Shop until you drop

Chinatown on a Saturday morning

On a hot, steamy morning, crowds team into the narrow alleyways of Chinatown in the search of a bargain.  I had joined them when I went along for the ride with Om on his now weekly excursion there as part of his new business.  What he does is buy drinking containers which he then sells through family, friends, work and Facebook for a small profit.  He does it because he enjoys it, giving him an extra interest and the people contact on which he thrives.   It is amazing how people can make money.  These drinking containers are all the fashion at the moment and I live in a society where fashion rules.

So I went for the experience to see the business and found myself being overcome by both the heat and the crowds.  It was all a bit much.  I watched all these people shopping for bargains and thought I would rather pay the extra at a local stall and save all the discomfort.  Still I wanted to see what Om does on a Saturday at Chinatown and it was something different for me, an adventure. I got to see what all these other people do as well for a bargain or to do some business themselves. 

One of the pillars of Bangkok is shopping.  I would name the other two as being food and tourism.  Of course, there is much more here with Bangkok being a huge city and the political and business capital of Thailand.  Shopping is fun for some but I think it hard work.  It is business, and serious business.  You fight for every baht.  Drop the price by 10 baht to 140 baht and you draw the crowd.  I just stood back and watched and wondered.  Shop until you drop?  It is more likely that you will collapse from the heat or get pushed over by the crowd. 

Thank God for our garbo!

5.30am on a Monday during a storm.  Ever faithful!

It is the start of another week.  It is 5.30am Monday morning and I am at the bus stop, waiting to get the bus for work.  I always go early to beat the traffic and get in and do some work before mass.  I figure that this way I can also leave early.  I am up anyway.  So it all makes sense.

Well, this particular morning, I left extra early as there was a storm about to begin.  I find myself at the bus stop and am there as usual with the rubbish men out getting the rubbish, which they do each morning.  Then it struck me as I was there waiting in the rain.  Here they are ever faithful to their task even in a storm.  Their daily task is hard enough, being dirty and smelly, but today it is even more arduous with their getting wet in the rain.   Without doubt, they are among our daily unsung heroes as what they do for all of us is really quite amazing, especially as I see rubbish pile up in my Bangkok and see how it is all handled by hand.

Maybe they just love their job or get great job satisfaction but I wonder.  Maybe it is the best job they can get and they are happy to have done a good job each day.  Well, good on them.  Whatever their story, they do a job that is necessary for our daily existence in our city.  Without them, I could only imagine what a disaster my Bangkok would become.  Thank God for the garbo, as we say back home.   ("Garbo" is Australian slang for garbage man.  We so love to shorten our words.)

If we ever think our lot is tough, spare a thought for the garbo out in the streets early each morning doing a hard and dirty task for us.  Then when in the rain - Amazing!  Maybe it is fun and there is the camaraderie but I also think - Yuck! I truly am thankful for what they do for me and all of us. We have so many heroes in our life and many we never even know or recognize.  As I see my local garbo on a rainy morning, I am thankful for him and I am thankful for my own lot in life.  Together we share our Bangkok and each of us has our needed role and our place. 

PS - It is Thursday and the garbo was not out at the usual time.  I wondered where he was.  I guess we all need a sleep-in or a day-off, even the garbo.)

Communio, it is.

Well, a week later, communio does win the day.

Last Friday, I had another first in my Bangkok.  Even after over 12 years here, I keep having firsts.  It is that sort of place.  It was a ride on a motor bike but not just another ride in Bangkok where bikes are a way of life.  The difference this time was that I was on the back of a motor bike during heavy rain.  It is not what I would normally do but I had no choice as otherwise I would be stuck waiting out a storm into the night.  So onto the back of Om's bike I went and into the rain.  The ride was wet and wild. and free.  The worse that happened was I got wet and that was no harm.  It was such good fun but still I will not be doing it every week.

If there is to be a deeper interpretation of the experience, it is to be found in the sense of freedom felt and the fun enjoyed with a friend.  Is that not communio, at least in part?

Then in this same week, another experience was to be part of management meeting at my workplace.  What I was hearing being described by staff was a closed system, a system that was not welcoming and not experiencing great joy.  Its pay-off is something else - security and control.  The latter does not work, while the former does not assure happiness and is not everything.  My line to that meeting was to open our minds and be open to the new.  Compared to my simple motor bike ride, this experience was deadening.  Not the way to go.

As we come together, it is about diversity and it doers involve disagreement but let us not overlook the joy of life.  Life is not all hard work. It is much more - sharing, enjoying, working out issues together, building a bit of harmony.  Communio does win the day and a simple life experience of a motor bike ride with a friend reminded me of that.

I have no photo this week as I want to share the exhilaration of my ride in the rain and not of a depressing meeting.  Fact is I could not use my smartphone in the heavy rain.  One also has to be realistic. 

It's Communio

I am surrounded in church by eternal talk of community, by people who espouse great ideas of love and concern.  Then I have an experience with them of our shared reality and think - are we looking at the same reality?  Such nearly unreal thinking and talk seem to be what make church tick but so much of it is talk as when the crunch comes - where is community?  When you really need someone - where are they?  When there is an issue - where is the compassion, the rational thought?  Love and community can be used as one's smoke screen or front for something else sought.  The question can be - What is one's real agenda?

I am expected to listen to everyone else, and I try my best, but at times I find myself asking - Who listens to me?  I am expected to give and do for the other, and I try my best, but I find at times asking - When will it all just take a break?  Then, no matter how hard you try, when you do not deliver as others may want or like, they become difficult, complaining, confronting but of course remaining ever loving and acting as good members of the community.  Fascinating.  What to make of it? 

When someone does not get the listening ear they want or the style of service they expect, why don't they just stand back and think for a moment - no one means anyone any harm and everyone is doing their best with who they are.  Then the old adage from scripture studies comes to the fore - unity within diversity.  What a great motto for love and community.  I would propose that what we are really searching for is not community but communio, a coming together of hearts and minds.  .

Another Year Begins

Rambo John

Another year has begun.  Watch out!  In some ways, it has started quietly with light traffic on Bangkok roads as we await the return of all our residents gone away for the holidays and with cooler weather due to a storm or two.

The New Year was fun.  If you can't beat them, join them.  So I got my weapon of choice and went out dressed in shorts and t-shirt ready to play water with everyone else.  It was fun but I just wish that they would not use such cold water.

Water is the key symbol for the season and it is used in both dignified ways and outrageous ways to give a blessing and to have fun.  Sometimes it is over the top in the water throwing field but generally people just enjoy.

A person I know through my work with Caritas made her comment from Italy.  Wouldn't it would be good if we had out our fights using water pistols instead of lethal weapons?  That may seem simplistic but I thought that a rather smart insight.  In this innocent comment shared may lie a message for the new year - act in simple ways for peace.  There may be another message that tells us wisdom is found in the simplest of ways.  Wisdom is not rocket science and is not confined to the realm of some assigned elite.  Wisdom is ours.  Get in touch with our wisdom and follow it.     

Happy New Year!

Water pistol of your choice 

Yes, it is New Year in Thailand this week.  No, I am not going mad.

At this time each year, Buddhist countries in this region celebrate their local New Year.  I do have to say that this is the only country I have lived in where they celebrate three New Years - 1st January, Chinese New Year and now Songkran which is on 13, 14 and 15 April.  Each New Year gets better with the third one being the biggest and best with its being major holiday time and its real sense of Thai fun at play, namely the country becomes the stage for huge water fights.  It is water pistols everywhere. 

Beware!  There is a cost to be paid.  You have to be prepared to go colourful and you have to be prepared to get wet as well as wet others. So one is armed at all times with their water pistol for both fun and protection.  If you don't like it, there is nothing you can do about it.  Just join in or stay at home. 

Happy New Year!

The Songkran look.   

It is Easter, you know.

 Let there be light.  Light is the central symbol for Easter which became clear to me as I celebrated the Easter vigil last Saturday evening in the French church in my Bangkok. The celebration began with lighting and blessing the Easter fire outside.  The Easter candle was lit from it and then taken inside to light up a dark church.  So all could see.   Then I heard the story of creation.  On the first day, God created light.

Still we live in a world that cannot see.  That was so clear to me on my first day back at the office after Easter, seeing the pollution that darkened the sky in my Bangkok from the vantage point of my desk. No blue sky and sunshine here.  Yet what do we do about it?  Nothing?  Just put on the face masks? 




We have eyes but can we see?  It is Easter and I live in a Buddhist country where hardly anyone has any idea of such a Christian feast or western holiday.  It just means nothing to them.  That is okay but I mention it as it is so strange for me living where Christmas and Easter - both major feasts and times in the calendar - mean nothing to those living around you.  For all the others, they are just days in everyday life.  After over 12 years here, I have never got used to that. 

Do we know what we celebrate this week?  Do we appreciate the fullness of life and all its greatness?  Do we treat life as a banquet or as just a daily snack?  As I learn that a cousin has just died, it makes me realize yet again how short life is and how I need to enjoy it and relish it while I have it.  I keep saying this but do I?