following the Gospel of St Mark.  As I get older, I appreciate the power of this gospel as so much happens in such a short space.  It is action packed, presenting the abandoned, failed Christ as the one to follow. Interesting approach?  Well, it is a life saving approach for failing followers.

This gospel was written for a Christian community of the first century that knew persecution and with it, failure.  It was no glorious age of a new and victorious world movement.  So failure is presented so as to show the way to the failed disciples of Jesus down through the centuries.  It is the gospel that presents the ever failing and falling disciples of Jesus' day but more importantly it proclaims that they always get back up on their feet.  No matter what may come our way, the message for us, the present day failing disciples. is that the ultimate victory is with the Jesus who also knew failure and who is our faithful companion through all that befalls us.  The way is tough but, with Jesus, we can be ever confident.

As I get older, I see how I continue in my own patterns of failure.  I seem to be growing, getting better with age, but then I see how I continually fall.  Well, let me not despair for this is part of the human lot but not the whole story.  For inspiration, I go to Mark and his gospel.

The image symbolizing Mark is the winged lion.  Not a symbol, one would think, for a failure.  That is because Mark is not about our being failures but about our recognizing our failed reality and placing Jesus right in the midst of it.  The roaring lion well represents Mark as the gospel begins with a roar, proclaiming that the kingdom is here.  In the midst of the roar, we only too well know our limited experience and abilities but the roar reminds us never to be overcome.

As a friend shared from his treasures of wisdom:
"Our personal sets of temptations have an amazing staying power while our graces, like temptations, stretch across a lifetime."

It is just rude

There is no photo this week as I do not want to get too political or face unnecessary personal havoc.  I did see the story of Serena Williams and my simple response is that her behavior in response to the umpire's calls was rude and overly aggressive.  For me, it is that simple.

In holding that view, I could be named as being racist and sexist.  I just respond that all I saw was a person being rude and aggressive in the public arena where that person is a highly paid professional.  Enough on this as my point is not to get into the public sphere on this very contentious debate.

My point is to reflect on behavior that I experience in my Thailand and that I experienced yet again this week.  It is behavior that is excused on the basis that it is cultural.  Well, no excuses, rudeness is rudeness. 

After a meeting at work, there is the usual lunch for everyone. I am the only westerner present.   In the effort to make conversation, I ask a question in English of the Thai person opposite me.  He does not understand me.  I can cope with that and will happily try communicating in Thai, now knowing his lack of English of which I had thought he had some.

It is what that pursued that upset me.  He proceeded to talk about me and about my being Australian with others around me in Thai as if I was not there and did not understand anything.  This may happen often in my Thailand and it may be an acceptable Thai response to having a foreigner present and to such a happening but I just find it rude.  So I proceeded to say so to the gentleman in question.

To be so direct may be seen as being un-Thai and maybe even as being anti-Thai.  I have to say that neither is true for for me.  It is not about my being racist or being intolerant.  It just was that the behavior exhibited was rude and that was it.

To express one's opinion, to speak out does not have to be colored by all sorts of politically correct overtones.  It may be as  simple as that what has happened is not right and one just needs to say so.  Sometimes you get sick of being the nice guy and saying nothing.  Sometimes it is time to speak up for oneself and the better way.  My week in my Thailand saw one such opportunity and I took it. I feel better for it as I stood up for my own rights and dignity in a simple, every day way. 

The Buddha

A Buddha image at one of my favourite temples

The Buddha looks so content and that is how he is supposed to look.  The Buddha is is not about personal weight modelling but about showing us the way out of suffering to contentment and happiness.  This image made me reflect that, after living here 13 years, I fear I may be becoming too contented under the spell of the philosophical norm of the east.  I will put it another way.

Through living here and my work which takes me to dealing with people from both the west and the east, I can recognize what I would name as western optimism versus eastern pessimism.  What does this mean?  It is not about everyone from the west being bright and rosy everyday, while those from the east are just negative and sad about everything.  I smile as I live in a land whose celebrated title is the Land of Smiles.  So what am I saying?

I am speaking of a philosophical distinction.  Optimism and pessimism speak of a continuum defining a mindset, an approach to life.  Western optimism is encapsulated for me in the approach that those from the west believe they can change anything and everything, while those from the east more just accept that this is the way it is and it will always be.

In working for change, this has a real impact.  From both perspectives, people will work for change but I see the different basis for such human endeavour and its impact on ones taking up the challenge and on the results expected.  It is not that one side always wins and the other always loses but there is nearly a self-defeating prophecy at play for both sides as neither grasps the full picture nor makes a necessarily realistic stance.

Like all things, it is not all one nor the other but there is truth in both and the reality is best played out in the happy medium - somewhere between working for change no matter what but realizing that change does not always win the day. 

Hope is a never ending road.

"The only unforgivable sin is despair."

That is where I finished last week and where I begin this week on the never ending road that is life.

Last week, Pope Francis wrote a letter to every Catholic, to the People of God, on the tragic issue of sexual abuse.  As I become more aware of the scale and the horror of the issue, I find myself feeling more angry and more ashamed.  However, what is the point of such feelings if they simply are feelings standing in isolation? 

While Francis admits shame over what has happened, at the heart of his letter is humility.   I think I could have started the letter as follows - "With a sorrowful and humble heart, I ..."  Yes, start there but not finish there. 

In facing any difficulty or need of humanity or self, humility is a good place to base one's stance.  Anger and shame need to be named and owned in such issues in our world but move on in humility.  This allows for the Other to take the lead, for a future that is not mine alone nor defined by me alone so as to open up for the sake of others.   Humility means that I do not have to do it all, that I do not have all the answers, nor should I.  Otherwise, in any serious issue facing humanity or in helping desperate populations, it is all just too much and you are overcome by the awesome impossibility of all that needs doing or righting.  You end up going nowhere and just wallowing in anger and shame. 

Too many people, too many leaders, too many people of both church and society lack humility and so life becomes a race for power and keeping it. We then lose so much opportunity to create something better for others, something beyond ourselves.  We become overcome by our own fears, rather than be overtaken by the hope that is ever enduring in faith.  Despair does not have to be the outcome and it never should be, no matter what we face.  Despair is the unforgivable sin. 

My Bangkok does take its toll.

I lay myself down where my boots stand. 

My Bangkok presents itself as the mecca for tourist shopping, as the hub for pleasure and relaxation, as the paradise for those seeking fame, fortune and beauty.  It may be all that but it is much more, and sadly so for some.

It can be a fool's paradise, the place where those seeking their worldly goals and pleasures may find their downfall.  My Bangkok is another big city in our world where ones rise and ones fall, and both may befall the same persons in very quick succession. 

While I was listening to the UN Special Rapporteur speak this week in my Bangkok on the freedom of religion in Asia, I heard the tragic tales of how religion is being abused to oppress minority populations like the Rohingya in Myanmar.  Meanwhile, I glance at the local paper during this same lecture and see that the Bangkok news focus in Miss Thailand World 2018.  where is the focus?  Doubly tragic!

Where do we place our hopes and dreams?  Where are we placing our energy for life?  Is it all fairy tale stuff?   Is it all overcome by lights and glitter and all that does not really matter?  How do we deal with the harsh realities?  Unrealized and failed hopes and dreams?  The fantasies that never eventuate in a tempting Bangkok?  The lives undone and lost by the way?

Then I came across a line from Graham Greene this week:
"The only unforgivable sin is despair."

A Week to Honor Human Dignity

This week in Thailand begins with the Queen's birthday, which is also Mother's day here, includes the Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary and concludes for me with a wedding.  So it seems apt to take a step back for a moment and take one's hat off to the women in our life and world.

I was recently at a network meeting on the local refugee scene and it took me aback when I heard the UNHCR representative describe what he saw as a refugee case receiving top priority in our world for resettlement.  He described it a horrific case from Africa where the mother suffered just desperate and tragic humiliation and suffering, being left alone to care for her children.  I thought is this what has to happen to anyone, to a woman for them receive the help and attention they need? Is this the only way for a woman to be recognized by UNHCR to enjoy the dignity she deserves?  What is wrong with our world?  Where is respect and dignity? 

Advertising the Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary at the cathedral in Bangkok

Last week, we remembered the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  One person at the edge of Hiroshima on that fatal was the young, Spanish Jesuit, Pedro Arrupe, who was later to be the Jesuit Superior-General.  He saw the bomb drop at close range.  Like everyone else, he did not know what it was, just that it caused much death and destruction.  He reflected, that despite all cautions, he was required as a priest to go in and help the suffering and cremate the dead,which is what he did.  As a priest, as a man of God, he could do no other.

Is this not the same for all of us as people of faith?  Do we just wait like a UNHCR agent for the most terrible and vicious happenings or outcomes before we stand up and help, to be with the suffering and vulnerable?  Or do we do like the courageous and faithful Pedro Arrupe and jump in when we see the wrong, see the need?   

As we honour and celebrate women this week, so we honour and celebrate human dignity, the dignity of all.  This challenges us to be like a Pedro Arrupe, jumping in where we see wrong and suffering and not wait until the worse case scenario arises.  Simply there is human solidarity for we are fellow human beings, not bureaucrats.  There is the gospel which challenges us not to stand back but to get in there and act.

Small things do matter

My right ankle

I am not a narcissist.  I do have issues but narcissism is not one of them.  I choose to feature my ankle as it has been a feature of my week.  And why?  It hurts,

I do not know what happened but I do know it hurts and has been causing me somewhat discomfort and greater challenges as I move around my Bangkok on foot and by public transport.  I notice the stairs getting on and off the buses.  I face the challenge of jumping on and off songtaews.  I feel the ever bumpy footpaths.  Then there are all those stairs for pedestrian bridges and for accessing the skytrain.  Going up is a lot easier than going down. 

It makes me realize that little things do matter and we can just take so much for granted until something untoward happens.  It makes me think that the way to go is to face reality and deal with it, no matter how uncomfortable it may be.  The little things going wrong give us a needed warning in life.  I say that but I know how we like to avoid the hard bits until at times on some hard facts it may be just too late.  In the words of a good friend who is smart, if it doesn't work, fix it. 

Nail biting

Don't worry.  I am not breaking copyright nor am I an agent for Tom Cruise.  It just is that I saw the latest Mission Impossible movie this week and it was just an incredible experience - action packed, keeping you on the edge of your seat.  At the end, you felt you had really been somewhere doing something and it added excitement to a day that could have otherwise been rather dull. 

Isn't that what we try to do?  Add to life; give it more color.  How to do that without going to a great Tom Cruise movie?

I often think that life is given to us as a banquet but so often we treat it like it is a sandwich picnic.  I see that in myself at times.  I see it among people who go to church, supposedly publicly proclaiming the glory of life, but maybe they are not aware that this is what they are doing in church which can be so dull and so out of touch with the world.  This was not the way it was meant to be but such is the way it is given so often. 

It is Buddhist Lent, a time given for reflection hopefully.  This is a good time to stand back and see life for the banquet it is and not just wait to be woken up by the next Hollywood action blockbuster.  Still, what a great movie!

Lent Thai Style

One can never get too much of a good thing.  That is why I never get bored living in a country where each year I get to observe two Lents, comparing and contrasting what happens in two different cultures.

Christian Lent is for everyone, aiming at their growth by observing a time of fasting and giving and entering into spiritual exercises.  Buddhist Lent is more geared towards an exclusive group - their monks who are to strictly observe their lifestyle of meditation, fasting and staying put in their temples.  It is opened up to many with young Thai males fulfilling their social and family expectations of being a monk for some short time in their lives.

Christian Lent fits in with the northern hemisphere change of seasons, happening during the northern spring.  It is a time when people are emerging from a dark and cold winter into a bright and sunny summer.  Buddhist Lent is just as smart in timing.  It happens during rainy season which serves a very practical purpose in a traditionally agrarian society, for this is a good time for young men to take time out from farming while the rice crop is left to grow.  So they can go off to the temple when there is not so much work around their farms.  As for the general populace, they are meant to watch their drinking.  Given all one may think of Thailand, it is quite a modest and conservative society.  Shocked?

The approach to Lent in Thai Buddhism is interesting when so many live in the big city where life goes on at a hectic pace with all its pressures, Lent or no Lent.  People's lives continue focusing on work and earning a living.  That is reality.  No matter our lot in life or our beliefs and culture, it is always good to stand back and take a good look at life, and that is so for everyone.

So Buddhist Lent begins on Friday 27th July.  Let it begin. 

We are who we are

I see a good friend living here from the USA.  In conversation, he uses a line I hear so often - "It is what it is.  I am who I am."  I think true but with a question mark.  Is this being too fatalistic?  Will I always be making the same mistakes?  Will I always be overcome by the same weaknesses in my life?  Is there nothing I can do to better myself and my lot?

There is a truth in the line used by my friend but I do not want to take it too far or else I become determined in life by my environment and my make-up. Each makes up my reality; each is limiting in its own way. 

A Bangkok Skyline 

Limitation is part of life as no one is perfect.  I accept that but, within my Bangkok, I see another aspect of human limitation as I too readily see those destroyed by drink and other vices, those conquered by a needy humanity, those going nowhere pursuing the purely fanciful.  Human limitation is like an art form on display in my Bangkok.  It is frightening and makes me not accept the line - we are who we are - for the more, the better is always possible.  We are always able to get up and start over again.  If not, do I just become another piece of public, human art on display in my Bangkok?  Life is about much more than who I am and we all deserve so much better in our short time on this journey of life.    

Family is where your heart is

My good friend Simon whom I met in my Bangkok

Here I am in Brisbane with the family for a few days.  It is great to be here. I am simply with my sisters and their families and enjoy it so much.  This is so no matter how far away I live nor how long I live on my own.
    

My experience of being in Bangkok for over 12 years has not turned me into a twisted, isolated individual but rather has given me a context where I have cemented my identity and sense of belonging. 


Throughout my time in my Bangkok, I have not moved away from my family but instead deepened and widened my sense of it.  I recognize this with coming home this time and visiting and reaching out to reconnect with significant others in my life.  My family is my sisters and their families but it also includes others who are so close to me and mean so much in my life.

 

One such person is Simon, a Sydneysider who would often venture to his beloved Bangkok which is where I met him.  Like all my family, he is a good and kind person, he has his own brokenness and his own strengths, he shares both friendship and love.  He is a dear person as are all the members of my family.  Each has their story they bring to the table.  The good and bad bits all make up their story, make up our shared story and all is accepted for that is who we are. 


Family is more than just a given nuclear unit.  It is where we place our heart and open it up to others who take us in and together we become one in some funny way.   

Yatesie - what better friend in life.

I have come to Sydney for Provincial Chapter.  I arrived here on Monday and one of the first things I did when getting here was ring my close mate and confidante, my companero - Brian Yates.  There was no answer.  Then that afternoon, I am shown a Sydney Archdiocesan email advising of the death that day of one of their priests - Brian Yates.

I am overcome that on this very day Brian dies.  So instead of seeing my mate again, I go to his funeral.  What can one say?

Brian was an icon of the Church in Australia, being such a spiritual leader and mentor to so many, a kind and generous man, a good priest.  Yes, Brian was a needy man, knowing his own fragility but that was part of what made him, not destroy him.  He was a man who would take in his fellow priests in the midst of their own vulnerability and fragility and just befriend them as an equal partner, a fellow wounded healer.  There were no pretensions about Brian.  It was all compassion, openness and true friendship.

I do not know what to say about Brian as it is all a bit much for me at the moment.  I just want to share my close mate, a man who gave hospitality to so many along the way, a man who took me in and showed me love.  He taught me about communio.  He looked after me when I was down, as I looked after him when he was down.  This is what life is all about - looking after each other as friends on the journey.

Here I am at Chapter where we are discussing yet again community and religious life.  I knew community with Brian because we just lived it and discussed it along the way.  I will miss you Brian but I know you are happy and whole with God.  What better end to a great adventure on this earth.  Love you, mate.

My Chaotic Bangkok - Hope is Eternal

We live in the era of the "new norm", or so I keep hearing and keep using as a basis for explaining away bizarre happenings and behaviors in our world.  Well, such an age is also chaotic or as this book I saw names it - we live in an age of disruption.

This helps me to understand my Bangkok but the fact is that my Bangkok is just like this by its very nature.  It is nothing new.

The latest happening that I am trying to get my head around is the present rapid decline of my American male neighbor.  I hope and pray his decline leads to a recovery but I  doubt it, or so experience tells me.

My US neighbor is only a little older then I am but his history is very different.  It includes a military tour of duty in Iraq which may explain his state as I think he is suffering ongoing PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder).  He is the nicest and most gentle guy.  That is why his present predicament is all so doubly tragic.

Basically, he came to Bangkok a lost soul, looking for drink and women and found both.  His nirvana?  No!  Both, as he has abused them, have served to cause his destruction.  All his money is gone on his Thai wife whom he met at a bar and left him when the bank account was empty.  That left drink which is literally killing him as, to save money, he gets his kicks on cheap, local whiskey which kills the brain cells.

Where he finds himself now is that, while drunk, he fell in his room and suffered a bad break to his left arm.  He badly needs an operation but is held back by being in denial and having no money.  I could go further but no need to and I truly want to respect my neighbor's dignity as he is a likable guy and a man with a good heart.

He got himself into this mess and I am called in as the "neighborhood padre" but what can I do?  My Bangkok is full of lost souls.  Some come with empty hearts in search of somewhere to fill them with love but they go about it all the wrong way or just know no better.  They end up in relationships where both parties seemingly use and abuse each other for their own needs.  Destruction is inevitable. Tragic.

This is not my whole Bangkok but definitely a part of it.  I stand back and at times I become entangled in it as I see ones I know destroying their souls and I reach out in bewilderment, not knowing what to do except just stand by their side in disbelief and keep up hope for their humanity, as despite all they are good people and we are all in this journey together. 

Life is Fragile

Crowds at the central Skytrain station following a breakdown in the system. 

It was Friday afternoon peak hour and to get anywhere at that time, I always go skytrain or underground.  If neither takes you to where you want to go, I would say stay at home as the traffic would be impossible with major roads becoming like a car park.

Well, it didn't work last Friday as I discovered after already starting my journey.  Reason was a system failure on a skytrain line and the result was a "no standing room available" platform at the central station.  To me, it spoke of what happens when a city becomes dependent on a mode of transport which then has a problem - chaos.  .

Life is fragile.  It can easily become undone.   What to do when it does?   One needed response is patience.  Another is understanding.  And, of course, be extra kind to those sharing the same experience.  Otherwise, it could become bedlam.

Life does not always go as we plan or would like.  So we always have to have Plan B, C, D ... ready.  Such is life.

Local Street Knowledge

Bangkok traffic at 6.45am

My usual daily routine is that I wake and leave for the office at 5.30am.  Why do I leave so early?  Well today I left at 6.15am and this picture shows the traffic on a local road near to my office at 6.50am.  This is why I leave so early.  Traffic! 

Leave later and an easy 30 minute trip door to door can take an extra hour.  What a waste of time!  The added advantage is that if I start early, I finish early and beat the traffic in the opposite direction at the end of the day. 

Am I ruled by traffic?  No.  Just by what makes good sense in one's local scene.  Best to live one's life with the best possible ease. 

LIFE

This week, I was on a few days retreat up in the north.  I went to a place called Chomtong, an hour's drive south of Chiang Mai where my friend Br Anurak has a community development mission at the foot of the mountains.  He has given it an interesting name - CLUMP (Communal Life of Love and Unity of the Mountain People).

The name does not betray how beautiful and rich the country is.  It maybe reflects more how the people up in the mountains live remote and poor lives, seemingly leading nowhere, especially for the youth.  It is to these people that Br A has dedicated his life and mission, working with them together as a community, so as to empower them and better their lives.  It is about moving from dependency and poverty but not simply to being independent and rich.  The latter is not the goal or the answer.  In the midst of all that goes on, being there nourishes one's soul.

One product they grow, produce and market is coffee.  They grow the coffee trees up in the mountains where these Karen people live and where it is cooler.  They then bring the beans down to the CLUMP centre where everything is set up for processing and marketing and then onto sale in their coffee shops in Bangkok and Chiang Mai.  It is an amazing operation.  Just as amazing as the operation is to see little insights given by nature as Br A and his community do their business.

For me, a city boy, one such simple but amazing insight is that the coffee trees are planted under already existing big trees.  This means there is no need to pull down trees to make way for your crop and the big trees look after the smaller coffee trees.  So your crop blends into the natural setting with the big trees acting as big brother.   It is like an act of solidarity by nature where all participants give and protect life together. 

This is what Brother's mission is all about - nurturing life - and you do it by adopting and building up and not destroying to make way; by using the resources you have and not imposing from outside.  Life is quality and nourishing like a good cup of coffee. LIFE is his brand name.  Life is about being interdependent.

Visakha Buddha Day

Tuesday was a Buddhist holiday, a day which remembers Buddha's birth, death and enlightenment - all in one.  Quite resourceful really how they organize it.  For some in my Bangkok, this day is one of those no alcohol days that they so dread.  Life is fleeting.  So what is one day without alcohol at the bars?  Life and death, hellos and goodbyes are everyday realities.

My great Irish neighbour moves out this week.  A sad moment to farewell a good friend in my Bangkok but as ever such goings highlight a central element of my Bangkok - it is most transitory.  People come and go.  Nothing remains permanent.  That is life. 

So the wisdom of Buddhism to remember all of Buddha's major movements in one day.  A reflection on how temporary life is. Buddhism focuses on the suffering and impermanence of life.  We come, we go; life goes on.  Quite freeing all this really as it tells us that no one is indispensable. We make decisions, we move on and life evolves, and evolves in ways we could never imagine or plan.  Life, and not just Thailand, is truly amazing.  I could never plan it any better myself.

A new store in my Bangkok where there was a massage shop.  Businesses come and go.  So what next? 

Shop until you drop

Chinatown on a Saturday morning

On a hot, steamy morning, crowds team into the narrow alleyways of Chinatown in the search of a bargain.  I had joined them when I went along for the ride with Om on his now weekly excursion there as part of his new business.  What he does is buy drinking containers which he then sells through family, friends, work and Facebook for a small profit.  He does it because he enjoys it, giving him an extra interest and the people contact on which he thrives.   It is amazing how people can make money.  These drinking containers are all the fashion at the moment and I live in a society where fashion rules.

So I went for the experience to see the business and found myself being overcome by both the heat and the crowds.  It was all a bit much.  I watched all these people shopping for bargains and thought I would rather pay the extra at a local stall and save all the discomfort.  Still I wanted to see what Om does on a Saturday at Chinatown and it was something different for me, an adventure. I got to see what all these other people do as well for a bargain or to do some business themselves. 

One of the pillars of Bangkok is shopping.  I would name the other two as being food and tourism.  Of course, there is much more here with Bangkok being a huge city and the political and business capital of Thailand.  Shopping is fun for some but I think it hard work.  It is business, and serious business.  You fight for every baht.  Drop the price by 10 baht to 140 baht and you draw the crowd.  I just stood back and watched and wondered.  Shop until you drop?  It is more likely that you will collapse from the heat or get pushed over by the crowd. 

Thank God for our garbo!

5.30am on a Monday during a storm.  Ever faithful!

It is the start of another week.  It is 5.30am Monday morning and I am at the bus stop, waiting to get the bus for work.  I always go early to beat the traffic and get in and do some work before mass.  I figure that this way I can also leave early.  I am up anyway.  So it all makes sense.

Well, this particular morning, I left extra early as there was a storm about to begin.  I find myself at the bus stop and am there as usual with the rubbish men out getting the rubbish, which they do each morning.  Then it struck me as I was there waiting in the rain.  Here they are ever faithful to their task even in a storm.  Their daily task is hard enough, being dirty and smelly, but today it is even more arduous with their getting wet in the rain.   Without doubt, they are among our daily unsung heroes as what they do for all of us is really quite amazing, especially as I see rubbish pile up in my Bangkok and see how it is all handled by hand.

Maybe they just love their job or get great job satisfaction but I wonder.  Maybe it is the best job they can get and they are happy to have done a good job each day.  Well, good on them.  Whatever their story, they do a job that is necessary for our daily existence in our city.  Without them, I could only imagine what a disaster my Bangkok would become.  Thank God for the garbo, as we say back home.   ("Garbo" is Australian slang for garbage man.  We so love to shorten our words.)

If we ever think our lot is tough, spare a thought for the garbo out in the streets early each morning doing a hard and dirty task for us.  Then when in the rain - Amazing!  Maybe it is fun and there is the camaraderie but I also think - Yuck! I truly am thankful for what they do for me and all of us. We have so many heroes in our life and many we never even know or recognize.  As I see my local garbo on a rainy morning, I am thankful for him and I am thankful for my own lot in life.  Together we share our Bangkok and each of us has our needed role and our place. 

PS - It is Thursday and the garbo was not out at the usual time.  I wondered where he was.  I guess we all need a sleep-in or a day-off, even the garbo.)

Communio, it is.

Well, a week later, communio does win the day.

Last Friday, I had another first in my Bangkok.  Even after over 12 years here, I keep having firsts.  It is that sort of place.  It was a ride on a motor bike but not just another ride in Bangkok where bikes are a way of life.  The difference this time was that I was on the back of a motor bike during heavy rain.  It is not what I would normally do but I had no choice as otherwise I would be stuck waiting out a storm into the night.  So onto the back of Om's bike I went and into the rain.  The ride was wet and wild. and free.  The worse that happened was I got wet and that was no harm.  It was such good fun but still I will not be doing it every week.

If there is to be a deeper interpretation of the experience, it is to be found in the sense of freedom felt and the fun enjoyed with a friend.  Is that not communio, at least in part?

Then in this same week, another experience was to be part of management meeting at my workplace.  What I was hearing being described by staff was a closed system, a system that was not welcoming and not experiencing great joy.  Its pay-off is something else - security and control.  The latter does not work, while the former does not assure happiness and is not everything.  My line to that meeting was to open our minds and be open to the new.  Compared to my simple motor bike ride, this experience was deadening.  Not the way to go.

As we come together, it is about diversity and it doers involve disagreement but let us not overlook the joy of life.  Life is not all hard work. It is much more - sharing, enjoying, working out issues together, building a bit of harmony.  Communio does win the day and a simple life experience of a motor bike ride with a friend reminded me of that.

I have no photo this week as I want to share the exhilaration of my ride in the rain and not of a depressing meeting.  Fact is I could not use my smartphone in the heavy rain.  One also has to be realistic. 

It's Communio

I am surrounded in church by eternal talk of community, by people who espouse great ideas of love and concern.  Then I have an experience with them of our shared reality and think - are we looking at the same reality?  Such nearly unreal thinking and talk seem to be what make church tick but so much of it is talk as when the crunch comes - where is community?  When you really need someone - where are they?  When there is an issue - where is the compassion, the rational thought?  Love and community can be used as one's smoke screen or front for something else sought.  The question can be - What is one's real agenda?

I am expected to listen to everyone else, and I try my best, but at times I find myself asking - Who listens to me?  I am expected to give and do for the other, and I try my best, but I find at times asking - When will it all just take a break?  Then, no matter how hard you try, when you do not deliver as others may want or like, they become difficult, complaining, confronting but of course remaining ever loving and acting as good members of the community.  Fascinating.  What to make of it? 

When someone does not get the listening ear they want or the style of service they expect, why don't they just stand back and think for a moment - no one means anyone any harm and everyone is doing their best with who they are.  Then the old adage from scripture studies comes to the fore - unity within diversity.  What a great motto for love and community.  I would propose that what we are really searching for is not community but communio, a coming together of hearts and minds.  .

Another Year Begins

Rambo John

Another year has begun.  Watch out!  In some ways, it has started quietly with light traffic on Bangkok roads as we await the return of all our residents gone away for the holidays and with cooler weather due to a storm or two.

The New Year was fun.  If you can't beat them, join them.  So I got my weapon of choice and went out dressed in shorts and t-shirt ready to play water with everyone else.  It was fun but I just wish that they would not use such cold water.

Water is the key symbol for the season and it is used in both dignified ways and outrageous ways to give a blessing and to have fun.  Sometimes it is over the top in the water throwing field but generally people just enjoy.

A person I know through my work with Caritas made her comment from Italy.  Wouldn't it would be good if we had out our fights using water pistols instead of lethal weapons?  That may seem simplistic but I thought that a rather smart insight.  In this innocent comment shared may lie a message for the new year - act in simple ways for peace.  There may be another message that tells us wisdom is found in the simplest of ways.  Wisdom is not rocket science and is not confined to the realm of some assigned elite.  Wisdom is ours.  Get in touch with our wisdom and follow it.     

Happy New Year!

Water pistol of your choice 

Yes, it is New Year in Thailand this week.  No, I am not going mad.

At this time each year, Buddhist countries in this region celebrate their local New Year.  I do have to say that this is the only country I have lived in where they celebrate three New Years - 1st January, Chinese New Year and now Songkran which is on 13, 14 and 15 April.  Each New Year gets better with the third one being the biggest and best with its being major holiday time and its real sense of Thai fun at play, namely the country becomes the stage for huge water fights.  It is water pistols everywhere. 

Beware!  There is a cost to be paid.  You have to be prepared to go colourful and you have to be prepared to get wet as well as wet others. So one is armed at all times with their water pistol for both fun and protection.  If you don't like it, there is nothing you can do about it.  Just join in or stay at home. 

Happy New Year!

The Songkran look.   

It is Easter, you know.

 Let there be light.  Light is the central symbol for Easter which became clear to me as I celebrated the Easter vigil last Saturday evening in the French church in my Bangkok. The celebration began with lighting and blessing the Easter fire outside.  The Easter candle was lit from it and then taken inside to light up a dark church.  So all could see.   Then I heard the story of creation.  On the first day, God created light.

Still we live in a world that cannot see.  That was so clear to me on my first day back at the office after Easter, seeing the pollution that darkened the sky in my Bangkok from the vantage point of my desk. No blue sky and sunshine here.  Yet what do we do about it?  Nothing?  Just put on the face masks? 




We have eyes but can we see?  It is Easter and I live in a Buddhist country where hardly anyone has any idea of such a Christian feast or western holiday.  It just means nothing to them.  That is okay but I mention it as it is so strange for me living where Christmas and Easter - both major feasts and times in the calendar - mean nothing to those living around you.  For all the others, they are just days in everyday life.  After over 12 years here, I have never got used to that. 

Do we know what we celebrate this week?  Do we appreciate the fullness of life and all its greatness?  Do we treat life as a banquet or as just a daily snack?  As I learn that a cousin has just died, it makes me realize yet again how short life is and how I need to enjoy it and relish it while I have it.  I keep saying this but do I?

It is not about being perfect. It is about love.

I recently read a line from Richard Rohr which has stayed with me as it says it all for me in facing life's challenges of the past week.   It goes like this:
What matters in life is not about being perfect for it is really about love.
The point is that God does not love us because we are perfect but so that we can change (or maybe more so that we can grow).

For someone brought up on an education that had perfection as one of its keystones, this is a powerful statement, even many years after leaving school.  Perfection stays with me even if I know it does not work.  Love is what matters.  Wow!  Follow that instead of aiming for perfection.

As I face issues in my work and ministry, I find this insight empowering.  Why?  Simply it tells me not to focus so much on what goes wrong and then trying to right it.  Nothing and no one, including me, is perfect.  Imperfection is part of life.  I know this but that 'perfection principle' keeps hitting me from the gut, as they say.

This goes along with another line of late that stays with me.  A movie producer was asked how he was able to face the major task of working on his film so as to scrub out one disgraced, lead actor and put in another. His line was simple.
I do not want people telling me about all the problems.  I just want to focus on what can be done to move ahead. 

So what is the power of the message?  Love allows us to make mistakes.  We just learn and grow and keep on moving on and keep on loving - self as much others.

For this entry, I will follow my own learning and not strive for perfection.  This means no picture this time.  Happy Holy Week!

St Joseph

St Joseph 

Monday was the feast of St Joseph and our boss here is Bishop Joseph Pibul.  So it was his feast day.  With his being at the office that day, we naturally  celebrated his feast day.  As we acknowledged his feast day, I saw how fatherly he was in dealing with the staff and how well he did it.  It wasn't just what he said but how he said it and with a pleased smile. 

As I talked with him on that day about issues at play, I appreciated his level of understanding of the local scene and his calmness in approach, both of which I can easily lack.  I learnt from him even more about here and even after 12 years here.   One does ever learn. 

He told me how his observation was that in a discussion or a disagreement, westerners feel the need to speak out, while here they stand back, take it in and keep quiet.  Any response may happen later or just happen.  Of course, I responded quickly with - "When there is an issue of right or wrong, one has to speak".  Do we?  For ones from here, obviously not.  Or more importantly, is that the best strategy?  Sometimes not. 

He also talked about how issues are faced in our work here.  We as church leaders see justice, while the others only see hierarchy and act according to their place in the hierarchy.   I could reflect that the latter point is sad but it is true enough as I am aware that so few, even when working for the church on justice, have any great knowledge or appreciation of social justice.  There again, that is not only here.  It just is that here is where I am. 

Wisdom from the east?  Or wisdom from the heart? 

Thai Elephant Day

This week saw the annual Thai Elephant Day being celebrated.  From what I can see from a distance, it was good fun.  There should be more of it, I say, as there is not enough fun in our world.

Elephants have a revered status here.  When an elephant is injured by an old landmine from the days of the Vietnam War, it makes front page news.  The people are sad.  They even have an elephant hospital. 

I remember being at a meeting of the Thai and Myanmar churches.  One Myanmar bishop got word that his diocesan elephant died.  The man was distraught and prayed for his elephant at mass.  Even though there may have been a question of theological correctness, I was touched. 

Yet the sad side is that the very animal they revere can also be abused for the sake of tourism and commercial gain.  Such is our world.  Such is the way of humanity.  We can be so cruel, and even, or especially, towards the very ones we proclaim we love.

The way to go is to celebrate life and all that we love in it.  Let there more of it.  It is so refreshing and life giving just to see happy faces and people enjoying themselves and their elephants.   

Happy Thai Elephant Day!