Freedom!

Thailand translates into English as the Land of the Free.  I make this observation as I would name "freedom" as the theme of my Sunday just gone.

It all begun with my plan to go and see my American friend in hospital as the word was out that he was nearing death.  So I was already to go after mass to the hospital and then, 15 minutes before mass began, along comes my good friend, Freddy, to tell me that the guy had died the night before.  It was a blessed release. Still to go just like that. I was rocked.  The news stayed with me throughout mass.  No matter how much I focused on the present, my front billing was elsewhere.  My friend was free at last.

My homily at mass centred at how limited our mindset, our outlook on life can be.  It was Australia Day and so, as a good Australian, I reflected on my identity as an Australian.  I identified how I was brought up in an Irish Catholic ghetto, a ghetto I much value but is still best to be in the past as it can be all too limiting.  Our world and life are much bigger and deserve and demand much more than a ghetto mentality.  This struck me recently when talking with an Irish member of our faith community about his child's preparing for the sacraments.  He is married to a lovely Thai woman, a Buddhist.  He mentioned how they were raising their child in both faiths.  This just rocked me.  I stood back mentally and realised that this was my Irish ghetto mentality at work.  I appreciated instinctively that it has stayed with me, making its mark on me yet again after all these years.  Living here for so long, I quickly judged that he was smart and I was still held back by my ghetto mentality.  The point was about our venturing out from our ghetto or narrow mentalities to be people of vision and broad horizons for the sake of our world and faith.  How to do this? On Word of God Sunday, be nourished by the scriptures.  I was being freed.  .

Then it was onto the monthly faith sharing group where a young Indonesian woman shared about how free it is here.  Well, I just jumped straight in with my basic line that here is no freer than elsewhere.  It just may appear that way to outsiders.  Here actually life is controlled, the social structures are tight and people are very conservative. But aren't people conservative everywhere?  It is a myth that foreigners coming here land in a paradise of freedom.  Yet it remains a shared experience for so many foreigners here, me included, that freedom comes from being here.  Why is that?  I name it as the freedom that comes with being an outsider, standing on the edge of a society, not becoming a fully immersed member of it.  It is freedom that comes with being away from the familiar constraints of the home scene.   It is the freedom that comes with being foreigners as the locals do not exert the same controls over us due to our being held at a distance as unknowns.  People are yearning for freedom and looking for it in many ways.

Freedom?  Are we any freer anywhere in particular in our world?  I believe not as the constant ever remains of belonging to a common humanity. As such, no matter where we are, two principles hold.
Actions have consequences.
With freedom goes responsibility.   
And, of course, the truth sets us free.

It's the culture, stupid!

For the first time in my life, I am learning about the Three Epiphanies.  I always thought that it was a major, one off feast held on 6th January or the Sunday before that day but not so.  It is rather an Epiphany Season which features:
The adoration of Jesus by the three Magi;
The Baptism of the Lord;
The Wedding Feast of Cana.
Hence the Three Epiphanies.

I thought Epiphany simply originated from Christmas in developing the story of Jesus' birth.  IO saw Epiphany as giving the Christmas story a lovely finishing touch, but not so.  Rather I discover that Epiphany is higher in importance in the Church's liturgical calendar with its own standing.  So Epiphany is its own season following Christmas, with its own various gospel stories with their message of revealing Jesus to the nations as the Son of God and the Saviour of all humanity and history. 

Wow!  I found this mind blowing as it showed how truly narrow my world can be in the life of the universal Church.  I reflected that so much is determined for us by our limited worlds, knowledge and experience.  Truth is that there is so much to who we are and to the world to which we belong.   Living in Thailand where all, including church, is so rigidly defined by its culture, I keep having to remind myself that we belong to the universal Church, not just the Thai Church.  My experience here teaches me that our world and our church can be so limited by local culture.

Surely, this so applies to my everyday life in Thailand where culture so rules everything.  A key element to education here is the teaching of Thai values, or what is called Thainess.  As you face life here, so much is determined by culture which is ever the card that simply explains everything to life in Thailand.  It is said - "This is Thai culture" - and that is it.  But is it that simple?  Is such an approach hiding a wealth of otherness?  There is so much more to be revealed to life than what is defined by any one culture.  Our world, our life is so much bigger.  The gospel is here to transform our cultures.  I so clearly understand that after my discoveries surrounding Epiphany - a truly WOW season.

A blending of cultures

It's all about Money?

The Illusion that is Bangkok

At the end of last week, the big challenge of what would happen with my western male friend approaching death or an outcome of needed lifelong care was resolved as best could be expected.  Basically, the challenges seemed overwhelming with his having met the natural consequences of being penniless and alone in the world due to his unhealthy life choices made over many years.  A good guy but he sure made a mess of it.  When it came to the crunch, the bottom line was - who is going to pay?

Yes, the bottom line is universal.  Still there is something a bit more to here. 

What is particular to Thailand is its culture wherein so much is defined by financial transactions.  I would say that back home my parents shared their money because they loved each other.  Here it is more like you share the money so that you can love each other.  It is all in reverse.  Money appears as the bottom line for all relationships and connections in Thai society.  This same bottom line is applied to outsiders who enter into it for whatever reason.  We are all treated fairly. 

I see money here being a central expression of any social transaction.  I am willing and happy to admit I am wrong but I make observations on the basis of what I experience and know.  So much is just about money.

Maybe it is the socioeconomic reality that is hidden by the fantasy that is Bangkok, which makes all Thailand look so wealthy and gleamy.  Reality is that the country is not full of wealthy people.  The masses come from poor backgrounds and suffer due to limited education and a society that is highly controlled by powerful elites.  People have to find their bread and butter from somewhere.  This is not simple when people want better for themselves and their families within a society that offers the carrot to get a product but more readily puts up barriers to getting ahead with low wages and strong social control mechanisms to keep the masses in line. 

Maybe it is culture which is ever the ruling card here.  Culture is important everywhere but I have never been in a country where it plays such a key role.  Culture rules and defines everything here.  Once again the fantasy that is Bangkok presents a massive, sophisticated western looking city.  Do not be fooled.  This is the east.  In the east, one does not rely on government for services and help but on family and patron.

So you could say it is a society where people desperately want but have little chance of achieving.  So they get ahead on the back of others around them.  To be fair, this may be the only possible way for most.  Thailand is aptly called the land of opportunity, but sadly not opportunity possible simply through hard work and merit but more through where you are on the social ladder and through whom you know and how much they are willing to help, and they will do so for a cost.
 

A Simple Hello will do the Trick.

Sawasdee is the Thai greeting word and a key word in the Thai language, more than you may expect.  This one word says it all in Thai as it is used to say "Hello", "Goodbye", "See you later", everything.  It is used at the beginning and ending of every coming together.  It is the most important word of every conversation as, if you say nothing else, you say "Sawasdee" at the beginning and end.  What goes in between is not so important.  Actually, what is said in  between could be absolutely devastating or just say nothing at all.  What remains key is the "Sawasdee" and how you say it for no rude or lax "Sawasdees" are allowed, and absolutely frowned upon. 

In Thai,  you do not say "Happy New Year" but "Sawasdee New Year".  You greet the New Year itself, saying "Hello. New Year". 

For a culture where the greeting is so central to all conversation, communication remains ever lacking or failing.  They just do not put the same emphasis on what is spoken between the Sawasdees.  It is like the rest of the conversation does not need or demand the same level of care, attention and energy.  Amazing!

I guess Sawasdee or no Sawasdee, we are all human.  Communication remains ever challenging for all of us.

Life is Surreal in 2020

Me and my goddaughter at the beach in Thailand

I have never had a Christmas like I had in 2019.  It might just be pointing to 2020.  So what happened?

The week before Christmas, I was prepared for the visit of my goddaughter whom I had not seen since she was a baby.  That tells me how long I have been here in my Bangkok. I was happily awaiting the coming of an intelligent, smart and lively 19 year old, young woman.  After so long, I faced her coming with both a sense of excitement and trepidation.  It was all surreal, like the plot for a movie. 

Well, the movie plot got even better when, two days before her arrival, I got an emergency call that one of my western male neighbours had had a traumatic collapse and been taken to hospital unconscious. The task of helping my friend in his moment of dire need then seemed to naturally fall upon my shoulders. .  The immediate and important task was to find and contact family whom he had left behind many years ago for a life given over to addiction in Bangkok. The task was mine as no one else would do it and I knew no matter what, he was a likeable guy who deserved to be treated with dignity and shown a fair go.  This is what any decent human being would do, let alone being the work of a priest.  This brought me into dealing literally with life and death issues for my friend. 

So unfolded my pre-Christmas human drama which spoke of the paradoxes of life.  I was caught between hosting the young, lively and engaging goddaughter and my neighbour in a coma in ICU at hospital who needed someone to act for him.  The discrepancy between the two experiences happening in parallel was just mind boggling.

The goddaughter is young and vibrant, full of life and hope.  My neighbour was showing no life.  What was his future?  Where was the hope?  One had a life full of friends, while the other was alone and had no one close to him to care for him.

Is this life?  Yes, it is.  The good, the bad and the ugly - they all make up life.  It is all a part of who we are.  In both stories of my human drama, there was to be a resolution but each was very different.  One was a new found friendship leading to a fuller flourishing into the future.  The other was about my neighbour dealing with loss even in an unconscious state and come to an end of what was a life lost through missed opportunities and bad choices.  One spoke of transforming life through friendship and striving.  The other spoke of the transformation we all meet through loss in life. 

This is truly Christmas which is not about surfacy, temporary happiness but joy that comes with true love that sees us through to the highest heights and the lowest depths in life.

Ho! Ho! Ho!  Let 2020 roll on. 

2020 is looking rather surreal.