They keep doing it

The latest news on the opening up of Thailand into the next new normal.  

There is a well known, reflective comment line on Thailand so often used by expats here: TIT - This is Thailand.  It is just so understood by us that you just have to smile as another bizarre happening occurs; as yet again an inexplicable behaviour is exhibited; as once more English goes haywire and you know automatically - TIT.  And it's true.  There is something about Thais that they always want to appear exemplary but then they don't quite make it which makes it all the more funny.    

This week, they announced the final phase of opening up after lockdown during the pandemic.  So it is all go, even for soapy massage.  Many foreigners, as do I, find this so funny for wearing the face mask, social distancing and washing your hands are ever the keys to fighting the virus.  Then the question arises on no other ground than logic - how do you get a soapy massage and keep your social distance and keep your face mask in one piece?  This is so funny.  It makes no sense but then -TIT. 

Many millions of years ago, the dinosaurs ruled the planet.  Then all of a sudden, gone!  Gone!  What happened?  The theory is that a meteor hit earth, destructively impacting upon the world's climate and environment, and then simply everything is changed.   This is a great lesson for all of us.  Watch out!  Never become a dinosaur! 

How much longer then does Thailand keep being labelled with TIT?  One could ask a similar question about anywhere.  One side says forever but I wonder as our whole world is hit today by our own form of a meteor - a pandemic.  As a result, change is happening, like it or not.  Change now is inevitable.  We will not always remain the same.  As I keep hearing and seeing, we are living in the next new normal which has hit here like everywhere else.  Not even Thailand is protected from this world shattering event. 

Can they keep doing what they do, getting the same results?  TIT forever?  I am not so sure.  Keep a smile and we see.    
😅

  

We can become outdated

An Irish friend retired here after working many years in Africa with the UN.  As a result, he has many good friends from his days there, including a group of Irash missionary priests based in Kenya.  He often talks to me about them.  Then this week he sent me an interview done with one of them on 20th June.  

Fr Gabriel is a missionary working with the poor in Mombasa, Kenya.  His life and mission are committed to social justice and the poor.  As I heard him talk, his theological base is the poor, looking at the world from the downside, and liberation theology.  He spoke as a man of passion for the poor and their plight.  As I listened to him speak, I reflected on my own lot in life.  It struck me how we can become so out of date, even in the most commendable pursuits.  

He talked of where the Church has failed in Kenya, choosing power over service, with bishops preferring to visit the house of the President over the houses of the poor.  He spoke of how it all changed 20 years ago.  What happened 20 years ago in Kenya?  I don't know but I did think from my own experience, how Church has suffered under the issue of sexual abuse, how younger priests can be more clerical and less focsued on the poor and social justice, how the Church has lost its label of authenticity in society because of being seen as irrelevant or self-engrossed.  

As I was reflecting, it was striking me that I was feeling negative about what I was hearing.  I had to stand back as I do not know Fr Gabriel and why should I be critical of him, a man taking risks and doing great work?   Then it hit me.  Listening to him was putting me in touch with a fear within, the fear of how we can easily become outdated and left behind.  If that happens, what do we do?  In fact, most do nothing. 

This time of the next new normal calls forth risky initiatives and creativity, or else we do face the possibility of becoming outdated.  So we need to move beyond the safe shelters of the institutions of our time, acknowledging who and what really matters.  We are all sacred, created and loved by God.  We show that not just by what we do in safe, institutional confines but by what we do on the margins of life.  We need more than institutions to sustain us and make us relevant.  

In the words of a great theologian of last century, Karl Rahner: 

"The Christian of this century will be a mystic or nothing at all"

Extraordinary!  To think it took a virus and an Irish priest in Kenya to remind me.     

It's now or never

Urbi and Orbi Blessing - 27th March, 2020

I sit with two conversations of the past week, shared with my two close friends and mentors here in Bangkok.  

One friend left me with this line - "Like it or not, you represent the Church as an institution to younger generations who no longer look to institutions.  You need to preach revolution every Sunday." 

The other friend left me with this - "We have failed our world."

Hmm!  Where does this leave me?  

I find more telling the words from a third and most significant friend, even if far away, Pope Francis.  He reminds me that the gospel message is radical, calling me to transforming the world in the midst of this extraordinary age.  He keeps returning to preaching revolution, the revolution of love and tenderness, amidst the many pandemics facing humanity.  Risky stuff but the vision is ever strong and ever compelling.    

Yes!  Viva la revolucion!  Great stuff!  

My life remains centred around possibilities of change and transformation.  This has been a constant and annoying quest in my life.  Now in the midst of this next new, world normal, I stand at a junction in life where conjoining external forces are telling me it is now or never in my world for the revolution to occur.  Change is like the apple on the tree, simply waiting to be grabbed.  Then as I share with renewed vigour my cry that the revolution is now, all the old messages come back to me, telling me why it is not possible.  

 

I want the revolution to happen, and I want it now, but I want it to unfold my way and see the results I want.  Not so simple!!  So I am ever left floundering, continually discussing issues and strategies, while feeling those unfulfilled hopes biting away at me.    

I want the revolution but I want it with my chosen companions; I want it to happen for me in manageable ways; I want it to come easy.  Not to be!  Truth is the overdue revolution for the sake of the gospel is hard work and risky.  It will necessitate stepping outside of the known, the safe and the comfortable.  It will be led by those who seize the moment, choosing to stand firm in the face of all adversity and never losing sight of the vision.         

It's now or never.  Forget the risks.  Surge ahead.  Carpe diem! 

All Lives Matter

There are many pandemics in our world, not just Covid-19.  Pope Francis was the first one I heard preaching this message but now I hear many using this line which is now being applied to the "Black Lives Matter" Movement.  Even such a general name of a pandemic is too local as racism is universal, not being aimed at black coloured people alone.  

I know that only too well living in Thailand. 

In the Bangkok press this week, an opinion  piece bemoans the local culture where "attitudes prioritise agreement over objection, complacency over resolution, image over voice, peace over justice".  So social and personal conflicts fail to be confronted and resolution is hardly ever found.  It is not there are no bad behaviours at play in a society based on such principles.  Rather it is they are never acknowledged and life goes on in a somewhat socially sterile but unhealthy bubble, with people suffering without public acknowledgement of their suffering. 

Truth is there are many pandemics.  While not wanting to downplay it, it is not just a pandemic of how black lives are abused, but a pandemic of how human lives universally are treated, devalued and unappreciated.      

Out of this health pandemic, respect is the key theme I see arising regarding human behaviour.  Leadership that shows no respect for the other is not leadership but control.   Authority that shows no  respect for the other is not authority but brute power.  Care that shows no respect for the the other is not care but compulsory humanitarianism.  

Respect is at the heart of being a good and decent human being.  Without it, we may survive but we will go nowhere. With it, all lives matter.   

So much more is possible

Do we really appreciate how much is possible in life?  I believe in the more; I hope this but then, as I look at protests on both sides of the Pacific, I wonder if we ever learn.  Truth is life can be cruel and people can be ruthless.  Life can become stuck in ruts that lead nowhere.   

In these extraordinary times, people either shine for who they are or be seen for who they are not.  Amidst the many characters in my everyday life, I see: 
The questioning citizen, despairing at humanity - how can this be?
The self-engrossed citizen, lost in their own narrative - where am I?
The reaching out citizen, thinking of the other in their need - how can I help?
The reflective citizen, looking to the better future - what can be made of this? 

No citizen is simply slotted into one particular thinking box but may slide from one to the other.  One thought pattern may easily feed into the other, allowing both positive and negative results.  Such are the risks of the time.  

 

Meanwhile, tried leadership, in church and society and at all levels, is showing its incompetency in not asking the questions and just continuing their known and tired ways of acting out of power and control.  So, they become antiquated for the challenge of new and creative leadership in extraordinary times.    

Back to my four model citizen types, they speak of grassroots people who are floundering like everyone else but are raising the questions and struggling to find their place in an unknown world.  In this way, they are showing signs of new life and new leadership for a new future.   Without even knowing it, citizens are giving witness to the reality named by Pope Francis as, "We are in the same boat, all of us fragile and disoriented".  It is questioning and not assuming that will lead us forward.  Integrity is at the heart of seeing that so much more is possible and needed, and allowing it to happen.