A week with a difference

What a shot!  Or so I thought.  This was the shot of my week.  I posted it on Facebook with other shots, highlighting my Sunday with a difference at the cathedral for this was the Sunday directly following the King of Thailand's death.  So, on this Sunday, the faithful gathered with their cardinal to offer mass and prayers for their beloved King and father of the nation who had died only the Thursday before.   

While there was so much around me on the day - pomp and circumstance, a cardinal and clergy in their finery, many people thronging, all sorts of activity, including media - it was this simple, somewhat obtuse scene that really caught my eye.  What does it show, one may ask?  It is what the servers at mass came up with to keep the flame going at full blast for the fire used to heat the coals that were to ignite the incense.

What was it that struck me? 
Smart but simple, I say.  It was not an every day sight.  Rather it was a shot of basic reality within so much other worldly happenings.   It was a way of being practical and creative within a formal ecclesiastical setting.  While there is a great love here for ceremony and hierarchy, this shows that everyday realities still have to be met no matter what.  This is a down to earth, hands on initiative in the midst of all the other. 

Ones may be caught up in highly sacred activity and in heart wrenching life events but they have to remain rooted on the ground.  That is life.  Whatever is happening around us, whatever the chaos, whatever the nature of the life event being played out, life has to remain rooted and in touch with reality so that life goes on.  This one shot highlighted this for me a week within a week with a difference following the death of the King     

Where does all the garbage go?

The garbos working hard early in the morning opposite my bus stop.

Every day early, while still dark, the garbage collectors are out on the streets of my Bangkok collecting the garbage waiting for their attention.  Not once a week but every day and every day there is a huge amount of garbage to be cared for.  My question is -
Where does all the gabage go? 

I am this week at a conference on human rights in SEAsia.  Mary Robinson, a former President of Ireland and member of the Elders group, was quoted as saying that climate change will be the great human rights issue of this century.  Where does it all begin?  Right in my street as I wonder where all the garbage goes, I ask this question as I see the aftermath of our daily existence.  How our lives must impact our world for the worse when we show a lack of interest or respect in how we handle our garbage.   

As I look from my bus stop and see the amount left on the street by just my local market, I am gobsmacked at the amount sitting before me.  Then I think how much more there must be throughout all Bangkok and this is just for one day.  It is mind boggling. 

It makes me think - not only must we respect creation, we must respect our garbage and those who collect it each day. 

But the question remains.  Where does all the garbage go?  It is definitely moved from my little area of the world but does deal with it or mean anything ultimately? 

Have you ever seen the rain?

On Sunday afternoon, I experienced the biggest storm that I can ever remember.  The rain was falling like one big sheet, while the thunder was coming from right above us and it was loud.  It was incredible.

What came to mind was the classic Creedence Clearwater Revival song - Have You Ever Seen the Rain?  Well, I sure did on Sunday and it just keeps coming every day - a storm a day. 

Of course, this amount of rain causes its own havoc in a big city, and especially a city built on a river plain.   The rain comes and the streets flood and the traffic builds up and so the chain of events goes.  Chaos reigns. 

Bangkok was once the Venice of the East with refreshing canals rather than a plethora of roads as the main means of travel, with beautiful, green trees rather than concrete buildings, with boats rather than cars.  With development, it is now roads and high rise everywhere, with traffic and the utter lack of green.  The canals still exist but they are covered or surrounded by roads and become waterways for waste and worse.  Sad what development can create. 

The storms bring out what is worst about a Bangkok - dirty floodwater, floating rubbish, heavy traffic and chaos.  Yet what I see is that this bustling and crowded city of at least 12 million keeps pumping out life.  No matter what, life goes on. 

I remember last week my father and his 100th anniversary of his birth.  That was my focus; that was and is important but this is another week and life goes on and it must.  It goes on with all its themes and sub-themes; with its ups and downs; its joys and successes; its trials and tribulations.  Rain might get you wet but it sure doesn't dampen the spirit. 

Here comes another storm. 

100 Years

In the coming week, if my father was still alive, he would be turning 100.  He would have loved celebrating his 100th birthday with all the attention, his photo in the local paper and, of course, the telegram from the Queen.  You nearly got there, dad, but not quite.  It was just not to be. Sorry but this was of someone else's making and you are now in a better place.  

Turning 100 is not everything and if you ask me, mum and dad lived long enough, if not just a little too long, and it was time to go.  Of course, the decision is not mine to make but this is my opinion on the matter.

Living away from home for 11 years now, I tend to lose touch with what is happening there.  What has attracted my attention lately is that, in Australia, more and more interest is being shown in the issue of euthanasia.  I do not understand why or where the impetus for this is coming from.  I do not judge that I am just showing my age or Catholicism when I share that I find this social trend a real worry.  Taking the ultimate decision away from God and just thinking we can give it to ourselves in such an absolute and public way through legislation strikes me as a dangerous stance on the part of human society.  What really worries me is where all this could ultimately lead. 

One could look at other related life issues - death penalty, nuclear arms and chemical weapons, abortion.  They are all on the agenda and active in our world.  I am no moralistic radical but I do not hold as a basic stance that we have the right to proactively take away life.  Cardinal Bernardin of Chicago had the right idea when he presented the seamless garment image for dealing with a life ethic.  Basically, all life issues are related and when you give way on one, you give way on the others.  They are all interconnected.

I judge that where Church has lost the debate is that it has presented itself as being too moralising, too self-righteous when dealing with ethical issues in any society.  The institutional Church too easily and too simply presents the absolute without acknowledging that life for everyday people is not black and white but rather life takes people into grey areas where they have to make hard choices.  My theory is that if the Church continues along the path of presenting as an absolute ruler in society, it will lose the opportunity to engage with those who do not share its views.  Therein lies a great danger.
  
Back to being 100.  Turning 100 is not everything but such a milestone makes one reflect on life and what it all means.  Thanks dad for making me think a little deeper than usual.  As for the this week's photo, you may ask?  It appears at the head of the blog where dad and mum have star billing.

Such a Studious Lot

It is 7.30pm Sunday.  While walking then with Om through Bangkok's Lumpini Park for some exercise, we came across all these people sitting and acting intently as if they were studying for an exam.  Then Om tells me to his amazement and joy that they all, like him, are playing Pokemon.

Pokemon has stormed this country. Before mass on Sunday, all the servers - adult and child - are in the sacristy playing Pokemon. I jokingly made an announcement as mass started that no one was to play during mass.

What I gather is that this is a social game as it is more fun when you connect with others along the way also playing so that you can destroy their monsters.  Interesting! It may be more social but I see this whole new craze adding to the contemporary phenomenon of the smartphone where people are just nearly entranced by what they are holding in their hands, losing all contact with the social world around them.  In the very age when social communication should be enhanced by all the technology at our fingertips, what I am seeing is growing social isolation.

People go to the park with friends but they don't talk while walking but overcome by silence while playing games.  People go out to dinner for a social experience but they are busy taking photos and using Facebook to tell the world about their dinner while avoiding talking with those at table with them.  This is part of our times.

We have such great opportunities available to us for learning and communicating but seemingly we are becoming addicted to what could be our greatest tool for public advancement for any reason but quenching our thirst for knowledge.  What I am seeing is a social phenomenon of great import.  It is amazing to see the immediate impact but who knows what the ultimate result will be.

Let's See It All in Persepective

I saw this cartoon on Facebook and it just immediately grabbed me.  I love it and have to share it.  In its own way, it is so Buddhist as I understand Buddhism,saying so much in such a simple way.

Yes,we can take our world and its concerns and woes far too seriously.  This cartoon is a timely reminder in a world that can become too serious and too preoccupied with its own importance. 

I have a friend here who has a senior and important role in the Church.  He is a great guy and a great host.  He loves to talk and be with people.  He is a real people person, as they say.  A hardship he faces and shares so readily in conversation is his boss whom he finds so difficult as unlike my friend he lacks some of the finer things of life, like generosity and hospitality, and is all about work.  I find myself at times overcome by my friend's descriptions of what he experiences with his boss.  I recognize that I have to keep reminding myself not to get caught up in this negative trap about which I can do nothing.  So I tell myself - just stand back, listen and enjoy my friend's companionship.

In my life, I have ones - individuals and organizations - who seem to have an immense and generous appreciation of their role and importance in the world.  It would seem that the world, or their world, depends on them and what they do.  It would seem that their world is so important that it is more important than anyone else's.    

In Church, I believe we call this is a Messiah complex.  Truth is that we are already saved and that there is only one Saviour.  There is no need for anybody else to stand in and do the job.  In the business world, I think that this is covered by the slogan that no one is indispensable.  

We can be so driven, so overcome by a sense of importance in life that we miss out on the bigger picture.  No one, no organization is so important that the world rises or falls on their level of performance or contribution.  We are but here for a little while.  Organizations and powers come and go in history.  We all have our contribution to make but but it is better made in easy mode.  Let's just see it all in perspective and keep a realistic sense of who we are and what we are about on this earth.

As a good friend here says and as St Augustine reminds us, it is all about having a healthy dose of humility.

For flock's sake

I hope they're still awake

The world's Catholic clergy have been advised by a Vatican archbishop to keep their homilies to eight minutes.  Good advice!  I shared this with a friend back home.  After last Sunday's vigil mass, my friend emailed me about what happened during the mass.  A parishioner beside her whispered in her ear as Father was sprucking on to say:
"I wish he would shut up as I want to go home." 
This was during the final story being given by Father at the end of mass which had already featured a 15 minute homily. 

I shared this story at mass next morning at the cathedral and they laughed.  I then shared it with a Thai priest I know quite well on Tuesday and he replied:
"That is strong language."  He did not laugh.

His response took me aback as he may be Thai but he is a Thai with a difference, being an international and very sophisticated personality. This told me that maybe those who laughed at the cathedral may have been only the foreigners while the Thais may not have understood nor seen the humour at all.  What I saw as funny in this simple story could quite easily be offensive to a Thai ear, or maybe to an Asian or ASEAN ear.

In this same week, we have had the news story of the Philippines President offending Obama with his public insult.  This is offensive behaviour but I discover through watching the news from Singapore that this is doubly offensive in ASEAN circles where leaders all bend over backwards to be ever so polite.  Duterte was not only rude and insulting but had broken a basic protocol of his own region, shocking his own peers with his yet another public outburst.

My response to the priest was that this is very Australian.  This does not mean that no one in this part of the world ever gets upset, angry or offends another.  They do.  It just is that they work so hard to keep a good front which is what is all important to them. Yes, they too can be harsh and cynical and somewhat comical about it all but what matters is front.