On the Buses in My Bangkok

My Limousine

Using public transport is a great way to know your local situation and to know you within it.  It all happens on the road, where you encounter the local populous, enter into conversations and observe your fellow passengers, as well as look out for yourself.  It is a real eye opener into life on the ground running, so to speak.  

Like life, it is all a mixed bag.  I had my bus ride from hell, when a bus conductor yelled at me, on her getting frustrated, with my persistence, in trying to pronounce a local destination properly.  A long term result was that I now know how to pronounce that name so as to be understood.  It is experiences like this, from which one learns a language.  

Apart from my horror stories, my catalogue of bus stories are full of learning, friendly encounters and, yes, love.  I observe and so learn about people and their lives.  They are tired; they keep going every day; they even struggle to get on and off, despite all odds.  I have had the friendly conversations in Thai or the occasional, inquisitive enquiry about where I am going.  I exchanged phone numbers once with a fellow passenger, a friendly and talkative female.  Then I once sang a song with a bus conductor and one even told me that she loved me.  I replied that I love her long time, but never saw her again.  

On the Bangkok buses, the bus conductors are the powerful figures.  They do more than sell bus tickets.  Their work is long and strenuous.  They are the ones who can make or break your journey, with either a smile or an occasional frown.      

Riding the buses opens my eyes to the richness, vibrancy and diversity of the life I share in My Bangkok.  It is an everyday context, within which I discover more about my identity and the identity of others, with whom I share my daily life.  Riding the buses in My Bangkok is a vital way of my healthily asserting myself into local life, of which I am a part.  It is all about so much more than riding buses to get places.  It is a vehicle for learning about who I am in my community, for knowing my place in it, for assuring me of my role in it.  No matter who I am, here I belong for now and here I have my invaluable role to play.  We belong together,  Together, we create that rich, vibrant and diverse world.    

It's all yours for the taking

The Gift of Simon

Symbols offered at the Buddhist Temple for Simon's Journey Beyond Death 

Who is Simon?  He is a 53 year old, Aussie guy who, on dying in My Bangkok, came unexpectedly last week into my life.   Here was his Thai home, shared with his wife.  Dying in Bangkok resulted in his parents and family in Australia not being near him, when they so wanted and needed to be at his side.  I was called in as the priest, serving as the link person between Thailand and Australia, at this crucial time.  Once again, as a priest, it has been my privilege to enter into the lives of others at a most intimate moment.  In sharing their Simon, their grief and their need, they taught me so much about life and humanity.    

My years as a priest tell me that, whether 1 or 91, death is never easy.  Whenever it happens, it gives rise to different stories, to varying levels of loss, pain and tragedy.  My years as a priest, living away from home, tell me that to have someone close to you die, far away, provides its own unique loss and challenge.  In such an eventuality, what is natural and human becomes both more complex and ever more desired.  It is natural and human to celebrate together the life of a lost, loved one.  It is natural and human to yearn for closeness around that person who has been so much a part of who they are.  The challenge becomes how.  

Despite any frustration or difficulty created by distance and separation, the determinedly held, dual focus of a wife in Bangkok and a family in Melbourne was to give Simon, their dear one, a funeral with dignity and to comfort each other in their shared loss.  At the momentous time of Simon's death, what ran the show and held it together was their love for Simon and for each other.  Throughout the week, they truly cared for each other. Their glance towards each other was ever kind, never mean, never selfish. 

Is this not a great gift to carry with oneself for life?  God cares for Simon; God cares for us. May we ever trust in a kind and generous God, no matter what may befall us.  What more could we want in life?  

When the night has been too lonely
And the road has been too long
And you think that love is only
For the lucky and the strong
Just remember in the winter
Far beneath the bitter snows
Lies the seed that with the sun's love
In the spring becomes the rose. 
Bette Midler's The Rose

It's not easy being green

Kermit, the Frog, of the Muppets

Among other things, Kermit, the Frog, of the Muppets, was a singer.  For me, his greatest song was "It's Not Easy Being Green".   How true!  It isn't easy being me in a fractured and crazy world, but this is where I am, like it or not, and I will be me as best I can.  

We are given one opportunity to live life.  So make the most of it.  An enlightened humanist may simply say that one's opportunity is most limited due to the limitations of a flawed world and a flawed humanity.  That makes sense, especially if one is poor or marginalized in anyway.  Faith, however, gives another prognosis.  

With the eyes of faith, life's possibilities are there for anyone to grasp, as we are all created by the one and loving God.  As such, we share in the one human dignity, with each called to their own greatness.   No matter who we are, faith reminds us that God creates us for good, raising us up from the power of evil.  Still, we must keep a sense of perspective, being ever humble.  .  

We are limited because life is fragile, because we are frail and so we fail to see, or are stopped from seeing, what is possible.  Despite whatever holds us back, we have the enduring opportunity to be true to ourselves, to reach that greatness that is the destiny of each of us.   

As I write this, I feel like I am writing propaganda or sweet words of nothingness, but I am not.  What is wrong with our world is not God's vision for humanity and creation, but we who make up the world.  Both we as individuals and as mutual humanity are challenged to be mature, to uphold systems and ways of behaviour that speak of a maturity, that allows for human flourishing.  God is there to lift us up all the way.  That is not trite ideology.  This is the real meat of life.  

As Kermit says in his song: 

"Why wonder I am green, and it'll do fine, it's beautiful, and I think it's what I want to be".  

Absurdity of Life

The burning bush is the symbol for Season of Creation 2022 

We may think the gospel is absurd but is not our world absurd?  

War is absurd but we keep doing it.  Climate change is absurd, while we present as unable or unwilling to act on it.  Countries are rapidly tearing themselves apart, ever focusing on what divides, rather than what unites.  We profess love in our homes, while far too many are torn apart by violence.  Too many people suffer hunger and poverty, and why?  

All are destructive events, causing harm and hurt to us and our world, but it is often so unneccesary.  We could act for the common good, for our good, but instead we choose absurdity.  Ultimately, we fail to connect with each other, we fail to commit to life and so act against the greater good of all.  It is like the world's tectonic plates are rushing across each other out of control, while we just sit and calmly play with our smartphones.  

It strikes me how absurd our world is; how absurd our life is.  Yet it does not have to be this way.  We could take in the wisdom of Luke's gospel which challenges us to be people of integrity, standing up for what is right and good for all.  Luke's Jesus is showing us the way but we don't get it.  

St Gregory the Great, Pope (590-604), shares this wisdom in this light:

"Act in such a way that your humility may not be your weakness, nor your authority be severity.  Justice must be accompanied by humility, that humility may render justice lovable." 

A wise man, showing us the way to act for the good of our brother, our sister and creation.  Laudato si!