Breakfast in bed

It is time for something lighter. 

On watching a HBO movie with Om, my great Thai friend, there was a scene which featured breakfast in bed.  On seeing what was happening, Om asked me - What are they doing?
I replied - Breakfast in bed.
He asked - What is that?

I soon realized that such a concept had no place in his life experience.  Om is a country lad, originating from the Northeast, otherwise known as Isan.  Knowing their life style, people sleep on mats placed on the floor.  There may not be a bed in the house or definitely at least not everybody sleeps in a bed.  When they wake up, they roll up their mat and put it in the corner of the room or else it sits there to serve another purpose during the day.

As for meals, they sit together on the floor around the mat used for this purpose.  So bed and eating just do not go together.  Actually, they would not even enjoy it as they so love being with each other that eating on your own in bed would make no sense or just be quite absurd. 

This is a classic example of how language and culture go together.  As a rural Thai, you may understand every word of this phrase but in standing together, they make no sense as you have nothing on which to base its meaning. 

Language is funny. Language is more than words.  Language is culture. 

He is coming to town. Guess who?

Guess who is coming to town?

You better watch out;
You better not cry;
Better not pout.
I'm telling you why.
Santa Claus is coming to town.

No, I am not going mad.  I know that it is still two months to Christmas  It just is that as this Papal Visit gets closer and as I hear more about what goes on around it, it sounds more like Santa Claus is coming rather than the Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Roman Catholic Church.

What I see first hand from church is that there is fake news about the visit concerning masses and tickets.  But this is not all.  There is also the touting of free tickets to papal masses with one payment for a ticket I heard of being AUS$1,500.  Then the best was yet to come.  A Chinese woman arrived from China, coming unannounced to the Bishops' Conference to get 120 tickets for the papal mass.  Sadly for her, she just assumed that she would get the tickets by simply coming to Bangkok. No such luck!

It gets even better for when I told the story to a bishop here about the Chinese woman coming all the way from China to get a ticket, he just said that she could have his ticket.  Maybe he will join me at the coffee shop on the day.  I wonder if he would wear his mitre on the day. That would be something in the middle of Buddhist Bangkok.

This is all better than Christmas.  Santa never causes such a stir on his annual arrival in town and never so much fun. I wonder if the pope knows what he is causing in coming to town.  It is not all about saying our prayers.  So, you had better watch out and be wary when the papal sleigh lands in my Bangkok.  .

Who is Geoffrey?

Christ Church, Bangkok

After fourteen years in Bangkok, I have just gone to my first funeral here in a Christian church.  It was down the road at Christ Church, an Anglican church for many foreigners in this big city. 

An English guy, I had never met but knew of through a good friend, had died suddenly a week earlier of a heart attack at the age of 79.  His name was Geoffrey.  I discover he had come as a teacher, spending half his life in Bangkok as is the way of many single, western guys coming to Thailand.  They come; they stay.   

Here he found love and meaning that sustained him in life.  He was obviously a good teacher but more than that he was a good and kind man who sought out to help those he mat in need. 

My good friend's partner was very close to Geoffrey.  He so felt this death of a dear friend.  As my friend was now away, I happily stood in and went with his partner to the funeral so as to offer needed support at this time.  On the day, the chief mourners featured Geoffrey's still legal Thai wife, his past boyfriend, plus his present one.  As my good friend's partner was Geoffrey's past boyfriend, I ended up in the front row. 

The whole story sounds complicated but it is not really.  Such is my Bangkok which seems so complex but really is very basic, even if at times messy.  It is a place where I find myself in the midst of many seemingly complex or exotic webs but really they are just part of human life lived in its many intricate possibilities. My Bangkok teaches me that Geoffrey's is yet another human story that mirrors choices made by ordinary citizens as they endeavour to live life as they know and experience it and as best they can.  There is no one straight path for all.  With all three loves, present and ex, gathered, the message of the day at Christ Church was clear.  Geoffrey was a gifted teacher, a kind and generous soul with a great sense of humour, loved by many. 

My Bangkok puts me in touch with the goodness and absurdities of humanity in ways I never imagined back home.  That is one of its gifts.  It may be amazing Thailand but it surely is that life is amazing and to be deeply treasured in all its manifestations. 

Yes, he is a rock star.

Well, at mass on Sunday, the shattering announcement was made - all tickets for the papal mass here next month are gone.  Pandemonium hit!  People are hurt.  People are not listening.  People will do whatever they can to get a ticket that no longer exists.

I made my serious, but humorous response, that I would watch the event from my favourite coffee shop.  Ones were shocked.  I had to go.  How could I not go?  If anyone had to go, it was me, or so I was told.  Really? 

The pope is my hero.  Why?  He makes amazing statements, using simple images and analogies.   He is a great user of symbols, giving powerful messages in simple ways.  He is leading us along, radical new paths.  He is a revolutionary for love and the gospel, while just being who he is - a simple and humble man.  To some, he may seem as being too timid in leading change but, hey!  This is the Catholic Church!  It would be like trying to get the Titanic floating again. 

Now the pope is heading my way and close up I am seeing what surrounds him.  I will name it as the "papal entourage" as it is what and who go with him.  I see the church politics, I see the business being done and money being made.  I see a church that does not get his message but wants him in their backyard supporting their agenda.  There is so much other unwanted and other agenda.  It all eats at my faith.  So I make my own choice.  I must stand back or otherwise this papal visit could destroy my faith. 

The pope remains ever my hero but he will never be my rock star.