If Jesus were to walk into our churches - the average church - today (at least in the West), He'd inevitably notice a few discrepancies...and then some. Not wanting to skedaddle down that particular cubby-hole/rabbit-warren with all its potential ramifications, I'll focus upon one subject only: the sorts of characters we now see/we'd have seen in His day - and long before - 'darkening our pews'.
If today's churches were living in the days of the apostles, in the time of the kings (and one queen - though she usurped the role!) of Judah and Israel, in the day and age of the patriarchs and prophets, can you even imagine...for one miniscule moment even, their opening their doors to, let alone inviting into church fellowship, much less church membership...some of the ragtag assortment of characters traversing and adorning the pages of Holy Scripture?
To wit, not just the obvious rabble and assortment of misfits, ragamuffins and other riff-raff, but how about the three - omitting the fourth, Jesus Christ Himself - central characters of the biblical (Older and Newer Testaments) narrative...i.e. Saul-Paul, David and Moses. For, truth be told, folks, each of these distinguished individuals has one very black mark indelibly inscribed against his name in both the Holy Bible and (no doubt) the 'books of remembrance' in Heaven.
Yes, each of them committed that most heinous of crimes - murder. The great deliverer Moses, slaying the Egyptian slave-master mercilessly beating his Hebrew slave worker; King David, carefully planning/engineering the killing in the forefront of battle of arguably his most valiant warrior, Uriah the Hittite; and Saul the Pharisee (and member of the influential Jewish ruling council, Sanhedrin) who later became the great apostle Saul: who not only personally supervised the stoning of Stephen the (first Christian) martyr, but pretty well immediately thereafter orchestrated all out terrorism against the newly formed churches, wherever they were scattered over the known land; again himself participating in the same.
No sirree...it's hardly even conceivable...which once again just goes to show the - vast - difference between God's way of evaluating and assessing character and our own...or as one has put it: 'how different the standard/s by which God and human beings estimate character.'
For what is highly esteemed among [humans] is an abomination in the sight of God. (Luke 16:15. Scripture taken from the New King James Version. (c) 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission.All rights reserved.)
Although equally it would appear that 'what is unacceptable, even an utter abomination in the view of mere mortals is oftentimes not only acceptable, but even commendable, in the sight of God.'
Monday, December 31, 2018
Friday, November 16, 2018
Wednesday, November 14, 2018
Paradise Lost...for good (or rather, bad): the sad but tragically true story of a world that's gone astray from the very get-go
Unlike a certain world figure whose oral girth far surpasses his reservoirs of compassion or basic humanity, the following, though elicited by ongoing media reference to the place by that name presently undergoing the ravages of raging forest fires in California...
...has been penned to simply portray the obvious allegory that that tragic situation inevitably brings to mind (to one like myself - conversant with the biblical narrative - anyway)...
So what have I to say thereabouts? Simply the following:
'Paradise up in smoke...and on fire' (as I could alternatively, justly have titled this opinion piece)...is a fitting allegory for our sin-affected, sin-infested, sin-diseased planet. No, folks, we (homo sapiens) are not evolving into some ever greater being...quite to the contrary, ever since the Fall and our subsequent, consequent, permanent exclusion from Paradise (i.e. the Garden of Eden) we've been going down, down, down...and with no reasonable hope of ever returning...
...unless and until Jesus Christ Himself steps back into human history...and, as promised in The Revelation, Himself personally ushers our first father (Adam) and mother (Eve) back into that idyll.
And thus and so we ourselves - if 'found (justified, sanctified and ultimately glorified by and) in Him' - may one day share that high privilege with the parents of the human race...
Though the title could well have been created 'ex nihilo' (as many suggest God created the heavens and the earth), i.e. simply from being an apposite way of describing the tragic situation referred to above, I nevertheless acknowledge the *seminal work by the justly-famous John Milton (contemporary of that other much-celebrated (later) Middle Ages' John, i.e. John Bunyan (of Pilgrim's Progress fame))...and recall my favourite varsity tutor once gave a post-thesis/PhD discussion thereabouts...
*Admittedly yet to be read - though I did finally obtain a copy thereof at a local Student Christian Movement annual booksale awhile ago...
...has been penned to simply portray the obvious allegory that that tragic situation inevitably brings to mind (to one like myself - conversant with the biblical narrative - anyway)...
So what have I to say thereabouts? Simply the following:
'Paradise up in smoke...and on fire' (as I could alternatively, justly have titled this opinion piece)...is a fitting allegory for our sin-affected, sin-infested, sin-diseased planet. No, folks, we (homo sapiens) are not evolving into some ever greater being...quite to the contrary, ever since the Fall and our subsequent, consequent, permanent exclusion from Paradise (i.e. the Garden of Eden) we've been going down, down, down...and with no reasonable hope of ever returning...
...unless and until Jesus Christ Himself steps back into human history...and, as promised in The Revelation, Himself personally ushers our first father (Adam) and mother (Eve) back into that idyll.
And thus and so we ourselves - if 'found (justified, sanctified and ultimately glorified by and) in Him' - may one day share that high privilege with the parents of the human race...
Though the title could well have been created 'ex nihilo' (as many suggest God created the heavens and the earth), i.e. simply from being an apposite way of describing the tragic situation referred to above, I nevertheless acknowledge the *seminal work by the justly-famous John Milton (contemporary of that other much-celebrated (later) Middle Ages' John, i.e. John Bunyan (of Pilgrim's Progress fame))...and recall my favourite varsity tutor once gave a post-thesis/PhD discussion thereabouts...
*Admittedly yet to be read - though I did finally obtain a copy thereof at a local Student Christian Movement annual booksale awhile ago...
Tuesday, November 13, 2018
Monday, November 5, 2018
Pope Francis (Jorge Bergoglio) is Right On: ABORTION is indeed the Moral Equivalent of 'Contract Killing': Or Let's Just Say, 'A Person's A Person No Matter How Small'
For only the second occasion in as many months I find myself publicly endorsing Jorge Bergoglio...for, once again, his guts/gumption/courage in calling it as it really is... in very truth.
Yes, abortion is indeed the moral equivalent of a contract killing, and has veritably become the default setting for a morally lazy and irresponsible, God-forsaking, pleasure-indulged and self-obsessed, 'Me Only: First, Last and Always' Generation (or several); resorted to as an automatic reflex in order to cover over and somehow rationalize the endemic sexual permissiveness/licence cum moral irresponsibility of our thoroughgoing, decadent age...
The subject has been much in the news and in our faces over recent times, with renewed interest in reforming **the 1977 law in God's Own following the decisive victory for reformers in the recent Irish referendum; which itself preceded, of course, what will perhaps go down historically as the ***neo-cause celebre of our times - the extremely high-profile and moreover notoriously contentious confirmation hearings for recently-confirmed United States Supreme Court appointee Brett Kavanaugh.
After which Yours Truly, anyhow, determined to join local anti-abortionists in their ongoing quiet vigil of witness and protest against the continual and unsung murder of the unborn in our midst... . However, not managing to locate the local chapter of our present-day equivalent of SPUC (the Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child), I did what in my mind was the next best thing, and read/studied up on the subject c/o a number of booklets I've accumulated over recent decades.
Not surprisingly my view has only solidified in my personal resolve against the age-old practice - now dressed up in modern garb as the panacea to every woman's worst nightmare and dilemma - as well it may seem or in some cases even be. Though, in the process, not without being continually brought face to face with and having constantly reinforced for me the numerous nooks and crannies of the debate, the nuances and complexities of the many and various arguments ever advanced upon one side or the other. And fraught the issue certainly is in every way.
Accordingly this will not be a simply rehash of the main arguments on either side. Suffice to say it will rather present my own deeply-ingrained convictions upon the matter; convictions which have made me determined to at least add my voice - however small and obscure - to those who protest what they/we consider the unwarranted termination of a *****fully 'viable' and worthwhile living person; preventing this nascent being sharing the opportunity of life otherwise simply taken for granted as the inalienable birthright and privilege of every human being born into this world.
*End (Sub)Title borrowed from the central refrain (and moral) of the screen adaptation (dvd version) of 'Dr Suess' HORTON HEARS A WHO!'
**Known as 'The Contraception, Sterilisation and Abortion Act', it was passed by a conscience vote in the early Muldoon years - quite interestingly, with a large number of the then Labour Party opposition MPs voting against it (essentially because they wanted no liberalization in the previous regime whatsoever).
***Seeing as 'cause celebre' is ****literally 'a very notable or famous trial', I deliberately prefixed 'neo', as the Brett Kavanaugh American House and Senate judiciary committee hearings were obviously not a literal trial of Kavanaugh's relative guilt or innocence (vis-a-vis the plethora of charges levelled at him (and his character)); but were essentially so in everything but name, surely...
****See (as ever) my trusty 'ole Chambers Concise Dictionary (Cambridge, 1988).
*****Irrespective of whatever physical deformities such a child may well enter the world with.
To Be Continued (Part Two) Tomorrow
True to my word (Part Two-a): Why Abortion Is Essentially Wrong and Evil:
So what is my own abortion perspective based upon? Well, as a Bible-believing Christian - and the two sides to that description really need not be explicitly stated, the (complete) term is surely a *non-non sequitur - one cannot do better or more than refer(ring) to the Holy Scriptures for all his/her life doctrines; for that Holy Book itself declares that 'All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the (wo)man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.'
*I.e. the description is inherently self-consistent: what else is a true Christian if not someone whose life is based upon the teachings of Holy Writ?!?!? And let's get something quite straight: Jesus Christ Himself - the One upon whose life and teachings and example the Christian's is supposed to be based - Himself implicitly (and often explicitly) referred to, embraced, and otherwise (effectively) championed the entire Older Testament - including those early chapters of Genesis so often in contention these days. Indeed He had no other Scriptures in his possession or that He followed.
Okay, let's get goin'...movin'...on... . Some would say (or claim) that the Good Book has little or even nothing to say on such controversial 'modern-day' matters as abortion...
Well, they are - dead - wrong...and are revealing their biblical illiteracy. To put it gently.
No matter, **'let God be [found] true but every [hu]man a liar', as the great apostle put things. How about these words from 'the sweet singer of Israel'? Yep, (King) David said it best...in the incomparable 139th Psalm:
For You have formed my
inward parts;
You have covered[woven] me in my
mother's womb.
I will praise You, for I am
fearfully and wonderfully
made.
Marvellous are Your works,
and that my soul knows full
well.
My frame was[bones were] not hidden
from You,
When I was made in secret,
And skillfully wrought in the
lowest parts of the earth.
Your eyes saw my substance,
being yet unformed,
And in Your book they were all
written,
The days fashioned for me,
When as yet there were none
of them. (Psalm 139: 13-16: ***NKJV.)
**Romans 3:4 in the New King James Version. (c) 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
***Ibid.
Or how about the following poignant, pointed words from the aged patriarch Job?
Your hands have made me
and fashioned me,
An intricate unity...
Remember...that You
have made me like clay.
And will You turn me into dust
again?
Did You not pour me out like
milk,
And curdle me like cheese,
Clothe me with skin and flesh,
And knit me together with
bones and sinews?
You have granted me life...
(Job 10: 8-12: ****NKJV.)
****Ibid.
And folks, those scriptures are just for starters! Or, as one (modern-day) wag rather more succinctly expressed it: God made me...and He makes no junk!
To Be Continued (Part Two-b)...
At Long Last (though actually, only 11 days later - even if it feels much more)...
'In conclusion', but possibly the real gist of my blogpost...
Many aspects and 'angles' of this majorly-fraught, ever-so-contentious subject have been extensively canvassed in the media and the public domain at large, and will of course continue to be debated for years, even decades to come...if time lasts so long, and it probably won't...
Like, when does (human) life actually begin (which is arguably the most pivotal point of all)? And doesn't a(ny) woman have the innate, inalienable - as it were God-given, contradiction that that is, if ever there was one - right 'to do with her own body what(ever) she will?
On the latter question, she most definitely does - that is, if we're talking in the abstract, as if she was the only one involved in such a major, critical decision... -only in this particular instance, she ain't! You see, here we're discussing the equal right/s...simply to life...of an innocent third party...who moreover has never been asked his/her own view on the matter (e.g. whether s/he wishes to live on/be born into this world). And that, as another well-known comment expresses it, is all that matters...it really is... Yes, that little fact makes all the difference (in the world).
Incidentally, as someone has crudely put it, 'it takes two to tango''tangle/intertwine - and thus create a new life (with God's ever-present assistance, mind you)...and so - and I'm just askin', you understand...how come the rights (surely) of the (relevant) daddy - presuming he's still contactable, of course, and that's oftentimes a huge if - are never considered/canvassed etc...obviously also provided he isn't guilty of rape or incest etc...? Again, just askin', you understand.
Hey, but what would I know, I'm just a guy, not to mention a 'pale, stale, male', after all...? What rights would, or perhaps rather should, I even have? That does indeed seem to be where 'we', i.e. Western society generally, has now come to/arrived at...
...yet I would continue to respectfully contend, that a person's a person, yes, no matter how small!
Yes, abortion is indeed the moral equivalent of a contract killing, and has veritably become the default setting for a morally lazy and irresponsible, God-forsaking, pleasure-indulged and self-obsessed, 'Me Only: First, Last and Always' Generation (or several); resorted to as an automatic reflex in order to cover over and somehow rationalize the endemic sexual permissiveness/licence cum moral irresponsibility of our thoroughgoing, decadent age...
The subject has been much in the news and in our faces over recent times, with renewed interest in reforming **the 1977 law in God's Own following the decisive victory for reformers in the recent Irish referendum; which itself preceded, of course, what will perhaps go down historically as the ***neo-cause celebre of our times - the extremely high-profile and moreover notoriously contentious confirmation hearings for recently-confirmed United States Supreme Court appointee Brett Kavanaugh.
After which Yours Truly, anyhow, determined to join local anti-abortionists in their ongoing quiet vigil of witness and protest against the continual and unsung murder of the unborn in our midst... . However, not managing to locate the local chapter of our present-day equivalent of SPUC (the Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child), I did what in my mind was the next best thing, and read/studied up on the subject c/o a number of booklets I've accumulated over recent decades.
Not surprisingly my view has only solidified in my personal resolve against the age-old practice - now dressed up in modern garb as the panacea to every woman's worst nightmare and dilemma - as well it may seem or in some cases even be. Though, in the process, not without being continually brought face to face with and having constantly reinforced for me the numerous nooks and crannies of the debate, the nuances and complexities of the many and various arguments ever advanced upon one side or the other. And fraught the issue certainly is in every way.
Accordingly this will not be a simply rehash of the main arguments on either side. Suffice to say it will rather present my own deeply-ingrained convictions upon the matter; convictions which have made me determined to at least add my voice - however small and obscure - to those who protest what they/we consider the unwarranted termination of a *****fully 'viable' and worthwhile living person; preventing this nascent being sharing the opportunity of life otherwise simply taken for granted as the inalienable birthright and privilege of every human being born into this world.
*End (Sub)Title borrowed from the central refrain (and moral) of the screen adaptation (dvd version) of 'Dr Suess' HORTON HEARS A WHO!'
**Known as 'The Contraception, Sterilisation and Abortion Act', it was passed by a conscience vote in the early Muldoon years - quite interestingly, with a large number of the then Labour Party opposition MPs voting against it (essentially because they wanted no liberalization in the previous regime whatsoever).
***Seeing as 'cause celebre' is ****literally 'a very notable or famous trial', I deliberately prefixed 'neo', as the Brett Kavanaugh American House and Senate judiciary committee hearings were obviously not a literal trial of Kavanaugh's relative guilt or innocence (vis-a-vis the plethora of charges levelled at him (and his character)); but were essentially so in everything but name, surely...
****See (as ever) my trusty 'ole Chambers Concise Dictionary (Cambridge, 1988).
*****Irrespective of whatever physical deformities such a child may well enter the world with.
To Be Continued (Part Two) Tomorrow
True to my word (Part Two-a): Why Abortion Is Essentially Wrong and Evil:
So what is my own abortion perspective based upon? Well, as a Bible-believing Christian - and the two sides to that description really need not be explicitly stated, the (complete) term is surely a *non-non sequitur - one cannot do better or more than refer(ring) to the Holy Scriptures for all his/her life doctrines; for that Holy Book itself declares that 'All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the (wo)man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.'
*I.e. the description is inherently self-consistent: what else is a true Christian if not someone whose life is based upon the teachings of Holy Writ?!?!? And let's get something quite straight: Jesus Christ Himself - the One upon whose life and teachings and example the Christian's is supposed to be based - Himself implicitly (and often explicitly) referred to, embraced, and otherwise (effectively) championed the entire Older Testament - including those early chapters of Genesis so often in contention these days. Indeed He had no other Scriptures in his possession or that He followed.
Okay, let's get goin'...movin'...on... . Some would say (or claim) that the Good Book has little or even nothing to say on such controversial 'modern-day' matters as abortion...
Well, they are - dead - wrong...and are revealing their biblical illiteracy. To put it gently.
No matter, **'let God be [found] true but every [hu]man a liar', as the great apostle put things. How about these words from 'the sweet singer of Israel'? Yep, (King) David said it best...in the incomparable 139th Psalm:
For You have formed my
inward parts;
You have covered[woven] me in my
mother's womb.
I will praise You, for I am
fearfully and wonderfully
made.
Marvellous are Your works,
and that my soul knows full
well.
My frame was[bones were] not hidden
from You,
When I was made in secret,
And skillfully wrought in the
lowest parts of the earth.
Your eyes saw my substance,
being yet unformed,
And in Your book they were all
written,
The days fashioned for me,
When as yet there were none
of them. (Psalm 139: 13-16: ***NKJV.)
**Romans 3:4 in the New King James Version. (c) 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
***Ibid.
Or how about the following poignant, pointed words from the aged patriarch Job?
Your hands have made me
and fashioned me,
An intricate unity...
Remember...that You
have made me like clay.
And will You turn me into dust
again?
Did You not pour me out like
milk,
And curdle me like cheese,
Clothe me with skin and flesh,
And knit me together with
bones and sinews?
You have granted me life...
(Job 10: 8-12: ****NKJV.)
****Ibid.
And folks, those scriptures are just for starters! Or, as one (modern-day) wag rather more succinctly expressed it: God made me...and He makes no junk!
To Be Continued (Part Two-b)...
At Long Last (though actually, only 11 days later - even if it feels much more)...
'In conclusion', but possibly the real gist of my blogpost...
Many aspects and 'angles' of this majorly-fraught, ever-so-contentious subject have been extensively canvassed in the media and the public domain at large, and will of course continue to be debated for years, even decades to come...if time lasts so long, and it probably won't...
Like, when does (human) life actually begin (which is arguably the most pivotal point of all)? And doesn't a(ny) woman have the innate, inalienable - as it were God-given, contradiction that that is, if ever there was one - right 'to do with her own body what(ever) she will?
On the latter question, she most definitely does - that is, if we're talking in the abstract, as if she was the only one involved in such a major, critical decision... -only in this particular instance, she ain't! You see, here we're discussing the equal right/s...simply to life...of an innocent third party...who moreover has never been asked his/her own view on the matter (e.g. whether s/he wishes to live on/be born into this world). And that, as another well-known comment expresses it, is all that matters...it really is... Yes, that little fact makes all the difference (in the world).
Incidentally, as someone has crudely put it, 'it takes two to tango''tangle/intertwine - and thus create a new life (with God's ever-present assistance, mind you)...and so - and I'm just askin', you understand...how come the rights (surely) of the (relevant) daddy - presuming he's still contactable, of course, and that's oftentimes a huge if - are never considered/canvassed etc...obviously also provided he isn't guilty of rape or incest etc...? Again, just askin', you understand.
Hey, but what would I know, I'm just a guy, not to mention a 'pale, stale, male', after all...? What rights would, or perhaps rather should, I even have? That does indeed seem to be where 'we', i.e. Western society generally, has now come to/arrived at...
...yet I would continue to respectfully contend, that a person's a person, yes, no matter how small!
Tuesday, October 23, 2018
"Adieu Diana Sowle": Another star from the (original) movie, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Passes Away
Diana Sowle, the lady who played Charlie's Mom, Mrs Bucket, in the beloved 1971 film, *Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, has just died - at the good 'ole age of 88; we are told this morning. **'Famously singing "Cheer up Charlie" in one memorable scene', the American actress apparently made her onscreen debut therein, and passed away overnight surrounded by friends and family at her hospital bedside. **'She was one of the last surviving 'adult cast' members of the beloved movie, co-star Gene Wilder...Willy Wonka, dy[ing] in 2016 of complications from Alzheimer's Disease.'
Interviewed over recent times, according to USA Today Sowle was reported to have made a number of personal comments observations about the film's enduring success (and Gene Wilder's ongoing popularity), such as:
#"It's nice it's still so popular, and the reason I think it's so popular is - if you're a parent, you can send your child to that movie, there's no violence, there's no bad language, there's no sex." (Italics mine.)
#"And kids love the thought of going to a chocolate factory and someone wins the golden ticket and they have all these bad kids and good kids, and the bad kids lose out because they try to grab (everything) for themselves." (Italics mine.)
#"[Gene Wilder] was so nice, he never acted like, "Oh, I'm a bigger star than the rest of you", and "he'd join us on a lunch break and we'd have lunch".
#"Gene Wilder was always friendly and courteous and funny and told nice stories...I'm very sorry he's passed away because I think he was a great talent and I think he was liked by many, many people."
Corny as, cliche-ridden remarks, d'ya think? Perhaps. But as trite and old-fashioned as such sentimental-laden remarks may well seem to today's 'been there and done (all of) that' generation, I suspect...within some of that (i.e. this current) generation...there's an inner - if entirely unconscious and never-to-be-admitted-in-a-thousand-years - yearning that such corny, 'fuddy-duddy' values were a little bit more in vogue than they seem to be these days...though, yes, they'd sooner die than admit it!
*An adaptation, of course, of renowned author Roald Dahl's book, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory...which I've gotten ahold of in recent years, but, regrettably, have still to get onto/into...
**Various online news stories/obituaries published over recent hours, especially the BBC report and Maeve McDermott's piece for USA Today.
Interviewed over recent times, according to USA Today Sowle was reported to have made a number of personal comments observations about the film's enduring success (and Gene Wilder's ongoing popularity), such as:
#"It's nice it's still so popular, and the reason I think it's so popular is - if you're a parent, you can send your child to that movie, there's no violence, there's no bad language, there's no sex." (Italics mine.)
#"And kids love the thought of going to a chocolate factory and someone wins the golden ticket and they have all these bad kids and good kids, and the bad kids lose out because they try to grab (everything) for themselves." (Italics mine.)
#"[Gene Wilder] was so nice, he never acted like, "Oh, I'm a bigger star than the rest of you", and "he'd join us on a lunch break and we'd have lunch".
#"Gene Wilder was always friendly and courteous and funny and told nice stories...I'm very sorry he's passed away because I think he was a great talent and I think he was liked by many, many people."
Corny as, cliche-ridden remarks, d'ya think? Perhaps. But as trite and old-fashioned as such sentimental-laden remarks may well seem to today's 'been there and done (all of) that' generation, I suspect...within some of that (i.e. this current) generation...there's an inner - if entirely unconscious and never-to-be-admitted-in-a-thousand-years - yearning that such corny, 'fuddy-duddy' values were a little bit more in vogue than they seem to be these days...though, yes, they'd sooner die than admit it!
*An adaptation, of course, of renowned author Roald Dahl's book, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory...which I've gotten ahold of in recent years, but, regrettably, have still to get onto/into...
**Various online news stories/obituaries published over recent hours, especially the BBC report and Maeve McDermott's piece for USA Today.
Monday, October 22, 2018
Mahatma Gandhi: India's Great Man of Destiny
(This is) simply to note (what is apparently) the 70th anniversary of the death (by assassination) of India's global colossus, Mohandas (Karamchand) Gandhi...
*Having (simply) heard tale of such (anniversary) the other day...
*In the context of New Zealand's ongoing 'Jami Lee Ross' political saga/drama, to wit, The NZ National Party's abject (if entirely understandable) grovelling before our ethnic Indian community in penance for the recorded comments of JLR in particular, but - moreover - unrepudiated (at the critical time/juncture) by National's leader (then and now), the hapless (and then evidently helpless) Simon Bridges...to wit: the awful/appalling/atrocious suggestion that their parliamentary representation by two Chinese was worth somewhat/appreciably more than that of two or three 'equivalent' Indians...which comment their two Indian MPs evidently felt not significant enough to publicly speak out about in criticism of Mr Bridges...
*Having (35 years ago) seen a deeply affecting film, 'Gandhi', the three-hour-plus movie docudrama by Richard Attenborough, the late brother of longtime and justly-celebrated TV filmmaker/nature doco star David Attenborough...which film graphically and powerfully depicts the life and times of Mahatma Gandhi in gripping and unforgettable fashion...
*Though having also - thus far only cursorily - surveyed another far less favourable and flattering depiction of his life in the magazine, Natural Medicine, (The New Zealand Journal of), Nov. 2016.
*Having also long been an admirer of the Gandhi clan/political dynasty (of Congress Party fame) which long ruled India, in particular Indira Gandhi, also sent from this life by an assassin's bullet (33 years ago, I believe)...
Epilogue:
And would'ya believe that today (Oct 23rd) I happened to bump into and chat with two local Indian-born contractors, and that one of them was actually surnamed 'Gandhi'?!?!?
*Having (simply) heard tale of such (anniversary) the other day...
*In the context of New Zealand's ongoing 'Jami Lee Ross' political saga/drama, to wit, The NZ National Party's abject (if entirely understandable) grovelling before our ethnic Indian community in penance for the recorded comments of JLR in particular, but - moreover - unrepudiated (at the critical time/juncture) by National's leader (then and now), the hapless (and then evidently helpless) Simon Bridges...to wit: the awful/appalling/atrocious suggestion that their parliamentary representation by two Chinese was worth somewhat/appreciably more than that of two or three 'equivalent' Indians...which comment their two Indian MPs evidently felt not significant enough to publicly speak out about in criticism of Mr Bridges...
*Having (35 years ago) seen a deeply affecting film, 'Gandhi', the three-hour-plus movie docudrama by Richard Attenborough, the late brother of longtime and justly-celebrated TV filmmaker/nature doco star David Attenborough...which film graphically and powerfully depicts the life and times of Mahatma Gandhi in gripping and unforgettable fashion...
*Though having also - thus far only cursorily - surveyed another far less favourable and flattering depiction of his life in the magazine, Natural Medicine, (The New Zealand Journal of), Nov. 2016.
*Having also long been an admirer of the Gandhi clan/political dynasty (of Congress Party fame) which long ruled India, in particular Indira Gandhi, also sent from this life by an assassin's bullet (33 years ago, I believe)...
Epilogue:
And would'ya believe that today (Oct 23rd) I happened to bump into and chat with two local Indian-born contractors, and that one of them was actually surnamed 'Gandhi'?!?!?
Wednesday, October 17, 2018
Honesty, It's Such a Lonely Word...For Everyone Is So Untrue
'The greatest want of the world is the want of men,
-men who will not be bought or sold;
men who in their inmost souls are true and honest;
men who do not fear to call sin by its right name;
men whose conscience is as true to duty as the needle to the pole;
men who will stand for the right though the heavens fall.' Education, p.57. (1903)
[From a compilation, Corporteur Ministry (1953), also based on the writings of Ellen G White.]
*And due (grateful) acknowledgement to the **oft-underrated singer-songwriter Billy Joel, to wit the ?opening line/refrain? of his classic hit 'Honesty'.
**Methinks likely due to the fact that he didn't buy into the drug culture so 'popular' and 'celebrated' amongst celebrity stardom in (especially America's) modern music industry's pop culture.
-men who will not be bought or sold;
men who in their inmost souls are true and honest;
men who do not fear to call sin by its right name;
men whose conscience is as true to duty as the needle to the pole;
men who will stand for the right though the heavens fall.' Education, p.57. (1903)
[From a compilation, Corporteur Ministry (1953), also based on the writings of Ellen G White.]
*And due (grateful) acknowledgement to the **oft-underrated singer-songwriter Billy Joel, to wit the ?opening line/refrain? of his classic hit 'Honesty'.
**Methinks likely due to the fact that he didn't buy into the drug culture so 'popular' and 'celebrated' amongst celebrity stardom in (especially America's) modern music industry's pop culture.
Monday, October 15, 2018
Pretty Well All I Ever Wanted/Needed - and that anyone could reasonably wish - to Know/Learn about Health...I learnt from my Dear 'Ole Gram (Granny)...[and also Ellen Gould White and Adelle Davis]
Upon the Blessed *Birth-Anniversary of my all-time-favourite Grandparent (of **long ago yesteryear)
Though not - ever - a subscriber to the views of Christian Science's Mary Baker Eddy, to wit her staunch, core belief - to rather ruthlessly paraphrase her - that all sickness/illness/disease is only really a figment of the [or rather a, and febrile] imagination...which views - alongside ***'Unity' (I believe, with substantial qualifications, stipulations and provisos - and all the rest) - Gram did hold for a significant period of her (later) life, especially following the untimely death of her second son, my own namesake David...
...some of the most important nutrition (including drinking water) principles that I ever learnt/ that ever graced my own life and times...I learnt by (unconscious) osmosis...from my beloved Grandmother ('Gram')...who lived next door (from my middle childhood on)...to her penultimate month upon Earth...
She wasn't far off the ball in her views of the medical fraternity/establishment either...not seeing a doctor for a large part of her later life...at least not until she was at length taken to a hospital and then a hospital/resthome a mere month-and-a-half before her death at 93-and-three-quarter-years of age.
Always considered somewhat remarkable by various and assorted visitors - and oftentimes remarked upon as looking every bit 20-30-plus years younger than she admitted she actually was...Grandma Billie was the very epitome of good health and longevity...
...but sadly, even she - at length - could not escape the pitiless hand of the Grim Reaper...though she lives on - to this very day even - in a substantial proportion of my dreams...
Whether it be - was - her buckwheat pancake breakfasts - with oodles of home-made apricot jam and buttermilk margarine; the fave veggie yams sown (and harvested) by me and my younger sister around Gram's incredible yard/ecosystem; her fabulous lemon whipped cream ('a-topping' homemade ice cream); her classic vegetarian chilli accompanied with homemade cornbread...or her famous fruit blends...she could cook (& bake) like few others I've ever met or I dare say, ever again will...
*115 years to be precise.
**My last Grandparent (Grandma 'Billie') died 21-plus years ago, my Mum's two parents 23-24 years ago, and Grandma Billie's hubby, my Dad's Dad, 39/40-some years ago...(though arguably he was the healthiest of the lot!)
***'The Unity School of ['Christianity'].
Though not - ever - a subscriber to the views of Christian Science's Mary Baker Eddy, to wit her staunch, core belief - to rather ruthlessly paraphrase her - that all sickness/illness/disease is only really a figment of the [or rather a, and febrile] imagination...which views - alongside ***'Unity' (I believe, with substantial qualifications, stipulations and provisos - and all the rest) - Gram did hold for a significant period of her (later) life, especially following the untimely death of her second son, my own namesake David...
...some of the most important nutrition (including drinking water) principles that I ever learnt/ that ever graced my own life and times...I learnt by (unconscious) osmosis...from my beloved Grandmother ('Gram')...who lived next door (from my middle childhood on)...to her penultimate month upon Earth...
She wasn't far off the ball in her views of the medical fraternity/establishment either...not seeing a doctor for a large part of her later life...at least not until she was at length taken to a hospital and then a hospital/resthome a mere month-and-a-half before her death at 93-and-three-quarter-years of age.
Always considered somewhat remarkable by various and assorted visitors - and oftentimes remarked upon as looking every bit 20-30-plus years younger than she admitted she actually was...Grandma Billie was the very epitome of good health and longevity...
...but sadly, even she - at length - could not escape the pitiless hand of the Grim Reaper...though she lives on - to this very day even - in a substantial proportion of my dreams...
Whether it be - was - her buckwheat pancake breakfasts - with oodles of home-made apricot jam and buttermilk margarine; the fave veggie yams sown (and harvested) by me and my younger sister around Gram's incredible yard/ecosystem; her fabulous lemon whipped cream ('a-topping' homemade ice cream); her classic vegetarian chilli accompanied with homemade cornbread...or her famous fruit blends...she could cook (& bake) like few others I've ever met or I dare say, ever again will...
*115 years to be precise.
**My last Grandparent (Grandma 'Billie') died 21-plus years ago, my Mum's two parents 23-24 years ago, and Grandma Billie's hubby, my Dad's Dad, 39/40-some years ago...(though arguably he was the healthiest of the lot!)
***'The Unity School of ['Christianity'].
Friday, September 28, 2018
"For there is nothing hidden which will not be revealed, nor has anything been kept secret but that it should come to light."
Sometimes the thoughts and words of others 'pretty well say it all' - all that really needs saying, anyhow. Seeing as this gives every indication of being one of those times...
*Ever since his fall, Satan has worked by means of deception. As he has misrepresented God, so, through his agents, he misrepresents the children of God...
There was never one who walked among men more cruelly slandered than the Son of [M}an. He was derided and mocked because of His unswerving obedience to the principles of God's holy law. They hated Him without a cause...
While slander may blacken the reputation, it cannot stain the character. That is in God's keeping. So long as we do not consent to sin, there is no power, whether human or satanic, that can bring a stain upon the character.
A man whose heart is stayed upon God is just the same in the hour of his most afflicting trials and most discouraging surroundings as when he was in prosperity, when the light and favo[u]r of God seemed to be upon him.
His words, his motives, his actions, may be misrepresented and falsified, but he does not mind it, because he has greater interests at stake. Like Moses, he endures as 'seeing Him who is invisible... looking not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen.'
Christ is acquainted with all that is misunderstood and misrepresented by men. His children can afford to wait in calm patience and trust, no matter how much maligned and despised...
For nothing is secret that shall not be made manifest...
...and those who honour God shall be honoured in the presence of men and angels.
And so the great Apostle Paul also admonished:
Judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes, [W]ho will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the counsels of the hearts...
...and then each one's praise will come from God...-or otherwise!
**As the wise[st] man [who ever lived...or ever will - aside from Jesus Christ Himself] once put it, folks, there is indeed 'nothing new under the sun'. No, indeed!
*/**Due - and grateful - acknowledgment to Ellen G White's classic tome, Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing (otherwise known as The Greatest Sermon Ever Preached); and to King Solomon's classic Older Testament book of Ecclesiastes.
*Ever since his fall, Satan has worked by means of deception. As he has misrepresented God, so, through his agents, he misrepresents the children of God...
There was never one who walked among men more cruelly slandered than the Son of [M}an. He was derided and mocked because of His unswerving obedience to the principles of God's holy law. They hated Him without a cause...
While slander may blacken the reputation, it cannot stain the character. That is in God's keeping. So long as we do not consent to sin, there is no power, whether human or satanic, that can bring a stain upon the character.
A man whose heart is stayed upon God is just the same in the hour of his most afflicting trials and most discouraging surroundings as when he was in prosperity, when the light and favo[u]r of God seemed to be upon him.
His words, his motives, his actions, may be misrepresented and falsified, but he does not mind it, because he has greater interests at stake. Like Moses, he endures as 'seeing Him who is invisible... looking not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen.'
Christ is acquainted with all that is misunderstood and misrepresented by men. His children can afford to wait in calm patience and trust, no matter how much maligned and despised...
For nothing is secret that shall not be made manifest...
...and those who honour God shall be honoured in the presence of men and angels.
And so the great Apostle Paul also admonished:
Judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes, [W]ho will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the counsels of the hearts...
...and then each one's praise will come from God...-or otherwise!
**As the wise[st] man [who ever lived...or ever will - aside from Jesus Christ Himself] once put it, folks, there is indeed 'nothing new under the sun'. No, indeed!
*/**Due - and grateful - acknowledgment to Ellen G White's classic tome, Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing (otherwise known as The Greatest Sermon Ever Preached); and to King Solomon's classic Older Testament book of Ecclesiastes.
Tuesday, September 25, 2018
"You Can't Have Your Cake and Eat it Too!"
So - oh so memorably - once said one who could have become my stepdad, the beloved and wonderful Richard Welch. Brought up in wartime, bombed-out London, he was like a father to me and my younger sister after our Dad walked out on our Mum (some 44-45-odd years ago now). And to describe myself as deeply grief-stricken scarcely does justice to my reaction when, while on a three-year sojourn to my parents' own United States of America, I received, in Minneapolis-St Paul, Minnesota, the shocking news of his untimely death in 1994 at the relatively youthful age of 67 or 68 (apparently while campervanning on our picturesque South Island West Coast, not long after an energetic campaign to help promote the then prospective option of a new MMP voting system in a nationwide referendum).
But I needs keep this succinct for now: it's simply to commemorate - in northern hemispheric time, corresponding to Richard's birthplace - his 'birth-anniversary', as he always liked to style it, 92 years ago (on September the 24th); he, like my Dad, shared the same birth year as the Queen. Sadly I've even now - mere hours ago - missed the corresponding NH time/day of the 24th, but so be it...
Richard also came into mind yesterday after I heard word of some new survey/study revealing that women - including moreover staunch as feminists - actually prefer fellas (i.e. as prospective romantic partners) who, though sometimes perhaps misconceived as somewhat patronizing in their treatment of (what some referred to once as) 'the fairer sex', nevertheless still maintain(ed) the old-fashioned courtesies once classed as chivalry; (arguably still implicitly respected by most people).
Though I fain see myself as among this number (and I believe I've good grounds for so doing), rarely would one encounter one as purely chivalrous - in all the purest and noblest and even childlike senses of the term - as Richard Welch...
...a rare specimen of humanity indeed, whose 'kind' sadly is distinctly on the wane, even arguably rapidly on the road to extinction. But thankfully not where it really matters.
But I needs keep this succinct for now: it's simply to commemorate - in northern hemispheric time, corresponding to Richard's birthplace - his 'birth-anniversary', as he always liked to style it, 92 years ago (on September the 24th); he, like my Dad, shared the same birth year as the Queen. Sadly I've even now - mere hours ago - missed the corresponding NH time/day of the 24th, but so be it...
Richard also came into mind yesterday after I heard word of some new survey/study revealing that women - including moreover staunch as feminists - actually prefer fellas (i.e. as prospective romantic partners) who, though sometimes perhaps misconceived as somewhat patronizing in their treatment of (what some referred to once as) 'the fairer sex', nevertheless still maintain(ed) the old-fashioned courtesies once classed as chivalry; (arguably still implicitly respected by most people).
Though I fain see myself as among this number (and I believe I've good grounds for so doing), rarely would one encounter one as purely chivalrous - in all the purest and noblest and even childlike senses of the term - as Richard Welch...
...a rare specimen of humanity indeed, whose 'kind' sadly is distinctly on the wane, even arguably rapidly on the road to extinction. But thankfully not where it really matters.
Saturday, August 18, 2018
In Memorium: Robin Williams, Comedian - Actor - All-Round Genius and Outstandingly Decent Human Being: Admittedly Many Years On (from his departure): Yes, "Carpe Diem" indeed - but withal ever "Memento Mori" one day...later if not sooner...
Apologies for Saturday evening's disorderly, disorganized effort - hopefully this will explain all.
So now, if at long last (and admittedly over half a month ago now - (1) on August the first, to be precise), a light has clicked on for me; i.e. the remaining, long-missing pieces of the puzzle that was Robin Williams (and his life on earth) have finally come together for me...c/o a (2) radio interview on RNZ National's weekday Nine to Noon show. And so everything makes sense, after all...
And though this small tribute of mine is awfully, tremendously, inexcusably late - yes, belated to a fault - what a weird thing I've just experienced. Just a minute or two ago, on Freeview's TV1 +, and also Freeview's TV3 + (6 p.m. Evening News-es one hour on), guess who's 'mugshot' was gracing the screen? From a place called Ubadella (or suchlike) in Aussie, a brave kiwi firefighter apparently just lost his life in an heroic last-ditch stand against the unseasonable winter fires presently ravaging New South Wales.
So what, you may well ask, has that to do with anything? I'm glad you asked. I don't believe I happened to mention said firefighter's name. It's Al(l)an Tull (I think), but what's pertinent here is that the recurring main screenshot displayed struck me as the veritable spitting-image of Robin Williams (whose memorable, gravelly and toilworn, yet goodness-permeated face was not easily 'reproducible' by anyone). Yes, on the very night I finally sit down to write this belated piece!
A person whose own name is ever intertwined with the dearest associations of my lifetime's movie viewing. Though admittedly I've only ever been familiar with three of his major acting efforts: as a teenager with his TV comedy 'Mork and Mindy' (rather corny - at the time; (3) but not to me now - hindsight's benefit and viewing RW with rather rosy-tinted glasses over recent decades - and especially post-mortem - has pretty well changed everything for me); later in life (probably from the mid-later nineteen-nineties on) with his role (as English Professor John Keating) in 'Dead Poets Society'; and only a year or so ago I literally stumbled upon (one later Saturday eve) his inimitably brilliant tragic-comedic role as a major actor in 'Mrs Doubtfire'.
Yet strangely enough I've thus far no great desire to see his other major roles, such as Williams' oft-cited 'Good Morning, Vietnam' (I believe it's called). But DPS ever retains a place in memory's hallowed halls and corridors for me, as it essentially sums up for me the tragic genius of Robin Williams: hysterically hilarious in his seriousness, and deadly in earnest in his deadpan humour.
He never needed to try - as so many do - to be 'funny', he simply - ever - was; he just couldn't help himself. Yet simultaneously he was as emotionally 'sober' and in the moment as one might desire - and moreover with an uncanny, instinctual understanding of both the seriousness and urgency of the hour and what the particular moment required.
So what of my sudden realization - my recent 'epiphany' - 'of the puzzle that was Robin Williams? Well, for that we must return to that classic (apparently late 1980s') film, 'Dead Poets Society'.
The unsettling conclusion to the film - or rather the all-important final third or quarter - is one in which one of the college kids, having put his very heart and soul into his one supreme desire - of becoming an actor - finally achieves a much-coveted main role in the college's rendition of Shakespeare's The Midsummer Night's Dream. However, immediately thereafter - no-one misses a beat in this tension-packed tragic-dramatic masterpiece - the youth is led to commit suicide by a stoic, inflexible, callous and frankly (9) evil father's simple unwillingness to even countenance his cherished only son's engaging in such a (10) [low-life] career...; let alone thus decidedly spurning
his own favoured life-course of law (or 'the professions' generally).
The reason - in this particular instance - for my dwelling in such graphic detail upon such intricacies of a film I've ever admittedly been in love with? As you 've doubtless already guessed, this young fellow's character study, life trajectory and son-father relationship apparently pretty well reflected Robin Williams' own. Which was doubtless why he considered it his (11) best or at least most favourite film/and/or filmic performance (when later in life reflecting upon his various acting roles throughout a long and (effectively, if formally unrecognized) star-studded career).
You see, that acting-obsessed youth represented Robin Williams himself in a hauntingly uncanny kind of a way: for both had dads who disapproved of their choosing acting as their life's career, and both eventually chose suicide as their means of dealing with withholding of parental approval of the same.
But I exaggerate, no, even fabricate a cosy little parallel(ism) here. For unlike the DPS youth, Williams' own - probable, at least generally-suspected - suicide (through alcohol/drug overdose) happened long - years and decades - after his acting career finally began, and eventually flourished. And no doubt his own father eventually reconciled himself to his son's native (acting) genius. And even if he didn't, unlike the tragic youth of DPS, Robin Williams was not ultimately thwarted by the limitations of parental or familial short-sightedness, but went right on, pursuing the career of his own dreams.
(1) Indeed this almost instantaneous 'insight' hit me the very moment Kathryn Ryan began her interview - the long-lost mystery all-of-a-sudden resolved itself (to my complete satisfaction), as I almost automatically saw how all the missing pieces of the puzzle that was Robin Williams' life on earth (4) fit together beautifully, like the proverbial hand-in-a-glove.
There was a reason why 'Dead Poets Society' was indeed (6) Robin Williams' most inimitable, seminal work. It wasn't just for the obvious fact that therein Williams, as Professor Keating, turned in one of his all-time best performances, but rather and far more importantly, in some respects, that another major character in the story - yes, one moulded and shaped and formed by Keating's unique pedagogical methods, most assuredly - himself represented Robin Williams' own troubled and problematic life-story and trajectory...
It was thankfully one however which Williams himself 'came through with flying colours'; and yet was unable to completely shake off throughout his life, and that perhaps even caught up with him in the end...as who can say how that withholding of parental approval may still haunt one and manage to not only unsettle but ultimately undo one even into one's later years...?
(2) With writer David Ipscroft, author of Robin Williams: A Biography.
(3) And actually, from my own perspective, for very good reason - not only, as bereaved folk so often do, only seeing the good and pleasing and none of the bad and defective in the wake of a dearly beloved's departure. For though no real fan of 'Mork and Mindy', as a teenage TV addict I nevertheless, alongside siblings, viewed it often; perhaps the time-slot was simply conducive to this?
Nevertheless, despite one's impressionable early teenage years' recollections (of so many things), nowadays - cf 'the World According to Garth'(?!?!?) - I can actually see just how Robin Williams' unique personality and temperament fit this particular role like a hand in a glove. How acting as some kind of a mediator between aliens visiting Earth and earthlings might've come naturally to him...why, Williams' own 'talking to and with his animals' (like Dr Doolittle et al) as a kid - "treating them like separate, individual persons/beings" - even reminds me not only of one close relative in particular, but moreover even myself in those halcyon years of life...
(4) I also well realize that Robin Williams himself wouldn't put things as crudely, bluntly or simplistically as I do here, he being an intuitive, instinctual, lateral-thinking sort of a person, rather than el usual left-brain type of character...which archetype modern Western Civilization regales to the rafters - alongside athletes and sportspeople of every description ((5) much as Ancient Greece, the originator of the Olympics and their ancient 'predecessor', extolled and exalted the mind (psyche) and body (physique) over the spirit (pneuma) and emotions/emotional makeup).
(5) This 'profound insight' came to me - whether as a varsity student or over subsequent years - on one occasion while traversing the grounds of my old 'Alma Mater', the University of Otago, as my eyes gravitated up towards the various shapes and sculptured figurines (of either Greek musculature in the abstract, or of specific Greek athletes of yesteryear) engraved upon the lovely Oamaru stone building known as the Arts and Humanities Burns theatre(tte).
(6) Sure, I realize he didn't personally either direct or produce this feat of insight into the human condition, but his was an - arguably the film's most - exquisite performance...and the fact that he has never - even (7) posthumously - been awarded best (or best supporting) actor by the Hollywood moguls...quite frankly, says a whole lot more about them (and what they consider good and great) than (8) anything else ever could...
(7) Yes, I considered doing something along the lines of an internet campaign to get Robin Williams 'recognized' thus officially (if posthumously) soon after his death, but never followed up on it.
Though that admittedly might seem lazy, out of principle I've never joined either facebook or twitter - and in fact never intend to...unashamedly seeing both as symptomatic of the scourge that modern digital technology has become throughout the Western World in particular...and especially among the 'up-and-coming' generation...which sadly is thus going down-and-down...if not out!
(8) Likewise the utter sidelining of the reputedly excellent Selma, starring Oprah Winfrey, a couple years ago...following it being extolled to the rafters previously, was a curious - and frankly, cowardly - 'touch' in that year's Academy Awards (by selfsame Hollywood establishment).
(9) For a brilliant and inimitable treatment of this oddly much-neglected yet all-important subject - i.e. human evil - see M Scott Peck's People of the Lie: The Hope for Healing Human Evil.
(10) Though these days acting's an unduly celebrated career option and lawyers have been - no doubt justly, in many respects - 'given the short shrift'/the short end of the stick (or whatever the saying is)...regularly appearing at the bottom of the public-at-large's frequently-surveyed list of most disreputable careers...alongside their (often alter ego) politicians; a little below media and used car salesmen if I remember rightly...
(11) Which makes me personally quite gratified, as not only was 'Dead Poets Society' a favourite of mine - one out of one for a very long time (as I never really bothered with 'Mork and Mindy' as a youngster (or thereafter), and only came across 'Mrs Doubtfire' a little while ago) - but I'd ever felt it'd been inexplicably bypassed and neglected for proper note even, much less for justly-deserved fame and recognition, plaudits and awards.
So now, if at long last (and admittedly over half a month ago now - (1) on August the first, to be precise), a light has clicked on for me; i.e. the remaining, long-missing pieces of the puzzle that was Robin Williams (and his life on earth) have finally come together for me...c/o a (2) radio interview on RNZ National's weekday Nine to Noon show. And so everything makes sense, after all...
And though this small tribute of mine is awfully, tremendously, inexcusably late - yes, belated to a fault - what a weird thing I've just experienced. Just a minute or two ago, on Freeview's TV1 +, and also Freeview's TV3 + (6 p.m. Evening News-es one hour on), guess who's 'mugshot' was gracing the screen? From a place called Ubadella (or suchlike) in Aussie, a brave kiwi firefighter apparently just lost his life in an heroic last-ditch stand against the unseasonable winter fires presently ravaging New South Wales.
So what, you may well ask, has that to do with anything? I'm glad you asked. I don't believe I happened to mention said firefighter's name. It's Al(l)an Tull (I think), but what's pertinent here is that the recurring main screenshot displayed struck me as the veritable spitting-image of Robin Williams (whose memorable, gravelly and toilworn, yet goodness-permeated face was not easily 'reproducible' by anyone). Yes, on the very night I finally sit down to write this belated piece!
A person whose own name is ever intertwined with the dearest associations of my lifetime's movie viewing. Though admittedly I've only ever been familiar with three of his major acting efforts: as a teenager with his TV comedy 'Mork and Mindy' (rather corny - at the time; (3) but not to me now - hindsight's benefit and viewing RW with rather rosy-tinted glasses over recent decades - and especially post-mortem - has pretty well changed everything for me); later in life (probably from the mid-later nineteen-nineties on) with his role (as English Professor John Keating) in 'Dead Poets Society'; and only a year or so ago I literally stumbled upon (one later Saturday eve) his inimitably brilliant tragic-comedic role as a major actor in 'Mrs Doubtfire'.
Yet strangely enough I've thus far no great desire to see his other major roles, such as Williams' oft-cited 'Good Morning, Vietnam' (I believe it's called). But DPS ever retains a place in memory's hallowed halls and corridors for me, as it essentially sums up for me the tragic genius of Robin Williams: hysterically hilarious in his seriousness, and deadly in earnest in his deadpan humour.
He never needed to try - as so many do - to be 'funny', he simply - ever - was; he just couldn't help himself. Yet simultaneously he was as emotionally 'sober' and in the moment as one might desire - and moreover with an uncanny, instinctual understanding of both the seriousness and urgency of the hour and what the particular moment required.
So what of my sudden realization - my recent 'epiphany' - 'of the puzzle that was Robin Williams? Well, for that we must return to that classic (apparently late 1980s') film, 'Dead Poets Society'.
The unsettling conclusion to the film - or rather the all-important final third or quarter - is one in which one of the college kids, having put his very heart and soul into his one supreme desire - of becoming an actor - finally achieves a much-coveted main role in the college's rendition of Shakespeare's The Midsummer Night's Dream. However, immediately thereafter - no-one misses a beat in this tension-packed tragic-dramatic masterpiece - the youth is led to commit suicide by a stoic, inflexible, callous and frankly (9) evil father's simple unwillingness to even countenance his cherished only son's engaging in such a (10) [low-life] career...; let alone thus decidedly spurning
his own favoured life-course of law (or 'the professions' generally).
The reason - in this particular instance - for my dwelling in such graphic detail upon such intricacies of a film I've ever admittedly been in love with? As you 've doubtless already guessed, this young fellow's character study, life trajectory and son-father relationship apparently pretty well reflected Robin Williams' own. Which was doubtless why he considered it his (11) best or at least most favourite film/and/or filmic performance (when later in life reflecting upon his various acting roles throughout a long and (effectively, if formally unrecognized) star-studded career).
You see, that acting-obsessed youth represented Robin Williams himself in a hauntingly uncanny kind of a way: for both had dads who disapproved of their choosing acting as their life's career, and both eventually chose suicide as their means of dealing with withholding of parental approval of the same.
But I exaggerate, no, even fabricate a cosy little parallel(ism) here. For unlike the DPS youth, Williams' own - probable, at least generally-suspected - suicide (through alcohol/drug overdose) happened long - years and decades - after his acting career finally began, and eventually flourished. And no doubt his own father eventually reconciled himself to his son's native (acting) genius. And even if he didn't, unlike the tragic youth of DPS, Robin Williams was not ultimately thwarted by the limitations of parental or familial short-sightedness, but went right on, pursuing the career of his own dreams.
(1) Indeed this almost instantaneous 'insight' hit me the very moment Kathryn Ryan began her interview - the long-lost mystery all-of-a-sudden resolved itself (to my complete satisfaction), as I almost automatically saw how all the missing pieces of the puzzle that was Robin Williams' life on earth (4) fit together beautifully, like the proverbial hand-in-a-glove.
There was a reason why 'Dead Poets Society' was indeed (6) Robin Williams' most inimitable, seminal work. It wasn't just for the obvious fact that therein Williams, as Professor Keating, turned in one of his all-time best performances, but rather and far more importantly, in some respects, that another major character in the story - yes, one moulded and shaped and formed by Keating's unique pedagogical methods, most assuredly - himself represented Robin Williams' own troubled and problematic life-story and trajectory...
It was thankfully one however which Williams himself 'came through with flying colours'; and yet was unable to completely shake off throughout his life, and that perhaps even caught up with him in the end...as who can say how that withholding of parental approval may still haunt one and manage to not only unsettle but ultimately undo one even into one's later years...?
(2) With writer David Ipscroft, author of Robin Williams: A Biography.
(3) And actually, from my own perspective, for very good reason - not only, as bereaved folk so often do, only seeing the good and pleasing and none of the bad and defective in the wake of a dearly beloved's departure. For though no real fan of 'Mork and Mindy', as a teenage TV addict I nevertheless, alongside siblings, viewed it often; perhaps the time-slot was simply conducive to this?
Nevertheless, despite one's impressionable early teenage years' recollections (of so many things), nowadays - cf 'the World According to Garth'(?!?!?) - I can actually see just how Robin Williams' unique personality and temperament fit this particular role like a hand in a glove. How acting as some kind of a mediator between aliens visiting Earth and earthlings might've come naturally to him...why, Williams' own 'talking to and with his animals' (like Dr Doolittle et al) as a kid - "treating them like separate, individual persons/beings" - even reminds me not only of one close relative in particular, but moreover even myself in those halcyon years of life...
(4) I also well realize that Robin Williams himself wouldn't put things as crudely, bluntly or simplistically as I do here, he being an intuitive, instinctual, lateral-thinking sort of a person, rather than el usual left-brain type of character...which archetype modern Western Civilization regales to the rafters - alongside athletes and sportspeople of every description ((5) much as Ancient Greece, the originator of the Olympics and their ancient 'predecessor', extolled and exalted the mind (psyche) and body (physique) over the spirit (pneuma) and emotions/emotional makeup).
(5) This 'profound insight' came to me - whether as a varsity student or over subsequent years - on one occasion while traversing the grounds of my old 'Alma Mater', the University of Otago, as my eyes gravitated up towards the various shapes and sculptured figurines (of either Greek musculature in the abstract, or of specific Greek athletes of yesteryear) engraved upon the lovely Oamaru stone building known as the Arts and Humanities Burns theatre(tte).
(6) Sure, I realize he didn't personally either direct or produce this feat of insight into the human condition, but his was an - arguably the film's most - exquisite performance...and the fact that he has never - even (7) posthumously - been awarded best (or best supporting) actor by the Hollywood moguls...quite frankly, says a whole lot more about them (and what they consider good and great) than (8) anything else ever could...
(7) Yes, I considered doing something along the lines of an internet campaign to get Robin Williams 'recognized' thus officially (if posthumously) soon after his death, but never followed up on it.
Though that admittedly might seem lazy, out of principle I've never joined either facebook or twitter - and in fact never intend to...unashamedly seeing both as symptomatic of the scourge that modern digital technology has become throughout the Western World in particular...and especially among the 'up-and-coming' generation...which sadly is thus going down-and-down...if not out!
(8) Likewise the utter sidelining of the reputedly excellent Selma, starring Oprah Winfrey, a couple years ago...following it being extolled to the rafters previously, was a curious - and frankly, cowardly - 'touch' in that year's Academy Awards (by selfsame Hollywood establishment).
(9) For a brilliant and inimitable treatment of this oddly much-neglected yet all-important subject - i.e. human evil - see M Scott Peck's People of the Lie: The Hope for Healing Human Evil.
(10) Though these days acting's an unduly celebrated career option and lawyers have been - no doubt justly, in many respects - 'given the short shrift'/the short end of the stick (or whatever the saying is)...regularly appearing at the bottom of the public-at-large's frequently-surveyed list of most disreputable careers...alongside their (often alter ego) politicians; a little below media and used car salesmen if I remember rightly...
(11) Which makes me personally quite gratified, as not only was 'Dead Poets Society' a favourite of mine - one out of one for a very long time (as I never really bothered with 'Mork and Mindy' as a youngster (or thereafter), and only came across 'Mrs Doubtfire' a little while ago) - but I'd ever felt it'd been inexplicably bypassed and neglected for proper note even, much less for justly-deserved fame and recognition, plaudits and awards.
Friday, June 8, 2018
'The Day Hope Died': June 6th, 1968 - 50 years on: Robert F Kennedy's Legacy Revisited A Half-Century On or: Only The Best Die Young
Just a day-and-a-few (28-some) hours over 50 years ago (U.S. and N.Z.-time), a political star/'icon' of the day brightly exploded/thus met his untimely end...gunned down in his prime, like his famous brother, by an assassin's bullet: budding 1968 presidential prospect, the youthful New York Senator Robert Kennedy. And, as they say, the rest is - now rather ancient - history. To near-universal regret.
My own (with hindsight's sweet benefit) 'regret' is related: I oftentimes muse - if only my parents'd moved to NZ a decade(-and-a-half) later - I'd (alongside my four (immediate) siblings) have grown up in the U S of A during the exciting, tumultuous, idealistic era of the sixties (through mid-later seventies)...long before the rot (of cynicism and all the rest) truly set in to the Western body politic. But such was not to be...
Few figures in Westerndom have strode on and off history's stage quite like the American Kennedy brothers. In my mind at least, towering head and shoulders above either (President) 'JFK' or (long-serving U S Senator) 'Ted' Kennedy was (U S Senator) 'Bobby' Kennedy...John Fitzgerald Kennedy's erstwhile Attorney-General and one-time McCarthy Communist Senatorial Trials' committee member.
'As fate would have/so decree it', his assassination occurred just as he had handily won the Californian Democratic Primary and was about to proceed to Chicago for the party convention, a venue which - in his (unforeseen) absence - featured such notorious, strife-torn division, even pandemonium that it thereafter became synonymous with, a veritable byword for political hari-kari.
The supreme irony, of course, was that Robert Kennedy had pretty well wrapped up his party's presidential nomination, was virtually a shoo-in over the sitting, increasingly unpopular President Lyndon Baines Johnson - *provided, that was, that LBJ decided to put his name forward. And so, 'all things being equal', RFK would've unceremoniously scooped up the Democratic nomination, and, everything else being likewise equal, could and should well have, in all likelihood, gone on to score a crushing landslide victory over (the presumptive Republican Party nominee) Richard Milhaus Nixon in November, 1968.
But alas, as we all now know, it was not to be. And thus America, and indeed people worldwide, was/were to suffer a great disappointment - following on, thick and fast, from those already engendered by the assassinations of Civil Rights Leader Martin Luther King only two months earlier, and just over four-and-a-half years before that, of Bobby's own brother President John F Kennedy. (A) loss(es) that would reverberate, in its/their repercussions - however unbeknownst to them - literally for decades, at least forty-some years on into the future; until the election, in fact, of a man - Barack Hussein Obama - who, in his historic election in 2008, combined the essence of MLK('s once-marginalized blackness) and RFK('s message of hope and change).
So full marks to Stephen Sackur - he of BBC World Radio Hardtalk fame - for an excellent, extended (non-sound-bitten) programme (broadcast twice over the past week on New Zealand's RNZ National), a show which dealt intelligently and thoughtfully, even reflectively, with the sheer complexities and nuances of this natural leader. Yes, RFK was a person described (therein) - despite his infamous bucked-teeth (somewhat cheesy) grin - as having been probably America's most savvy (uncynical) political operator of his day (in all the best, pre-realpolitik traditions of that term).
Whose untimely death, therefore - by anyone's measure - was a political tragedy of the first order. For if one politician - other than JFK, that is - and Nelson Mandela, who strode across the global political stage in this past half-century, were seen as/to be the very embodiment of the triumph of idealism over cynicism and 'realpolitik'/political pragmatism, surely it'd have to (have) be(en) Robert F Kennedy.
So, whatever other (oft-cited) character flaws the Kennedy 'boys'/brothers' Dad undoubtedly possessed, 'Joe' Kennedy certainly knew what he was doing in successfully grooming three pre-eminent presidential prospects for America's #1 position of political leadership. One (JFK) was, however briefly; another (**'Ted') was a distinct 'wannabe'; and RFK no doubt would have been. All (potential) heirs of what's subsequently become known as America's own 'Camelot' dynasty.
Robert Fitzgerald Kennedy represented all that is good - with this caveat: in the sanctified human psyche/soul - and his assassination, only weeks after that of America's great spiritual mentor, even latter-day prophet, Martin Luther King, prematurely closed what had been an incredibly promising chapter in American and world history. Which, as I say, both the USA and our global village has never really recovered from, though the election of America's first black president, Barack Obama, did, for awhile, seem to - briefly, and ultimately deceptively - give real promise of (rebirthing). Yes, Obama's book title and campaign slogan, 'the audacity of hope', surely revived such dreams of 'Camelot', if selfsame hopes and dreams as quickly faded out in the mists of the realpolitik of our day.
Yes, Robert Kennedy, you lived what you believed - with every last fibre of your being - and ultimately died for that utopian vision. According to Mr Sackur's report, those who caught a glimpse of your dying face saw it as like that of a god dying. And indeed perhaps you were - notwithstanding your own brand of confused, mixed-up humanity and 'naive' idealism and 'polyanna'-ish optimism - next to Martin Luther King, as close to such as we will ever be privileged to encounter.
May it never be said, or rather asked (in)credulously, and rhetorically: 'Can any good thing ever come out of (modern-day) America?' Such most definitely did, but the land could not abide it, or them, and so it finished them off upon that/those fateful day/s in the 60s, especially upon April 4th and June 6th, 1968. They were men too good for their generation, or, as the beloved apostle John put matters about an altogether more Divine One millennia earlier:
And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
Yes, God would have saved that generation, and fully intended to do just so - through His very own, divinely-appointed and anointed instruments - but they were men 'of whom the world was not worthy'. Indeed!
Rest in peace, RFK, we may/will no doubt never see your like again...and for that our world is immeasurably poorer...and may ultimately, and sooner rather than later, suffer irretrievable, utter ruin and catastrophe, even Armageddon... . Yes, America, 'your LORD' would've saved you, but you were not willing...Behold, your house is left to you desolate!
*Evidently LBJ had already decided not to put his name forward (just a couple months earlier).
**Long an admirer of Senator Ted Kennedy's distinguished, 40-some year, Senate record, following renewed reference (c/o a recently-released movie) as to the specifics of the infamous Chappaquiddick incident (in which Kennedy's girlfriend died), I'm finding it increasingly difficult to defend him - though (even just from personal experience, apart from anything else) I'm increasingly aware of how the truth is oftentimes entirely different from what it generally appears. Hence, second-guessing how we would have acted in a particular situation usually presents us in a much more favourable light than reality might have seen, and moreover judges another for stuff that may in fact not have been the way things truly panned out in the particular circumstances. Nevertheless, if said film presents stuff as it really transpired, then Ted K was apparently every bit the rogue persona in which many - such as my late Dad - thenceforth viewed him.
My own (with hindsight's sweet benefit) 'regret' is related: I oftentimes muse - if only my parents'd moved to NZ a decade(-and-a-half) later - I'd (alongside my four (immediate) siblings) have grown up in the U S of A during the exciting, tumultuous, idealistic era of the sixties (through mid-later seventies)...long before the rot (of cynicism and all the rest) truly set in to the Western body politic. But such was not to be...
Few figures in Westerndom have strode on and off history's stage quite like the American Kennedy brothers. In my mind at least, towering head and shoulders above either (President) 'JFK' or (long-serving U S Senator) 'Ted' Kennedy was (U S Senator) 'Bobby' Kennedy...John Fitzgerald Kennedy's erstwhile Attorney-General and one-time McCarthy Communist Senatorial Trials' committee member.
'As fate would have/so decree it', his assassination occurred just as he had handily won the Californian Democratic Primary and was about to proceed to Chicago for the party convention, a venue which - in his (unforeseen) absence - featured such notorious, strife-torn division, even pandemonium that it thereafter became synonymous with, a veritable byword for political hari-kari.
The supreme irony, of course, was that Robert Kennedy had pretty well wrapped up his party's presidential nomination, was virtually a shoo-in over the sitting, increasingly unpopular President Lyndon Baines Johnson - *provided, that was, that LBJ decided to put his name forward. And so, 'all things being equal', RFK would've unceremoniously scooped up the Democratic nomination, and, everything else being likewise equal, could and should well have, in all likelihood, gone on to score a crushing landslide victory over (the presumptive Republican Party nominee) Richard Milhaus Nixon in November, 1968.
But alas, as we all now know, it was not to be. And thus America, and indeed people worldwide, was/were to suffer a great disappointment - following on, thick and fast, from those already engendered by the assassinations of Civil Rights Leader Martin Luther King only two months earlier, and just over four-and-a-half years before that, of Bobby's own brother President John F Kennedy. (A) loss(es) that would reverberate, in its/their repercussions - however unbeknownst to them - literally for decades, at least forty-some years on into the future; until the election, in fact, of a man - Barack Hussein Obama - who, in his historic election in 2008, combined the essence of MLK('s once-marginalized blackness) and RFK('s message of hope and change).
So full marks to Stephen Sackur - he of BBC World Radio Hardtalk fame - for an excellent, extended (non-sound-bitten) programme (broadcast twice over the past week on New Zealand's RNZ National), a show which dealt intelligently and thoughtfully, even reflectively, with the sheer complexities and nuances of this natural leader. Yes, RFK was a person described (therein) - despite his infamous bucked-teeth (somewhat cheesy) grin - as having been probably America's most savvy (uncynical) political operator of his day (in all the best, pre-realpolitik traditions of that term).
Whose untimely death, therefore - by anyone's measure - was a political tragedy of the first order. For if one politician - other than JFK, that is - and Nelson Mandela, who strode across the global political stage in this past half-century, were seen as/to be the very embodiment of the triumph of idealism over cynicism and 'realpolitik'/political pragmatism, surely it'd have to (have) be(en) Robert F Kennedy.
So, whatever other (oft-cited) character flaws the Kennedy 'boys'/brothers' Dad undoubtedly possessed, 'Joe' Kennedy certainly knew what he was doing in successfully grooming three pre-eminent presidential prospects for America's #1 position of political leadership. One (JFK) was, however briefly; another (**'Ted') was a distinct 'wannabe'; and RFK no doubt would have been. All (potential) heirs of what's subsequently become known as America's own 'Camelot' dynasty.
Robert Fitzgerald Kennedy represented all that is good - with this caveat: in the sanctified human psyche/soul - and his assassination, only weeks after that of America's great spiritual mentor, even latter-day prophet, Martin Luther King, prematurely closed what had been an incredibly promising chapter in American and world history. Which, as I say, both the USA and our global village has never really recovered from, though the election of America's first black president, Barack Obama, did, for awhile, seem to - briefly, and ultimately deceptively - give real promise of (rebirthing). Yes, Obama's book title and campaign slogan, 'the audacity of hope', surely revived such dreams of 'Camelot', if selfsame hopes and dreams as quickly faded out in the mists of the realpolitik of our day.
Yes, Robert Kennedy, you lived what you believed - with every last fibre of your being - and ultimately died for that utopian vision. According to Mr Sackur's report, those who caught a glimpse of your dying face saw it as like that of a god dying. And indeed perhaps you were - notwithstanding your own brand of confused, mixed-up humanity and 'naive' idealism and 'polyanna'-ish optimism - next to Martin Luther King, as close to such as we will ever be privileged to encounter.
May it never be said, or rather asked (in)credulously, and rhetorically: 'Can any good thing ever come out of (modern-day) America?' Such most definitely did, but the land could not abide it, or them, and so it finished them off upon that/those fateful day/s in the 60s, especially upon April 4th and June 6th, 1968. They were men too good for their generation, or, as the beloved apostle John put matters about an altogether more Divine One millennia earlier:
And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
Yes, God would have saved that generation, and fully intended to do just so - through His very own, divinely-appointed and anointed instruments - but they were men 'of whom the world was not worthy'. Indeed!
Rest in peace, RFK, we may/will no doubt never see your like again...and for that our world is immeasurably poorer...and may ultimately, and sooner rather than later, suffer irretrievable, utter ruin and catastrophe, even Armageddon... . Yes, America, 'your LORD' would've saved you, but you were not willing...Behold, your house is left to you desolate!
*Evidently LBJ had already decided not to put his name forward (just a couple months earlier).
**Long an admirer of Senator Ted Kennedy's distinguished, 40-some year, Senate record, following renewed reference (c/o a recently-released movie) as to the specifics of the infamous Chappaquiddick incident (in which Kennedy's girlfriend died), I'm finding it increasingly difficult to defend him - though (even just from personal experience, apart from anything else) I'm increasingly aware of how the truth is oftentimes entirely different from what it generally appears. Hence, second-guessing how we would have acted in a particular situation usually presents us in a much more favourable light than reality might have seen, and moreover judges another for stuff that may in fact not have been the way things truly panned out in the particular circumstances. Nevertheless, if said film presents stuff as it really transpired, then Ted K was apparently every bit the rogue persona in which many - such as my late Dad - thenceforth viewed him.
Friday, April 27, 2018
Priceless - Inestimable: Musings Upon A Chance Encounter
"What a wonderful surprise!" - "Third time lucky!" (or rather, providentially blest)
...words that - with hindsight's quick and ready, beneficial wisdom -
I would've - could've - should've said...
...then and there...
If Only...as New Zealand's musical legend Shona Laing might've put it in her beautiful, evocative (yet veritably obscure and unknown) 70s' hit by that name...
Ever too little, too late - full of regrets and self-recriminations -
if only
Your head bobbed up...suddenly, unexpectedly, joyfully (for me),
thus catching me totally off-guard...
It'd seemed you weren't there that (particular) day - Easter Monday - but then you were...
...suddenly you 're-appeared' - materialized (like that chuddy-gum chewin' cowboy kid from the American Midwest in Willy Wonka's time-transportational, telekinetic contraption)...
I was flummoxed, floored...lost for speech - a thing not usual for me...
But things were fraught - the checkout operator was ready and willing...
and I couldn't keep her waiting...
And so trivia engaged - engrossed - my waylaid mind: assessing the cost, the price of everything - the true, real value of nothing...
...that really mattered, anyway...
For indeed, you (*the priceless, inestimable one) had been ever there,
always on my mind...
If only
*Necessary Disclaimer (with that wonderful benefit of hindsight referred to earlier):
Lest anyone mistake my use of such superlatives - though it is (meant to be) a poem, and therefore the style naturally lends itself to that sort of vocabulary - may I add the following: such language (i.e. priceless and inestimable, in particular) may indeed appear/admittedly are somewhat over the top...especially for someone I clearly hardly know. Yet I feel they capture the preciousness, in the eyes of their Creator-Redeemer, of every last human being who's ever lived - for Jesus Christ would have died for that one alone (if there had been no other who'd gone astray); He would have verily passed through the horrors and agonies of Calvary's cross for that individual alone.
However, even more aptly (in this particular instance): priceless - inestimable are the consistent meanings my (8-12) assorted baby name books (among my vast book hoard accumulated over the decades) attribute to the Christian name of the person my poem is devoted to. Naturally hoping she'll one day read the same and guess that for herself! A fanciful imagining, no doubt, but once one ceases to dream, life becomes a rather sad affair.
**Apology: Admittedly adding all of this onto a piece of poetry does tend to nullify the entire thrust and beauty and pathos of the writing - not to mention its stylistic layout (especially with my brand new, ethereal, outer space, off this planet background) - and thus render it rather contrived and artificial. Sorry.
...words that - with hindsight's quick and ready, beneficial wisdom -
I would've - could've - should've said...
...then and there...
If Only...as New Zealand's musical legend Shona Laing might've put it in her beautiful, evocative (yet veritably obscure and unknown) 70s' hit by that name...
Ever too little, too late - full of regrets and self-recriminations -
if only
Your head bobbed up...suddenly, unexpectedly, joyfully (for me),
thus catching me totally off-guard...
It'd seemed you weren't there that (particular) day - Easter Monday - but then you were...
...suddenly you 're-appeared' - materialized (like that chuddy-gum chewin' cowboy kid from the American Midwest in Willy Wonka's time-transportational, telekinetic contraption)...
I was flummoxed, floored...lost for speech - a thing not usual for me...
But things were fraught - the checkout operator was ready and willing...
and I couldn't keep her waiting...
And so trivia engaged - engrossed - my waylaid mind: assessing the cost, the price of everything - the true, real value of nothing...
...that really mattered, anyway...
For indeed, you (*the priceless, inestimable one) had been ever there,
always on my mind...
If only
*Necessary Disclaimer (with that wonderful benefit of hindsight referred to earlier):
Lest anyone mistake my use of such superlatives - though it is (meant to be) a poem, and therefore the style naturally lends itself to that sort of vocabulary - may I add the following: such language (i.e. priceless and inestimable, in particular) may indeed appear/admittedly are somewhat over the top...especially for someone I clearly hardly know. Yet I feel they capture the preciousness, in the eyes of their Creator-Redeemer, of every last human being who's ever lived - for Jesus Christ would have died for that one alone (if there had been no other who'd gone astray); He would have verily passed through the horrors and agonies of Calvary's cross for that individual alone.
However, even more aptly (in this particular instance): priceless - inestimable are the consistent meanings my (8-12) assorted baby name books (among my vast book hoard accumulated over the decades) attribute to the Christian name of the person my poem is devoted to. Naturally hoping she'll one day read the same and guess that for herself! A fanciful imagining, no doubt, but once one ceases to dream, life becomes a rather sad affair.
**Apology: Admittedly adding all of this onto a piece of poetry does tend to nullify the entire thrust and beauty and pathos of the writing - not to mention its stylistic layout (especially with my brand new, ethereal, outer space, off this planet background) - and thus render it rather contrived and artificial. Sorry.
Wednesday, April 4, 2018
In Tribute To The Memory of an Outstanding Human Being, America's 20th century prophet, Martin Luther King, Junior
As promised yesterday upon this blogsite, this is simply to acknowledge that - as mentioned in detail in my previous blogpost (upon the recent passing, 40 days ago, of renowned American evangelist Billy Graham) - 50 years ago, yesterday (NZ-time), upon April 3rd, 1968, 'the *Reverend' Martin Luther King, Junior, gave his final major speech in which he made prophetic reference to the entering into (by black Americans) of America's own Promised Land, and the day later (April 4th) - 'as fate would have it' - he 'entered into his [final] rest', felled 'for good' (or rather great evil) by an assassin's bullet/s.
Oddly, and serendipitously enough, I prefaced my observations upon the passing just the other day (or rather month-and-a-third) of King's contemporary, 'the *Reverend' Billy Graham, with reference to both the above...completely unaware that I was penning those remarks upon the 50th anniversary itself of that/those selfsame historic day/s...but 'fate' again thought and evidently chose otherwise once again...
But enough of my rather obtuse and extremely removed 'connection' to MLK, it almost appears like a subtle case of big-noting, that despicable 'art-form' in which, admittedly, I've occasionally happened to (on ever so small a scale, arguably) indulged...
Anyhow, let me just share some of the recollected (taped) remarks of King upon that fateful, penultimate day of his brief earthly sojourn...as heard this morning upon Democracy Now:
I've been to the mountain-top [as had Israel's ancient deliverer, the Law-Giver, Moses]...
God's allowed me to go up to the mountain ["....."......"....."....."......"......"......"......"]
& He's let me look over [into the Promised Land] [ditto]
I may not get there with you...[but I'm telling you today we will get there...(by) forty years from now]
Like Moses, MLK wasn't privileged to enter that **long-dreamt of land of milk and honey, but he was honoured, like the great Israelite statesman, with a glimpse into its 'hallowed halls'...while God allowed him to exit his brief earthly sojourn, having achieved God's great purposes in his own and in his nation's (and indeed world's) life...not a mean feat, by any means...no, a tremendous achievement.
So, may I simply add my own personal 'thank you' to a man who's inspired me upon my own earthly sojourn...probably more than any other single contemporary human leader. Like my (long vanished) good friend Daniel Sutherland, who like myself undertook the Diploma in Primary Teacher Training at Christchurch's College of Education back in 2006, and who used to play audiotapes of MLK as we meandered our way through the maze of downtown Christchurch traffic past Hagley Park on our way to 'study'...Martin Luther King's about as good a mentor as one could find pretty well anywhere these days...and that's saying something.
*Though like my Lord, I personally choose not to use such epithets or titles to denote God's earthly ministers, since Jesus warned us not to call any mere earthly leader 'Rabbi', 'Father', 'Teacher'. Anyhow, no-one but Jesus was ever completely, through-and-through holy and hence befitting such a term; though, conversely, the Bible employs the term 'saint' for one and all true believers, not just for those whom the church of the particular day regard as especially virtuous or worthy of acclaim.
** Sadly, if MLK were resurrected today, I somehow doubt he'd regard America - post-its very first black President, notwithstanding - as having entered into its own Promised Land', much less one of milk and honey... No, indeed, if anything its troubles seem to be just beginning...
Oddly, and serendipitously enough, I prefaced my observations upon the passing just the other day (or rather month-and-a-third) of King's contemporary, 'the *Reverend' Billy Graham, with reference to both the above...completely unaware that I was penning those remarks upon the 50th anniversary itself of that/those selfsame historic day/s...but 'fate' again thought and evidently chose otherwise once again...
But enough of my rather obtuse and extremely removed 'connection' to MLK, it almost appears like a subtle case of big-noting, that despicable 'art-form' in which, admittedly, I've occasionally happened to (on ever so small a scale, arguably) indulged...
Anyhow, let me just share some of the recollected (taped) remarks of King upon that fateful, penultimate day of his brief earthly sojourn...as heard this morning upon Democracy Now:
I've been to the mountain-top [as had Israel's ancient deliverer, the Law-Giver, Moses]...
God's allowed me to go up to the mountain ["....."......"....."....."......"......"......"......"]
& He's let me look over [into the Promised Land] [ditto]
I may not get there with you...[but I'm telling you today we will get there...(by) forty years from now]
Like Moses, MLK wasn't privileged to enter that **long-dreamt of land of milk and honey, but he was honoured, like the great Israelite statesman, with a glimpse into its 'hallowed halls'...while God allowed him to exit his brief earthly sojourn, having achieved God's great purposes in his own and in his nation's (and indeed world's) life...not a mean feat, by any means...no, a tremendous achievement.
So, may I simply add my own personal 'thank you' to a man who's inspired me upon my own earthly sojourn...probably more than any other single contemporary human leader. Like my (long vanished) good friend Daniel Sutherland, who like myself undertook the Diploma in Primary Teacher Training at Christchurch's College of Education back in 2006, and who used to play audiotapes of MLK as we meandered our way through the maze of downtown Christchurch traffic past Hagley Park on our way to 'study'...Martin Luther King's about as good a mentor as one could find pretty well anywhere these days...and that's saying something.
*Though like my Lord, I personally choose not to use such epithets or titles to denote God's earthly ministers, since Jesus warned us not to call any mere earthly leader 'Rabbi', 'Father', 'Teacher'. Anyhow, no-one but Jesus was ever completely, through-and-through holy and hence befitting such a term; though, conversely, the Bible employs the term 'saint' for one and all true believers, not just for those whom the church of the particular day regard as especially virtuous or worthy of acclaim.
** Sadly, if MLK were resurrected today, I somehow doubt he'd regard America - post-its very first black President, notwithstanding - as having entered into its own Promised Land', much less one of milk and honey... No, indeed, if anything its troubles seem to be just beginning...
Tuesday, April 3, 2018
An Old Soldier Of the Cross Finishes his Earthly Sojourn: Billy Graham, Pastor to Presidents, To America and to Believers (and Non-Believers) Worldwide: Rest In Peace, Till The Soon-Coming Resurrection
As the latter-day prophet of our generation, Martin Luther King, Junior, stood upon the steps of eternity - I believe the very day before he was felled by an assassin's bullet(s) - he famously declared, as his Old Testament 'mentor' Moses himself did as he prepared to die upon the very border of Canaan, having himself forfeited the wonderful opportunity of leading the people of Israel through Jordan into their Promised Land through a single error of judgment, failing to hallow God in the eyes of His people:
"I may not get to see the Promised Land, but I can see it afar off"; adding, unlike Moses: "...and am persuaded that not 40 years hence we will reach it"...of course in infinitely more eloquent phraseology, tones and emphasis (than my pitiful attempts at recollection).
And so, almost precisely 40 years on America elected its first black American President, Barack Obama.
I've little doubt MLK's fellow soldier of the cross - and *indeed friend and confidant, if in an entirely different sphere of activity, Billy Graham - has likewise departed this earthly scene just 'moments' (in the overall scheme of things, and of this Earth's brief human history) prior to, as JRR Tolkien's Frodo Baggins and Samwise Gamgee put it, 'the end of all things', the long-prophesied Parousia (Second Coming) of Jesus Christ, and the subsequent First Resurrection of all God's true 'saints', '[His] servants the prophets', 'and [all] those who fear [reverence, respect, rightly esteem, hold in awe, and show due deference to] [His] name, small and great'. And for such a moment he lived each day to behold.
And so I as well, if a belated 40 days on, take this opportunity to pay my own brief respects to the memory of someone much in the public eye who bore steady and unflinching, but ever grace-filled, loving witness in life and word and public proclamation, to 'his generation' - across the **entire globe.
To Be Continued (after sufficient shuteye!)
'Hot off the Press this morning':
Though apparent 'coincidences' seem to dog, bedevil - or, alternatively, grace and inspire - my every step these days (and years) of my life, I was simply dumbfounded this morning when the celebrated (and doubtless equally reviled!) 'award-winning Global News Hour' of the New York-based 'Democracy Now' radio show led out today today with items it later covered in greater detail, informing its listenership that April 3rd, 1968 was the date Martin Luther King made that memorable speech (cited in my above opening paragraphs), and the following day (April 4th) he was gunned down by an assassin's bullet/s. So that I seemed to have some sort of ESP for recounting those details I did on the very day I did, i.e. yesterday, April 3 (NZ-time), 2018...apparently 50 years (half a century) to that memorable day in the US of A; which was of course followed by MLK's 'history-making' - yet all too ***commonplace (especially back then) assassination.
A Few Extra Thoughts (scribbled the afternoon Billy Graham's death occurred/was reported):
Strangely the idea of Billy Graham's death has recurred to me on many occasion in years prior, my envisaging that moment resulting in quite a shockwave to the American (not only 'religious') psyche, dominating the likes of Time Magazine et al. However, in this secularized day and age - even, and especially in the US of A (except, naturally enough, among Christian evangelicals and ****'fundamentalists') - it has hardly occasioned more than a ripple of nostalgic interest and reflection. Nevertheless, for what it's worth, here are some of the reflections that affected me on that fateful day.
Yes, Billy Graham was intolerant - as indeed was His Master and Lord (but that's for another time and place) - of one thing, and one thing only: sin - in all its many and various, variegated and complicated forms and manifestations and infinite permutations. Just as were all the great biblical prophets, as a matter of fact, so he was in some especially good company, I'd argue. But somehow I don't suspect he'd have been at all, even remotely, concerned, much less upset let alone outraged, or even all that taken aback, for a matter of fact (or rather, (my) opinion!)...by such a designation. Rather, I strongly suspect he'd have worn such a designation - generally born out of sheer ignorance and/or intolerance itself!) as a veritable badge of honour...with which His own beloved LORD, his own great God and Saviour Jesus Christ had adorned him.
The story that has not been told, cynics and sceptics would contend - and with very good reason - that arguably has been actively suppressed from Americans and everyone else, was that Billy Graham was only too well aware of the divisions that would be caused and the criticisms stirred up by his being seen to publicly take a stand/stance fully in sync with where his own sympathies long lay...i.e. with the desegregation movement. Which is not to even for one moment condone the use of 'policy' and expediency in such situations, only to explain that - far from actually being in any sympathy with such reactionary and sadly in the vast majority (especially southern USA) 'elements', Graham was equally and only too well aware of the potential for disruption and ultimate injury to, and even effective destruction of, what he - naturally- felt was an important and life- and nation-, even world-changing ministry. So that not merely was his own 'livelihood' under serious and very real threat, but that work of the Spirit in peoples' lives, through which those heart- and life-transformations so necessary, even absolutely critical to, the ushering in of true equality in not only America but throughout the world would - indeed the only way such really ultimately could be effected - would be effectively thwarted; and for good (in every way).
(Unedited, Raw) Additional Reflections (Upon the New Zealand Response) on February 22nd:
Shame on New Zealand's Parliament upon this historic day. Their (new Speaker-inaugurated) PC-mangled and mauled, Jesus Christ-expunging and even un-'virtue-signalling' excuse for a 'parliamentary prayer', followed immediately by an enthusiastic welcome for a visiting Iranian parliamentary delegation (a nation not exactly conspicuous for its commitment to human rights), followed by...yes, you guessed aright, no - either '(uncontested) notice without motion' (or otherwise) - 'obituary'/remembrance slot acknowledging/commemorating the passing of the great 20th century evangelist to United States presidents (for half a century), Billy Graham... Yes, those three closely-juxtaposed 'items' essentially 'said it all' (as per where our present-day leaders effectively stand upon things that really matter in our modern day...although hopefully - in under an hour's time - they'll at least note the 50th anniversary of the gunning down of America's great 20th century prophet Martin Luther King, and reflect upon his timeless legacy...but even that I somehow doubt...
Upon the matter of that Iranian delegation, let me add a few further well-considered thoughts. Though not among those entertaining the prospect of even a small-scale regional Middle East nuclear conflagration - in which Iran would doubtless be an essential 'player' - thus publicly (from the highest official echelons of our society) 'celebrating' even just the presence here (within our own parliament) of (some of) the leadership of a nation well-documented as officially sanctioning, nay, verily promoting, the driving of another nation, in this case the M/E's one and only real democracy, i.e. Israel, into the Mediterranean Sea...whilst *****no-one in our Parliament apparently raises so much as 'a whisper nor a murmur' about the presence in said legislature of a former 'human rights' lawyer (and from that selfsame nation with its well-known human rights record) outed awhile ago (just following our recent parliamentary election) as deeply involved in having represented some of modern history's most genocidal (regime) players - to wit, 1990s' Rwanda and post-Yugoslavia - says a heckuva, or if you'll 'scuse my French', helluva, lot about where their real hearts are these days...and it sure ain't a pretty place!
*Curiously the mainstream media has well-nigh chosen (if but by neglect, but that's an agenda in itself) to ignore this crucial element of Pastor Graham's life experience, and if mention is made (as the ODT did in its own obituary upon him) of desegregation in the American South (in the 60s and beyond), Graham is presented as coming belatedly - and effectively (if only by obvious implication) kicking and screaming - 'to the table', as a reluctant and certainly not an eager, willing participant in and contributor to that seminal moment in United States and world history.
But the scurrilous, arguably even slanderous...allegations do not stop there. Yet to my surprise, one of the main ones was not entirely, or even at all, without some foundation: N.B. Graham's 'anti-Semitism'. In that regards RNZ National's decision to read out a rather inflammatory email - citing Graham as an anti-Semite and a preacher of hate' (presumably because he, in harmony with his biblical predecessors, held out staunchly against all manner of sexual deviance and perversion, including and especially ******homosexuality, which the Torah terms 'an abomination') - just before its 9 a.m. headline bulletin the day after Graham's death, without any 'right of reply' (as is usually - or, I would argue, supposedly - accorded subjects of media stories), was just plain awful (but probably quite well-planned) timing.
And yet in this era where the term 'homophobe' (and occasionally anti-Semitic) is bandied about willy-nilly, such (well-publicized verbal) transgressions, far from being seen as mere indiscretions let alone errors of judgment, are seen as major veritable hanging offences.Yet one cannot really argue that Pastor Graham's views upon sexual 'diversity' fit well in the modern world, and many today are metaphorically hung publicly for a way lot less!
And thus RNZ's sense of appropriateness in so airing them. And though on Graham's death day I bristled at such, feeling how utterly baseless, scurrilous and scandalous these various allegations were - aside from (as I just mentioned) being free from anyone's ability to publicly refute - and moreover almost 'unforgivable' from a human (if not divine) point of view...the sober light of reflection enabled me to check up upon the anti-Semite charge, and establish that Graham did indeed have somewhat of a case to answer...while he lived. And so, after processing the *******two (only!) internet opinion pieces dealing with this matter, I realized that Graham's tape-recorded conversation with then-President Nixon did indeed contain serious, even 'way out there' substance, itself (if no other such record existed) positively deleterious to Pastor Graham and his long-term (posthumous) reputation.
But to my surprise, it was the Jewish commentator extending the most grace - or arguably just sheer head-in-the-sand, look-the-other-way, see-no-evil, hear-no-evil, speak-no-evil rationalization-making to Graham. He essentially saw Graham's, admittedly fairly graphic, remarks as being more a reflection of the then times than signalling any great personal failings upon Graham's part.
Indeed, as that ODT obituary makes abundantly clear, Pastor Graham's conscientious moral (and spiritual) scruples are these days generally seen as a quaint relic of a bygone era, leftovers of a day and age of error and superstition. They are hardly intangibles held up to any degree of honour or public esteem.
But be that as it well may, 'the truth will [one day] out', as others have said, and God is able to guard our true, genuine characters from every last smear and stain upon our earthly reputations, however untrue, slanderous and scandalous...till His great Judgment Scene scatters all His enemies and 'truth, forever on the scaffold', finally comes into its own...for time and eternity...
**Though personally not alive during Billy Graham's evidently highly memorable evangelical crusades throughout the 50s and 60s, he drew large crowds pretty well everywhere he went, including here in 'God's Own', and one of my colporteur/literature evangelist leaders (from almost three decades ago), Tony Wall, traced his conversion from attending one such 'rally'. Perhaps modern-day evangelists could learn a thing or do from Graham about the importance of securing public - albeit entirely voluntary, 'moved by the Holy Spirit' - commitments then and there from attendees.
***Following on from - or, no, perhaps it only months preceded - the assassination of New York Senator Robert ('Bobby') Kennedy, then seeking the Democratic Party nomination for President; himself of course the brother of, not only the late Massachusetts ('liberal lion') Senator Edward ('Ted') Kennedy, himself a sometime Democratic Party presidential would-be nominee, but their brother John Kennedy, popularly known as JFK, himself cut down in his presidential prime by the bullet/s of the personally insanely envious (and politically radicalized and alienated) Lee Harvey Oswald, whose own ultimate responsibility is of course the stuff of modern (and not only urban) legend...the series of and various permutations of potential associated conspiracies now running into literal screeds and screeds, reams and reams of newsreel, newsprint and volumes written and sold (and voraciously consumed) in their millions. Interestingly, something the media seldom mentions is the incredible fact that Pastor Graham - whether in response to a dream or a presentiment/sense of foreboding - warned JFK over the phone only days prior to his never-to-be-forgotten Dallas motorcade journey not to make the fateful trip. But of course he did, and, as the wag once put it, nothing's ever been the same since.
***Incidentally I also (think I) heard this morning that King was only born in 1929, meaning he was only 38-39 when he died. And hence the old saying, 'Only the good die young', which certainly seems to have more than a modicum of truth in it (as per many notable world famous spiritual and political leaders, not least Jesus of Nazareth - if not necessarily those idols of modern generations, i.e. popstars).
****Though upon Graham's death, as is so common, evangelicals and 'fundamentalists' have come out of the proverbial woodwork and almost stumbled over each other in their indecent haste to pay posthumous homage to such a noteworthy persona, while he was alive the 'verdict' of such Americans was not always so positive. In particular Billy Graham's essential unwillingness - despite being 'pastor to presidents' - to engage in party politics or even overtly promote a moral legislative agenda so beloved these days of so many such, earned him public disfavour at times from the Moral Majority/Christian Coalition/Religious Right (as its evolving permutations have been designated). However, for my part, I consider it a badge of honour that in this He closely followed his beloved Master, who so famously and memorably declared during His betrayal in the garden of Gethsemane::
My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then would My servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews [i.e. Jewish religious and political authorities]. But now is My kingdom not from here.
******Admittedly the divine 'epithet' of 'abomination' (translated in at least one modern version as 'detestable') is applied to many things in the (Hebrew) Scriptures, and indeed is employed numerous times throughout the book of Proverbs, and there regarding far more prosaic concerns (such as, especially, pride, deception, wholly 'perverse' and inappropriate things, and inaccurate weights and measures in commercial transactions). Nevertheless, 'lie[ing] with a[nother] male, as [one] lies with a woman' is (at least) thrice termed 'an abomination' (in the Old Testament), and 'vile passions', also comprehending lesbianism, (in the New); whereas bestiality is described as 'perversion'; marrying a woman and her Mum (and boy-girl incest) as 'wickedness'.
Interestingly, however, 'abominations' plural is then used (in the relevant passages in Leviticus) as a catch-all including all the various forms of sexual deviance cited ('any of these abominations'/ 'abominable customs' being used thrice, and 'all these abominations' once, in the relevant section of Leviticus 18: 6-23;-30) and the list is quite long, primarily referring to all manner of incestuous relationships within (it is assumed by said texts) an extended family with father, mother, daughters and sons, uncles and aunts, sons- and daughters-in-law; indeed 'anyone who is near of kin'.
Like Tim LaHaye, author of The Unhappy Gays: What Everyone Should Know About Homosexuality, Graham - like any evangelist worth his salt - would have been quite conversant with major history bearing upon the question, such as the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. This is seen as being essentially due to its moral sins, of which, in the view of the renowned and respected historians Edward Gibbon and Arthur Toynbee, homosexuality played a major part.
*******Said internet-accessible editorials are: 'How should Jews Remember Rev. Billy Graham?' (cited in New York-based 'Jewish Week' '14 hours ago' (when I accessed it but a day or two on), by Rabbi Emeritus Gerald (Zelizer?) of Congregation Neve Shalom, Metuchen, New Jersey; and, by the oft-cited Mark Axelrod, Professor of Comparative Literature at Chapman University: 'Gushing Over Graham, or, How Much is That Anti-Semite in the Window?' in the (14/12/20120 Washington Post.
*****And we've no time here to even touch upon the other recent case of an outed and ostracized and summarily out-on-his-face, 'Do Not Pass GO, Go Straight to [at least the court of public opinion's) Jail', former member of that selfsame Parliament. Though I intend to write more upon this ACT (and that other Green ) M.P. soon (procrastinator unsurpassed as I am, I intended and should've posted re such over four months ago now), suffice to say that the comparison sends up our politicians, pretty well one and all - despite all their many wonderful professions of decency and integrity and the like - as a bunch of...inconsistent h........s (the unparliamentary 'h word') - and that's being extremely kind! And let's not even mention their acolyte party officials and members, who themselves evidently see little, or even absolutely nothing, wrong with this state of affairs themselves.
And all this while thus 'positively' ignoring/snubbing - notwithstanding his few, and not insubstantial, transgressions, as already noted - the passing of an individual responsible - under God - for helping lead more people to the LORD than arguably any other such (Christian minister or evangelist) - excepting someone probably not seen as having done so, I mean Martin Luther King himself - in the second half of the 20th century...while 'leading out' with a (creatively-expressed) benediction upon Parliamentary proceedings which nevertheless is effectively so emasculated, enervated and effete as to be a pitiful, pitiable, piteous - even downright pathetic - excuse for the same.
Postscript:
New Zealand, you've now well and truly entered a post-Christian phase of your (relatively) short and generally illustrious history. Having now effectively and for all intents and purposes eschewed your Maker and Redeemer as the Source and Inspiration of your everyday and collective life and endeavours...I wish you well. You'll positively need all the help you can possibly get in the troublous years ahead, Will you ever!
"I may not get to see the Promised Land, but I can see it afar off"; adding, unlike Moses: "...and am persuaded that not 40 years hence we will reach it"...of course in infinitely more eloquent phraseology, tones and emphasis (than my pitiful attempts at recollection).
And so, almost precisely 40 years on America elected its first black American President, Barack Obama.
I've little doubt MLK's fellow soldier of the cross - and *indeed friend and confidant, if in an entirely different sphere of activity, Billy Graham - has likewise departed this earthly scene just 'moments' (in the overall scheme of things, and of this Earth's brief human history) prior to, as JRR Tolkien's Frodo Baggins and Samwise Gamgee put it, 'the end of all things', the long-prophesied Parousia (Second Coming) of Jesus Christ, and the subsequent First Resurrection of all God's true 'saints', '[His] servants the prophets', 'and [all] those who fear [reverence, respect, rightly esteem, hold in awe, and show due deference to] [His] name, small and great'. And for such a moment he lived each day to behold.
And so I as well, if a belated 40 days on, take this opportunity to pay my own brief respects to the memory of someone much in the public eye who bore steady and unflinching, but ever grace-filled, loving witness in life and word and public proclamation, to 'his generation' - across the **entire globe.
To Be Continued (after sufficient shuteye!)
'Hot off the Press this morning':
Though apparent 'coincidences' seem to dog, bedevil - or, alternatively, grace and inspire - my every step these days (and years) of my life, I was simply dumbfounded this morning when the celebrated (and doubtless equally reviled!) 'award-winning Global News Hour' of the New York-based 'Democracy Now' radio show led out today today with items it later covered in greater detail, informing its listenership that April 3rd, 1968 was the date Martin Luther King made that memorable speech (cited in my above opening paragraphs), and the following day (April 4th) he was gunned down by an assassin's bullet/s. So that I seemed to have some sort of ESP for recounting those details I did on the very day I did, i.e. yesterday, April 3 (NZ-time), 2018...apparently 50 years (half a century) to that memorable day in the US of A; which was of course followed by MLK's 'history-making' - yet all too ***commonplace (especially back then) assassination.
A Few Extra Thoughts (scribbled the afternoon Billy Graham's death occurred/was reported):
Strangely the idea of Billy Graham's death has recurred to me on many occasion in years prior, my envisaging that moment resulting in quite a shockwave to the American (not only 'religious') psyche, dominating the likes of Time Magazine et al. However, in this secularized day and age - even, and especially in the US of A (except, naturally enough, among Christian evangelicals and ****'fundamentalists') - it has hardly occasioned more than a ripple of nostalgic interest and reflection. Nevertheless, for what it's worth, here are some of the reflections that affected me on that fateful day.
Yes, Billy Graham was intolerant - as indeed was His Master and Lord (but that's for another time and place) - of one thing, and one thing only: sin - in all its many and various, variegated and complicated forms and manifestations and infinite permutations. Just as were all the great biblical prophets, as a matter of fact, so he was in some especially good company, I'd argue. But somehow I don't suspect he'd have been at all, even remotely, concerned, much less upset let alone outraged, or even all that taken aback, for a matter of fact (or rather, (my) opinion!)...by such a designation. Rather, I strongly suspect he'd have worn such a designation - generally born out of sheer ignorance and/or intolerance itself!) as a veritable badge of honour...with which His own beloved LORD, his own great God and Saviour Jesus Christ had adorned him.
The story that has not been told, cynics and sceptics would contend - and with very good reason - that arguably has been actively suppressed from Americans and everyone else, was that Billy Graham was only too well aware of the divisions that would be caused and the criticisms stirred up by his being seen to publicly take a stand/stance fully in sync with where his own sympathies long lay...i.e. with the desegregation movement. Which is not to even for one moment condone the use of 'policy' and expediency in such situations, only to explain that - far from actually being in any sympathy with such reactionary and sadly in the vast majority (especially southern USA) 'elements', Graham was equally and only too well aware of the potential for disruption and ultimate injury to, and even effective destruction of, what he - naturally- felt was an important and life- and nation-, even world-changing ministry. So that not merely was his own 'livelihood' under serious and very real threat, but that work of the Spirit in peoples' lives, through which those heart- and life-transformations so necessary, even absolutely critical to, the ushering in of true equality in not only America but throughout the world would - indeed the only way such really ultimately could be effected - would be effectively thwarted; and for good (in every way).
(Unedited, Raw) Additional Reflections (Upon the New Zealand Response) on February 22nd:
Shame on New Zealand's Parliament upon this historic day. Their (new Speaker-inaugurated) PC-mangled and mauled, Jesus Christ-expunging and even un-'virtue-signalling' excuse for a 'parliamentary prayer', followed immediately by an enthusiastic welcome for a visiting Iranian parliamentary delegation (a nation not exactly conspicuous for its commitment to human rights), followed by...yes, you guessed aright, no - either '(uncontested) notice without motion' (or otherwise) - 'obituary'/remembrance slot acknowledging/commemorating the passing of the great 20th century evangelist to United States presidents (for half a century), Billy Graham... Yes, those three closely-juxtaposed 'items' essentially 'said it all' (as per where our present-day leaders effectively stand upon things that really matter in our modern day...although hopefully - in under an hour's time - they'll at least note the 50th anniversary of the gunning down of America's great 20th century prophet Martin Luther King, and reflect upon his timeless legacy...but even that I somehow doubt...
Upon the matter of that Iranian delegation, let me add a few further well-considered thoughts. Though not among those entertaining the prospect of even a small-scale regional Middle East nuclear conflagration - in which Iran would doubtless be an essential 'player' - thus publicly (from the highest official echelons of our society) 'celebrating' even just the presence here (within our own parliament) of (some of) the leadership of a nation well-documented as officially sanctioning, nay, verily promoting, the driving of another nation, in this case the M/E's one and only real democracy, i.e. Israel, into the Mediterranean Sea...whilst *****no-one in our Parliament apparently raises so much as 'a whisper nor a murmur' about the presence in said legislature of a former 'human rights' lawyer (and from that selfsame nation with its well-known human rights record) outed awhile ago (just following our recent parliamentary election) as deeply involved in having represented some of modern history's most genocidal (regime) players - to wit, 1990s' Rwanda and post-Yugoslavia - says a heckuva, or if you'll 'scuse my French', helluva, lot about where their real hearts are these days...and it sure ain't a pretty place!
*Curiously the mainstream media has well-nigh chosen (if but by neglect, but that's an agenda in itself) to ignore this crucial element of Pastor Graham's life experience, and if mention is made (as the ODT did in its own obituary upon him) of desegregation in the American South (in the 60s and beyond), Graham is presented as coming belatedly - and effectively (if only by obvious implication) kicking and screaming - 'to the table', as a reluctant and certainly not an eager, willing participant in and contributor to that seminal moment in United States and world history.
But the scurrilous, arguably even slanderous...allegations do not stop there. Yet to my surprise, one of the main ones was not entirely, or even at all, without some foundation: N.B. Graham's 'anti-Semitism'. In that regards RNZ National's decision to read out a rather inflammatory email - citing Graham as an anti-Semite and a preacher of hate' (presumably because he, in harmony with his biblical predecessors, held out staunchly against all manner of sexual deviance and perversion, including and especially ******homosexuality, which the Torah terms 'an abomination') - just before its 9 a.m. headline bulletin the day after Graham's death, without any 'right of reply' (as is usually - or, I would argue, supposedly - accorded subjects of media stories), was just plain awful (but probably quite well-planned) timing.
And yet in this era where the term 'homophobe' (and occasionally anti-Semitic) is bandied about willy-nilly, such (well-publicized verbal) transgressions, far from being seen as mere indiscretions let alone errors of judgment, are seen as major veritable hanging offences.Yet one cannot really argue that Pastor Graham's views upon sexual 'diversity' fit well in the modern world, and many today are metaphorically hung publicly for a way lot less!
And thus RNZ's sense of appropriateness in so airing them. And though on Graham's death day I bristled at such, feeling how utterly baseless, scurrilous and scandalous these various allegations were - aside from (as I just mentioned) being free from anyone's ability to publicly refute - and moreover almost 'unforgivable' from a human (if not divine) point of view...the sober light of reflection enabled me to check up upon the anti-Semite charge, and establish that Graham did indeed have somewhat of a case to answer...while he lived. And so, after processing the *******two (only!) internet opinion pieces dealing with this matter, I realized that Graham's tape-recorded conversation with then-President Nixon did indeed contain serious, even 'way out there' substance, itself (if no other such record existed) positively deleterious to Pastor Graham and his long-term (posthumous) reputation.
But to my surprise, it was the Jewish commentator extending the most grace - or arguably just sheer head-in-the-sand, look-the-other-way, see-no-evil, hear-no-evil, speak-no-evil rationalization-making to Graham. He essentially saw Graham's, admittedly fairly graphic, remarks as being more a reflection of the then times than signalling any great personal failings upon Graham's part.
Indeed, as that ODT obituary makes abundantly clear, Pastor Graham's conscientious moral (and spiritual) scruples are these days generally seen as a quaint relic of a bygone era, leftovers of a day and age of error and superstition. They are hardly intangibles held up to any degree of honour or public esteem.
But be that as it well may, 'the truth will [one day] out', as others have said, and God is able to guard our true, genuine characters from every last smear and stain upon our earthly reputations, however untrue, slanderous and scandalous...till His great Judgment Scene scatters all His enemies and 'truth, forever on the scaffold', finally comes into its own...for time and eternity...
**Though personally not alive during Billy Graham's evidently highly memorable evangelical crusades throughout the 50s and 60s, he drew large crowds pretty well everywhere he went, including here in 'God's Own', and one of my colporteur/literature evangelist leaders (from almost three decades ago), Tony Wall, traced his conversion from attending one such 'rally'. Perhaps modern-day evangelists could learn a thing or do from Graham about the importance of securing public - albeit entirely voluntary, 'moved by the Holy Spirit' - commitments then and there from attendees.
***Following on from - or, no, perhaps it only months preceded - the assassination of New York Senator Robert ('Bobby') Kennedy, then seeking the Democratic Party nomination for President; himself of course the brother of, not only the late Massachusetts ('liberal lion') Senator Edward ('Ted') Kennedy, himself a sometime Democratic Party presidential would-be nominee, but their brother John Kennedy, popularly known as JFK, himself cut down in his presidential prime by the bullet/s of the personally insanely envious (and politically radicalized and alienated) Lee Harvey Oswald, whose own ultimate responsibility is of course the stuff of modern (and not only urban) legend...the series of and various permutations of potential associated conspiracies now running into literal screeds and screeds, reams and reams of newsreel, newsprint and volumes written and sold (and voraciously consumed) in their millions. Interestingly, something the media seldom mentions is the incredible fact that Pastor Graham - whether in response to a dream or a presentiment/sense of foreboding - warned JFK over the phone only days prior to his never-to-be-forgotten Dallas motorcade journey not to make the fateful trip. But of course he did, and, as the wag once put it, nothing's ever been the same since.
***Incidentally I also (think I) heard this morning that King was only born in 1929, meaning he was only 38-39 when he died. And hence the old saying, 'Only the good die young', which certainly seems to have more than a modicum of truth in it (as per many notable world famous spiritual and political leaders, not least Jesus of Nazareth - if not necessarily those idols of modern generations, i.e. popstars).
****Though upon Graham's death, as is so common, evangelicals and 'fundamentalists' have come out of the proverbial woodwork and almost stumbled over each other in their indecent haste to pay posthumous homage to such a noteworthy persona, while he was alive the 'verdict' of such Americans was not always so positive. In particular Billy Graham's essential unwillingness - despite being 'pastor to presidents' - to engage in party politics or even overtly promote a moral legislative agenda so beloved these days of so many such, earned him public disfavour at times from the Moral Majority/Christian Coalition/Religious Right (as its evolving permutations have been designated). However, for my part, I consider it a badge of honour that in this He closely followed his beloved Master, who so famously and memorably declared during His betrayal in the garden of Gethsemane::
My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then would My servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews [i.e. Jewish religious and political authorities]. But now is My kingdom not from here.
******Admittedly the divine 'epithet' of 'abomination' (translated in at least one modern version as 'detestable') is applied to many things in the (Hebrew) Scriptures, and indeed is employed numerous times throughout the book of Proverbs, and there regarding far more prosaic concerns (such as, especially, pride, deception, wholly 'perverse' and inappropriate things, and inaccurate weights and measures in commercial transactions). Nevertheless, 'lie[ing] with a[nother] male, as [one] lies with a woman' is (at least) thrice termed 'an abomination' (in the Old Testament), and 'vile passions', also comprehending lesbianism, (in the New); whereas bestiality is described as 'perversion'; marrying a woman and her Mum (and boy-girl incest) as 'wickedness'.
Interestingly, however, 'abominations' plural is then used (in the relevant passages in Leviticus) as a catch-all including all the various forms of sexual deviance cited ('any of these abominations'/ 'abominable customs' being used thrice, and 'all these abominations' once, in the relevant section of Leviticus 18: 6-23;-30) and the list is quite long, primarily referring to all manner of incestuous relationships within (it is assumed by said texts) an extended family with father, mother, daughters and sons, uncles and aunts, sons- and daughters-in-law; indeed 'anyone who is near of kin'.
Like Tim LaHaye, author of The Unhappy Gays: What Everyone Should Know About Homosexuality, Graham - like any evangelist worth his salt - would have been quite conversant with major history bearing upon the question, such as the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. This is seen as being essentially due to its moral sins, of which, in the view of the renowned and respected historians Edward Gibbon and Arthur Toynbee, homosexuality played a major part.
*******Said internet-accessible editorials are: 'How should Jews Remember Rev. Billy Graham?' (cited in New York-based 'Jewish Week' '14 hours ago' (when I accessed it but a day or two on), by Rabbi Emeritus Gerald (Zelizer?) of Congregation Neve Shalom, Metuchen, New Jersey; and, by the oft-cited Mark Axelrod, Professor of Comparative Literature at Chapman University: 'Gushing Over Graham, or, How Much is That Anti-Semite in the Window?' in the (14/12/20120 Washington Post.
*****And we've no time here to even touch upon the other recent case of an outed and ostracized and summarily out-on-his-face, 'Do Not Pass GO, Go Straight to [at least the court of public opinion's) Jail', former member of that selfsame Parliament. Though I intend to write more upon this ACT (and that other Green ) M.P. soon (procrastinator unsurpassed as I am, I intended and should've posted re such over four months ago now), suffice to say that the comparison sends up our politicians, pretty well one and all - despite all their many wonderful professions of decency and integrity and the like - as a bunch of...inconsistent h........s (the unparliamentary 'h word') - and that's being extremely kind! And let's not even mention their acolyte party officials and members, who themselves evidently see little, or even absolutely nothing, wrong with this state of affairs themselves.
And all this while thus 'positively' ignoring/snubbing - notwithstanding his few, and not insubstantial, transgressions, as already noted - the passing of an individual responsible - under God - for helping lead more people to the LORD than arguably any other such (Christian minister or evangelist) - excepting someone probably not seen as having done so, I mean Martin Luther King himself - in the second half of the 20th century...while 'leading out' with a (creatively-expressed) benediction upon Parliamentary proceedings which nevertheless is effectively so emasculated, enervated and effete as to be a pitiful, pitiable, piteous - even downright pathetic - excuse for the same.
Postscript:
New Zealand, you've now well and truly entered a post-Christian phase of your (relatively) short and generally illustrious history. Having now effectively and for all intents and purposes eschewed your Maker and Redeemer as the Source and Inspiration of your everyday and collective life and endeavours...I wish you well. You'll positively need all the help you can possibly get in the troublous years ahead, Will you ever!
Sunday, March 25, 2018
Where Have All the...Young Men...Young Women...Young Girls...Young Boys...Old Men...Old Women...Gone, Long Time Passing...Long Time Ago? -Into Lifeless Corpses, Every One. Hey Now, When Will They Ever Learn? No, Really: When Will They Ever Learn?
The prescient songster with the heart of a poet saw through the myriad of trees and zeroed in upon the wood itself; he instinctively, intuitively understood the very heart of the issue. Did he what!
Likewise, in this our day and age of senseless tragedy, mindless mayhem and callous carnage, it is something Americans would do well to reflect - quite seriously and soberly - upon. They could do no worse. It is, after all, the upcoming generation who has most at stake. And who'll one day be much less than forgiving if something isn't done, and awfully quickly, about America's ongoing yet ever escalating 'series' of school shootouts, or more accurately, gun-utilizing massacres.
So on *this very day of **nationwide student protests throughout the States, perhaps Americans would do well to reflect upon the words of one considered both in his own time (and ever since) by a large number of people as the wisest person (bar one) who ever walked this earth. Solomon's timeless words, recorded in a book that Americans tend to pay endless lip service to, tell us that ***/****'there is a time for everything, a season for every activity under the sun' (Ecclesiastes 3: 1), or as The Holy Bible: The New King James Version puts it: 'To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven.'
But no, not - ever - a time for arming teachers in schools (talk about the dumbest idea of the century, if not millennium). That is a solution looking for a problem, not a solution to anything - at all. I mean, except escalating the existing problem, and exponentially. From a mere epidemic into a pandemic. Thus taking the 'problem' of gun violence/massacres to new levels, i.e. depths, of inanity.
And to those politicians who believe that such things are any solution to anything, I hope that protesting youngsters' staunch refrain proves true, i.e. "such had better get their resumes ready" (after the voters, assuming they finally come to their senses, put them out to pasture (come America's mid-term elections late this year)). Anything less would be a disaster for future generations. On top of a sheer betrayal.
*Though I wrote this reflection upon February 23, a full month (and some) ago.
**And numerous 'in-sympathy/empathy' ones across the globe, including my hometown of Dunedin, Aotearoa-New Zealand's own D(unedin) N(orth) I(ntermediate) as well.
***Timeless words with which many are no doubt familiar through the wonderful '60s folk song, 'Turn, Turn, Turn', which, in covering off this well-known Bible verse and the seven (and fourteen couplets) following, also cites 'a time to be born, and a time to die', 'a time to kill, and a time to heal', 'a time to weep, and a time to laugh', 'a time to mourn, and a time to dance', 'a time to love, and a time to hate', *****'a time of peace, I hope it's not too late!'
*****Though actually King Solomon himself expressed it: 'a time of war, and a time of peace'.
****A verse (or rather entire - nine verse - passage) my Dad evidently also always loved, a lovely little red booklet of such - specially made by one of his patients - being passed down to me after his death almost thirteen years ago now.
Part Two: The Reason? Some Rottenness at the Very Core of Modern-Day America
Thus it is - well past - time for Americans to take urgent and decisive action, like yesterday! upon the scourge, the plague, affecting and infecting the very heart and soul of the nation. After but a moment more's reflection upon just what has become of their once great 'shining city on a hill'. A nation about which Abraham Lincoln observed with profound insight that once it ceased to be good, it would likewise cease to be great. Indeed. So it has indeed well proven.
The nation of 'exceptionalism', an attribute which it has unabashedly assumed and arrogated to itself alongside that of Global Cop, a country boasting unprecedented material wealth and riches, political power and military might, technological sophistication and man-centred 'wisdom', has reached quite an impasse - upon so many fronts - of late; having made itself a bed (no longer of roses) it must well and truly try to lie (i.e. live) in.
Thus the times, as Dylan told us, have been indeed a-changin', and not in a positive direction. And thus 'these times' of late have given rise to the likes of 'Black Lives Matter' and the 'Me Too Movement' (though this latter is now well and truly an international phenomenon, whatever and wherever its precise origin as such). Yes, something has surely gone awry, revealing for all the nation and world to see something sore and festering, something sick and virulent, at the very heart of American life. Make no mistake about it, a time indeed of great significance in the life and times of the United (in name only) States of America. Where it stands as it were at a major cross-roads, where even a slight turn to either the right or the left may be fraught with serious, even eternal consequences.
But no, one thing it is not, no, nor ever will be: that is, a time for arming teachers in schools with lethal weapons. That, as I maintained earlier, is more a solution looking for a problem, or rather a method of increasing and expanding the present problem exponentially. It will bring about no good at all, only serving to line the pockets of the gun suppliers and salesmen and multiply such incidents exponentially across states, cities and communities heretofore relatively 'immune' from such.
But neither is the answer in a return to superficial religion, to mass religiousness or *religiosity or patriotic churchianity, as has so often been America's wont. I.e. the wholesale embracing of costless, cheap grace (as Dietrich Bonhoeffer so aptly termed the like in his own Nazi Germany), something late 20th Century America (on into the 21st, apparently) has perfected into a veritable art form. No, rather biblical repentance is called for, but it is neither cheap nor easy...and if it is ever embraced it will cost Americans - like people everywhere - absolutely all that they have or call their own.
*As mentioned in another blogpost somewhere I am indebted (from 1990 or so) to a one-time friend in Brisbane for such unsurpassed terms (as 'religiosity' and 'churchianity' - though admittedly I've in recent times stumbled upon both of these in various (written) contexts).
Likewise, in this our day and age of senseless tragedy, mindless mayhem and callous carnage, it is something Americans would do well to reflect - quite seriously and soberly - upon. They could do no worse. It is, after all, the upcoming generation who has most at stake. And who'll one day be much less than forgiving if something isn't done, and awfully quickly, about America's ongoing yet ever escalating 'series' of school shootouts, or more accurately, gun-utilizing massacres.
So on *this very day of **nationwide student protests throughout the States, perhaps Americans would do well to reflect upon the words of one considered both in his own time (and ever since) by a large number of people as the wisest person (bar one) who ever walked this earth. Solomon's timeless words, recorded in a book that Americans tend to pay endless lip service to, tell us that ***/****'there is a time for everything, a season for every activity under the sun' (Ecclesiastes 3: 1), or as The Holy Bible: The New King James Version puts it: 'To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven.'
But no, not - ever - a time for arming teachers in schools (talk about the dumbest idea of the century, if not millennium). That is a solution looking for a problem, not a solution to anything - at all. I mean, except escalating the existing problem, and exponentially. From a mere epidemic into a pandemic. Thus taking the 'problem' of gun violence/massacres to new levels, i.e. depths, of inanity.
And to those politicians who believe that such things are any solution to anything, I hope that protesting youngsters' staunch refrain proves true, i.e. "such had better get their resumes ready" (after the voters, assuming they finally come to their senses, put them out to pasture (come America's mid-term elections late this year)). Anything less would be a disaster for future generations. On top of a sheer betrayal.
*Though I wrote this reflection upon February 23, a full month (and some) ago.
**And numerous 'in-sympathy/empathy' ones across the globe, including my hometown of Dunedin, Aotearoa-New Zealand's own D(unedin) N(orth) I(ntermediate) as well.
***Timeless words with which many are no doubt familiar through the wonderful '60s folk song, 'Turn, Turn, Turn', which, in covering off this well-known Bible verse and the seven (and fourteen couplets) following, also cites 'a time to be born, and a time to die', 'a time to kill, and a time to heal', 'a time to weep, and a time to laugh', 'a time to mourn, and a time to dance', 'a time to love, and a time to hate', *****'a time of peace, I hope it's not too late!'
*****Though actually King Solomon himself expressed it: 'a time of war, and a time of peace'.
****A verse (or rather entire - nine verse - passage) my Dad evidently also always loved, a lovely little red booklet of such - specially made by one of his patients - being passed down to me after his death almost thirteen years ago now.
Part Two: The Reason? Some Rottenness at the Very Core of Modern-Day America
Thus it is - well past - time for Americans to take urgent and decisive action, like yesterday! upon the scourge, the plague, affecting and infecting the very heart and soul of the nation. After but a moment more's reflection upon just what has become of their once great 'shining city on a hill'. A nation about which Abraham Lincoln observed with profound insight that once it ceased to be good, it would likewise cease to be great. Indeed. So it has indeed well proven.
The nation of 'exceptionalism', an attribute which it has unabashedly assumed and arrogated to itself alongside that of Global Cop, a country boasting unprecedented material wealth and riches, political power and military might, technological sophistication and man-centred 'wisdom', has reached quite an impasse - upon so many fronts - of late; having made itself a bed (no longer of roses) it must well and truly try to lie (i.e. live) in.
Thus the times, as Dylan told us, have been indeed a-changin', and not in a positive direction. And thus 'these times' of late have given rise to the likes of 'Black Lives Matter' and the 'Me Too Movement' (though this latter is now well and truly an international phenomenon, whatever and wherever its precise origin as such). Yes, something has surely gone awry, revealing for all the nation and world to see something sore and festering, something sick and virulent, at the very heart of American life. Make no mistake about it, a time indeed of great significance in the life and times of the United (in name only) States of America. Where it stands as it were at a major cross-roads, where even a slight turn to either the right or the left may be fraught with serious, even eternal consequences.
But no, one thing it is not, no, nor ever will be: that is, a time for arming teachers in schools with lethal weapons. That, as I maintained earlier, is more a solution looking for a problem, or rather a method of increasing and expanding the present problem exponentially. It will bring about no good at all, only serving to line the pockets of the gun suppliers and salesmen and multiply such incidents exponentially across states, cities and communities heretofore relatively 'immune' from such.
But neither is the answer in a return to superficial religion, to mass religiousness or *religiosity or patriotic churchianity, as has so often been America's wont. I.e. the wholesale embracing of costless, cheap grace (as Dietrich Bonhoeffer so aptly termed the like in his own Nazi Germany), something late 20th Century America (on into the 21st, apparently) has perfected into a veritable art form. No, rather biblical repentance is called for, but it is neither cheap nor easy...and if it is ever embraced it will cost Americans - like people everywhere - absolutely all that they have or call their own.
*As mentioned in another blogpost somewhere I am indebted (from 1990 or so) to a one-time friend in Brisbane for such unsurpassed terms (as 'religiosity' and 'churchianity' - though admittedly I've in recent times stumbled upon both of these in various (written) contexts).
Friday, March 23, 2018
Water, Water Everywhere...But Not Enough For Everyone To (Safely) Drink - Yes, Even In (Much Of) The 'Enlightened' West
So evidently 'yesterday' - internationally - was 'World Water Day'. WWD 'is about focusing attention upon the importance of water on 22 March every year', according to the first (presumably homepage) entry upon 'worldwaterday.org/. Which furthermore declares: 'THE ANSWER IS IN NATURE.' So far, so good.
And we are then asked: 'How can we reduce floods, droughts and water pollution?' The answer, as we are well able to guess (from what immediately preceded): 'By using the solutions found in nature.' Again, well and good, who can argue with that rather obvious, inescapable logic? Who indeed.
Well actually, the very folk promoting this wonderful notion - of a global day of reflecting upon, of focusing the mind upon the importance, the significance of water to our lives (in so many different yet interchangeably critical respects) - i.e. 'WHO' (that is, the World Health Organisation), evidently themselves do contest just such a notion. I.e. that 'the answer', 'the solutions' are to be found in nature itself.
So how do I, how can I possibly come to such a preposterous notion myself? Well, for one simple reason: their ongoing, steadfast and implacable determination to promote, to push, to see the enacting - by hook or by crook - of artificial water fluoridation throughout the world. And that despite there not only being no good and sufficient evidence that the practice ensures healthy dental caries (good teeth), but there now being - internationally - abundant evidence as to the highly deleterious results.
Yes, today there are indeed '663 million people living without a safe water supply close to home, spending countless hours queuing or trekking to distant sources, and coping [i.e. as best anyone can] with the health impacts of using contaminated water.' Moreover '1.8 billion people use a source of drinking water contaminated with faeces, putting them at risk of contracting cholera, dysentery, typhoid and polio.' On top of that, 'over 80% of wastewater generated by societies [around the world] flows back into the ecosystem without being treated and reused', and 'unsafe water, poor sanitation and hygiene cause around 842,000 deaths each year' (WHO/UNICEF/WHO/2014).
No, I'm not - nobody - is arguing that the above is not the case, that the foregoing is just so much 'fake news' in this day and age of the like. But what I and many like myself are indeed 'saying' is that we need to be consistent here. Sure, the vast majority of the world's present-day population doesn't have the 'luxury' to quibble about such 'esoteric' concerns as the addition of a chemical in comparatively microscopic amounts to drinking water (largely in Western countries, but also elsewhere). How can they, they're dealing hand and glove with life-and-death situations and issues.
But when a longstanding, widespread practice such as water fluoridation not only does not bring the actually rather meagre and certainly extremely limited benefits it is continually publicly paraded as possessing/conferring - by so-called 'health' authorities and their armies of bureaucrats and technocrats down the line, while being shown in scientific study upon study to be visiting quite serious consequences upon 'users', yes, including cancer and heart disease (among much else)...perhaps it's time for people everywhere to ask themselves: what's all this actually about anyway?
No, I mean, really? Though 'sorry [does indeed] seem[.] to be the hardest word', sometimes admitting you're just plain wrong, that you've been pushing the wrong barrel up the road for way too long, is a really good place to start. I'm being serious, folks; deadly in earnest even. And why should that be?
Because it is literally a matter of life and death, people. Yes indeed. And the way things are at present, there's quite honestly much blood upon many 'well-meaning' peoples' hands. And as in Nazi Germany, claiming you've just been 'following orders' from above simply won't cut it - any more. If ever it did.
And we are then asked: 'How can we reduce floods, droughts and water pollution?' The answer, as we are well able to guess (from what immediately preceded): 'By using the solutions found in nature.' Again, well and good, who can argue with that rather obvious, inescapable logic? Who indeed.
Well actually, the very folk promoting this wonderful notion - of a global day of reflecting upon, of focusing the mind upon the importance, the significance of water to our lives (in so many different yet interchangeably critical respects) - i.e. 'WHO' (that is, the World Health Organisation), evidently themselves do contest just such a notion. I.e. that 'the answer', 'the solutions' are to be found in nature itself.
So how do I, how can I possibly come to such a preposterous notion myself? Well, for one simple reason: their ongoing, steadfast and implacable determination to promote, to push, to see the enacting - by hook or by crook - of artificial water fluoridation throughout the world. And that despite there not only being no good and sufficient evidence that the practice ensures healthy dental caries (good teeth), but there now being - internationally - abundant evidence as to the highly deleterious results.
Yes, today there are indeed '663 million people living without a safe water supply close to home, spending countless hours queuing or trekking to distant sources, and coping [i.e. as best anyone can] with the health impacts of using contaminated water.' Moreover '1.8 billion people use a source of drinking water contaminated with faeces, putting them at risk of contracting cholera, dysentery, typhoid and polio.' On top of that, 'over 80% of wastewater generated by societies [around the world] flows back into the ecosystem without being treated and reused', and 'unsafe water, poor sanitation and hygiene cause around 842,000 deaths each year' (WHO/UNICEF/WHO/2014).
No, I'm not - nobody - is arguing that the above is not the case, that the foregoing is just so much 'fake news' in this day and age of the like. But what I and many like myself are indeed 'saying' is that we need to be consistent here. Sure, the vast majority of the world's present-day population doesn't have the 'luxury' to quibble about such 'esoteric' concerns as the addition of a chemical in comparatively microscopic amounts to drinking water (largely in Western countries, but also elsewhere). How can they, they're dealing hand and glove with life-and-death situations and issues.
But when a longstanding, widespread practice such as water fluoridation not only does not bring the actually rather meagre and certainly extremely limited benefits it is continually publicly paraded as possessing/conferring - by so-called 'health' authorities and their armies of bureaucrats and technocrats down the line, while being shown in scientific study upon study to be visiting quite serious consequences upon 'users', yes, including cancer and heart disease (among much else)...perhaps it's time for people everywhere to ask themselves: what's all this actually about anyway?
No, I mean, really? Though 'sorry [does indeed] seem[.] to be the hardest word', sometimes admitting you're just plain wrong, that you've been pushing the wrong barrel up the road for way too long, is a really good place to start. I'm being serious, folks; deadly in earnest even. And why should that be?
Because it is literally a matter of life and death, people. Yes indeed. And the way things are at present, there's quite honestly much blood upon many 'well-meaning' peoples' hands. And as in Nazi Germany, claiming you've just been 'following orders' from above simply won't cut it - any more. If ever it did.
Wednesday, March 21, 2018
Stephen Hawking: Inconvenient Thinker Outside The Orthodox Contemporary Intellectual Mould
Don't they say that everyone champions a good man (or woman) - after s/he's gone? So true. Yes, that's when everyone 'in the know', I mean media...comes out of the proverbial woodwork and finds diadems of beauty and brilliance in those they previously either simply ignored, or positively belittled. So I'm naturally taking a bit of a risk myself in deigning - or rather daring - to 'tackle' the life of our Globe's modern-day Einstein.
Nevertheless I believe a few salient points need to be made, if only to fill in some of the significant 'missing 'pieces' - as so often occurs - in the media narrative upon Stephen Hawking's death last week. Forgotten info, or more likely inconvenient truths; truths and facts and realities which simply don't happen to mesh with the world outlook our supposed contemporary 'intelligentsia' choose to believe, whilst branding all outsiders odd, foolhardy, clueless, dunces, fanatical, or simply bizarre. Or all of the foregoing or any combination thereof.
So what is the essential point I wish to make? And why would I even have the gall to intrude myself into an arena - i.e. the life and thinking of present-day *genii - whom I have neither known nor met, and even about whom I really know precious little? But perhaps therein lies the actual reason: the little I do happen to know, or at least have 'observed' or noted, is indeed precious...in relation to Stephen Hawking in particular. Or so I'm going to contend.
I'm simply sure of the following: that the fellow with the (televisually and via other broadcast media) well-known robotic voice adopted in order to vocalize his intended speech - like so many if not the great majority of intellectual 'greats' in decades and centuries gone by - leaned heavily toward, **if not fully, publicly subscribing to an ultimate view of reality and the universe which is commonly referred to (in contemporary parlance) as 'intelligent design'. The traditional terminology of (literal) creation just being a road too far for modern-day 'post-Christian' sensibilities.
Yes indeed. So I do find it fascinating, and not a little typical, that upon a fundamental tenet of dried-and-dusted, dyed-in-the-wool, contemporary thinking, from which any and every publicly-articulated deviation is immediately, summarily and stridently - if not, I would argue, soundly - condemned (as an indication of inadequate and/or inferior intellect and hence unsuitability for airing in the public domain fullstop), Mr Hawking happened to significantly differ, even 'deviate'.
Though as I earlier averred, ***my knowledge of the ins and outs, the vagaries and complexities, the subtleties and nuances of astrophysics - his essential 'specialty' of knowledge - is not only deficient but essentially rather basic, even somewhat minimal, the very fact that a person regarded almost universally (among Earthians, that is!) as a modern-day 'Einstein' apparently had a 'suspicion', however furtive or attended by intricate elaboration, that there did indeed appear to be signs and indications of actual design and intention in this universe and the various parts thereof, is surely 'saying something'.
Here I will simply make mention of two 'references', one a book, the other a (publicly-recorded) lecture, in which Hawking is considered to have at least endorsed the principle of intelligent design. In the first, Hawking's co-authored The Nature of Space and Time, ****in which he engages in ongoing dialogue upon serious questions regarding such with fellow British theoretical physicist Roger Penrose, I understand that Stephen Hawking suggests a divine creator behind things. In the other (a lecture titled 'The Beginning of Time'), according to Richard Ames of the weekly 'Tomorrow's World' telecast, 'famous astrophysicist Stephen Hawking stated the view of most astronomers today:
The universe has not existed forever. Rather, the universe, and time itself, has a beginning in the Big Bang about 15 billion years ago.'
Yes, for the former book (often cited in general broadcast media since Hawking's death) I admittedly provide no specific statement, perhaps because I happen (to have every good reason) to trust such as ******Mr Ames (generally, but especially when discussing the aforementioned subject of creation(ism)/intelligent design (in great detail). In addition, however, though I failed to jot down notes quickly enough, I did hear another reference to that book which indicated others' belief that Hawking did indeed therein suggest he had 'sympathies' in truth with a designed universe.
I'll conclude with these few thoughts/reflections. Suffice to add I find it interesting indeed and cannot help but speculate on how, following Hawking's death, the (non-specifically Christian, at least) broadcast media steered well clear of such a significant and incontrovertibly controversial subject area despite its rather extensive reportage overall. But don't most folk do precisely that whenever the facts don't suit their particular argument or whenever those selfsame 'facts' start to go against their preconceived opinions? On that score I've my own strong suspicions...yes, indeed!
*Yes, that's the literal plural of genius - and no, it needn't take a genius to know that! Well, actually, 'genii' is apparently the plural of 'genie', and 'geniuses' of 'genius' - and in both my ever trusty Chambers Concise Dictionary and my Heinemann New Zealand Dictionary. So, hey, you can indeed learn something new every day, eh.
**My personal surmising is simply that the only reason Stephen Hawking didn't seem to push this (very complex and wide-ranging) subject any further was that he felt unwilling to embroil himself in one of our contemporary world's hot potatoes: i.e. evolution versus creation. Perhaps - at least it seems a legitimate enough, reasonable surmise to me - Hawking, like so many these days (and for understandable reason, no doubt, in the post-George W era) didn't want to be associated, much less identified with, 'those crazy, nutty fundamentalist Christians'. And also - sure, a very personal surmise, to be sure - like my dear old Gram (now dead over twenty years, though in a dream just the other day), just as she evidently found it hard to 'forgive God' (yes, you heard me aright!) for the death of my namesake, my Dad's younger brother, at just eight years of age, maybe Stephen Hawking found it difficult to forgive God for his lifelong crippling physical disability - though arguably it proved to be the very secret to his ultimate success and genius (and thus arguably a proof in itself of the divine omniscience!)
***Though I at least believe that having been declared by Mensa (in my later teens) as myself possessing an intellect within the top 1-2-5% of the population I am not wholly unqualified to have a serious opinion upon such matters, and to regard that opinion as sufficiently robust to withstand superficially-based criticism thereof.
****According to Wikipedia this is a tome 'that documents a debate on physics and the *****philosophy of physics' between Penrose and Hawking.
*****Curiously enough it was only two days ago that my scientist brother informed me that the varsity papers he's recently been undertaking deal with such matters as both the philosophy and history of science.
******Who'd admittedly disclaim folk like myself doing so! But just as everyone has implicit faith that any time they push various buttons, appliances of light and electricity instantaneously 'come alive' and work (in the way that they expect), likewise it's eminently reasonable at times, even on those rare occasions when one doesn't necessarily comprehend all the ins and outs of someone's actual reasoning, to simply reaffirm one's trust in those who've earned their implicit respect over a long period of time and over numerous types of situations; unless and until proven otherwise (at least).
Nevertheless I believe a few salient points need to be made, if only to fill in some of the significant 'missing 'pieces' - as so often occurs - in the media narrative upon Stephen Hawking's death last week. Forgotten info, or more likely inconvenient truths; truths and facts and realities which simply don't happen to mesh with the world outlook our supposed contemporary 'intelligentsia' choose to believe, whilst branding all outsiders odd, foolhardy, clueless, dunces, fanatical, or simply bizarre. Or all of the foregoing or any combination thereof.
So what is the essential point I wish to make? And why would I even have the gall to intrude myself into an arena - i.e. the life and thinking of present-day *genii - whom I have neither known nor met, and even about whom I really know precious little? But perhaps therein lies the actual reason: the little I do happen to know, or at least have 'observed' or noted, is indeed precious...in relation to Stephen Hawking in particular. Or so I'm going to contend.
I'm simply sure of the following: that the fellow with the (televisually and via other broadcast media) well-known robotic voice adopted in order to vocalize his intended speech - like so many if not the great majority of intellectual 'greats' in decades and centuries gone by - leaned heavily toward, **if not fully, publicly subscribing to an ultimate view of reality and the universe which is commonly referred to (in contemporary parlance) as 'intelligent design'. The traditional terminology of (literal) creation just being a road too far for modern-day 'post-Christian' sensibilities.
Yes indeed. So I do find it fascinating, and not a little typical, that upon a fundamental tenet of dried-and-dusted, dyed-in-the-wool, contemporary thinking, from which any and every publicly-articulated deviation is immediately, summarily and stridently - if not, I would argue, soundly - condemned (as an indication of inadequate and/or inferior intellect and hence unsuitability for airing in the public domain fullstop), Mr Hawking happened to significantly differ, even 'deviate'.
Though as I earlier averred, ***my knowledge of the ins and outs, the vagaries and complexities, the subtleties and nuances of astrophysics - his essential 'specialty' of knowledge - is not only deficient but essentially rather basic, even somewhat minimal, the very fact that a person regarded almost universally (among Earthians, that is!) as a modern-day 'Einstein' apparently had a 'suspicion', however furtive or attended by intricate elaboration, that there did indeed appear to be signs and indications of actual design and intention in this universe and the various parts thereof, is surely 'saying something'.
Here I will simply make mention of two 'references', one a book, the other a (publicly-recorded) lecture, in which Hawking is considered to have at least endorsed the principle of intelligent design. In the first, Hawking's co-authored The Nature of Space and Time, ****in which he engages in ongoing dialogue upon serious questions regarding such with fellow British theoretical physicist Roger Penrose, I understand that Stephen Hawking suggests a divine creator behind things. In the other (a lecture titled 'The Beginning of Time'), according to Richard Ames of the weekly 'Tomorrow's World' telecast, 'famous astrophysicist Stephen Hawking stated the view of most astronomers today:
The universe has not existed forever. Rather, the universe, and time itself, has a beginning in the Big Bang about 15 billion years ago.'
Yes, for the former book (often cited in general broadcast media since Hawking's death) I admittedly provide no specific statement, perhaps because I happen (to have every good reason) to trust such as ******Mr Ames (generally, but especially when discussing the aforementioned subject of creation(ism)/intelligent design (in great detail). In addition, however, though I failed to jot down notes quickly enough, I did hear another reference to that book which indicated others' belief that Hawking did indeed therein suggest he had 'sympathies' in truth with a designed universe.
I'll conclude with these few thoughts/reflections. Suffice to add I find it interesting indeed and cannot help but speculate on how, following Hawking's death, the (non-specifically Christian, at least) broadcast media steered well clear of such a significant and incontrovertibly controversial subject area despite its rather extensive reportage overall. But don't most folk do precisely that whenever the facts don't suit their particular argument or whenever those selfsame 'facts' start to go against their preconceived opinions? On that score I've my own strong suspicions...yes, indeed!
*Yes, that's the literal plural of genius - and no, it needn't take a genius to know that! Well, actually, 'genii' is apparently the plural of 'genie', and 'geniuses' of 'genius' - and in both my ever trusty Chambers Concise Dictionary and my Heinemann New Zealand Dictionary. So, hey, you can indeed learn something new every day, eh.
**My personal surmising is simply that the only reason Stephen Hawking didn't seem to push this (very complex and wide-ranging) subject any further was that he felt unwilling to embroil himself in one of our contemporary world's hot potatoes: i.e. evolution versus creation. Perhaps - at least it seems a legitimate enough, reasonable surmise to me - Hawking, like so many these days (and for understandable reason, no doubt, in the post-George W era) didn't want to be associated, much less identified with, 'those crazy, nutty fundamentalist Christians'. And also - sure, a very personal surmise, to be sure - like my dear old Gram (now dead over twenty years, though in a dream just the other day), just as she evidently found it hard to 'forgive God' (yes, you heard me aright!) for the death of my namesake, my Dad's younger brother, at just eight years of age, maybe Stephen Hawking found it difficult to forgive God for his lifelong crippling physical disability - though arguably it proved to be the very secret to his ultimate success and genius (and thus arguably a proof in itself of the divine omniscience!)
***Though I at least believe that having been declared by Mensa (in my later teens) as myself possessing an intellect within the top 1-2-5% of the population I am not wholly unqualified to have a serious opinion upon such matters, and to regard that opinion as sufficiently robust to withstand superficially-based criticism thereof.
****According to Wikipedia this is a tome 'that documents a debate on physics and the *****philosophy of physics' between Penrose and Hawking.
*****Curiously enough it was only two days ago that my scientist brother informed me that the varsity papers he's recently been undertaking deal with such matters as both the philosophy and history of science.
******Who'd admittedly disclaim folk like myself doing so! But just as everyone has implicit faith that any time they push various buttons, appliances of light and electricity instantaneously 'come alive' and work (in the way that they expect), likewise it's eminently reasonable at times, even on those rare occasions when one doesn't necessarily comprehend all the ins and outs of someone's actual reasoning, to simply reaffirm one's trust in those who've earned their implicit respect over a long period of time and over numerous types of situations; unless and until proven otherwise (at least).
Friday, March 16, 2018
The Syrian (Civil) War (Part Three): So Who's To Say Who Should Stay?
Following on from my *blogpost yesterday (and a moment ago) upon the Syrian conflict seven years on, what are we to make of those Westerners - especially vocal upon talkback radio - who are, like most of us, admittedly, increasingly overwhelmed emotionally by the large numbers leaving Syria. Again, like most people in such nations, these folk seem more and more anxious and distrustful about their emigrating in seemingly ever larger numbers into Western nations - with the consequent issues this has apparently (and indeed indisputably) created at times. But then such people take this a step or several further in their incensed assertions that 'they' - or at least the men and male refugees, that is - ought to stay and fight for their besieged and beleaguered homeland.
Though I'd already come to strong and clear ideas about this matter following the alluded-to discussions upon New Zealand talkback radio over recent months and years, I am indebted for a reading I did last Saturday which helped crystallize my thinking in a somewhat new and different direction, though withal essentially confirming my previous convictions. The serendipitous reading came through a classic tome of the World War Two era, Dietrich Bonhoeffer's The Cost of Commitment.
Having just checked the copyright legalities and ethics involved, let me quote an intriguing passage from p33 ('Memoir') about which I am extremely ambivalent, both profoundly disagreeing and yet concurring all at the same time; (not that hard, I'll readily concede, for an extremely conflicted person like myself!)
Noting that the following are not the words (or necessarily even the sentiments) of Bonhoeffer himself - indeed the memoir is attributed to a 'G. Leibholz' - we read the following commentary upon the relative guilt of respective (non-)participants in the maintenance of the political regime in 1930s' and 1940s' Nazi Germany:
It has often been said that those of the many who are not directly guilty for the crimes of the former regime in Germany must be punished for their passive attitude towards it. In a modern dictatorship, however, with its subterranean ubiquity and all-embracing instruments of oppression, a revolt means certain death to all who support it. To reproach in a modern tyranny a people as a whole for failing to revolt is as if one would reproach a prisoner for failing to escape from a heavily-guarded prison. The majority of the people in all nations alike does not consist of heroes. What Dietrich Bonhoeffer and others did cannot be expected from the many. The future in modern society depends much more on the quiet heroism of the very few who are inspired by God.These few will greatly enjoy the divine inspiration and will be prepared to stand for the dignity of man and true freedom and to keep the law of God, even if it means martyrdom or death.
In this regard, though not able to give a blanket, cast-iron **pardon to much less to find it within me to rationalize/excuse/justify the silence of the so-called 'silent majority' of Germans (or similar nations) whilst evil and barbarism stalked the land, I do indeed believe such shared some, even significant complicity in the conditions which thus obtained there during their period of conspicuous silence and passivity. And not only in Nazi Germany but throughout then Fascist and/or largely Nazi- sympathizing pre-'Eastern' (and even Western) Europe. Indeed both before and since that time, in the Stalinist Soviet Union, Maoist China...before even considering such much more modern-day counterparts as Pol Pot's Cambodia, post-Tito Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Myanmar/Burma etc etc etc.But let me leave that for another discussion hopefully in the not too distant future.
What I do take unreserved exception to, however, with these oftentimes glib and facile talkback hosts and their ready-made, re-actionary clientele and acolytes is they're only too ready to lay in to male Syrian refugees who risked bailing out from their self-imploding homeland than stay and fight to the (probably inevitably) bitter end.
All I, all anyone can really do, I suppose, is reflect upon what I, what they, would do in like circumstances. Or so I imagine - suppose - hypothesize - surmise...-but suppositions and the like are free and easy, and accordingly worth little, when it comes to the necessary work of translating mere noble-sounding ideals into concrete, practical, on-the-ground realities, aren't they. And we're all so very wise long after the facts have moved in permanently and hunkered down for good.
But would I, if proverbial push came to shove and the long-time hypothesized, oft-bandied about Maori uprising, of sovereignty-seeking indigenous New Zealanders, ever actually occurred, and morphed into a full-scale civil war? Quite frankly, I've little doubt I would bail out - for good - I just don't have enough invested in the matter...as in strong enough feelings and convictions that this land wasn't originally acquired unlawfully and maintained upon that unethical basis a heckuva long time.
Which is hardly the same as even remotely suggesting that European kiwis, at least c/o their governing representatives - of both major political parties especially - haven't done a whole lot more than equivalent peoples of almost any other nation upon Earth in recent times (or perhaps anytime in history) to significantly seek to redress major and minor grievances of the indigenous people (excepting Moriori of course!)
But I'm 'afraid' to admit I would bail out, hook, line and sinker - but not before, naturally enough, ascertaining the safety of each and every one near and dear to me, and, moreover, of seeking to aid one and all (of such) willing family in joining me in a new life overseas, if necessary by stowing away unbeknownst as 'cargo, incognito' upon boats bound for better climes.
Expecting me or anyone else to stay on and 'fight to the bitter end' in a modern-day re-enactment of Custer's Last Stand is, frankly, I respectfully submit, making a whole lot of assumptions about me (and others) that no-one has any right to, placing a bucket-load of expectations upon my and others' shoulders that are not only ill-conceived, but really none of your business - if you'll pardon my French. To put it as politely as possible in the circumstances.
For one thing, I might - quite legitimately - consider the whole thing/enterprise a lost cause (i.e. unlikely to ultimately succeed) to begin with. For another the cause itself might in fact be one I simply don't happen to share, to feel deeply or passionately enough about. And - perhaps far more significantly - my very life might be worth a whole lot more to me than some cause my heart wasn't really in from the start.
And though it always sounds great and carries a real wallop whenever you hear it, JFK's idea of 'better being dead than red' might have some real validity and pack a punch when one is required - by law - to resile/recant or be killed; I pray when such occurs in the not too distant that I may truly, by God's grace alone, prove myself worthy of dying for my thoroughgoing and heartfelt convictions; but when it is employed for lesser aims and goals and man-made ideologies however well-packaged and beautifully presented and convincingly spin-doctored...sorry, folks...this precious life I've been vouchsafed is too valuable a 'thing' to fritter away for such - comparative - trifles and baubles.
Somehow I strongly suspect, however, that those suggesting such self-sacrifice of others for what those armchair critics suppose should matter to those others, would themselves in like, in selfsame circumstances, bail out at the drop of a hat...would themselves often lack the the gumption, the guts, the balls (if you'll pardon my vernacular) to do-or-die themselves in such a situation...were it to present itself (in their own personal circumstances)...impacting upon their own life and times.
Hey, we're all essentially paper tigers until our own lives are on the actual line.
*Upon my other blogsite, that is: http://davidedwinisms.blogpost.co.nz/(or .com/)
**Nor, God forbid, is it my prerogative to do so! Seeing I am a mere mortal made of dust and subject to finitude; neither knowing everything (believe it or not!), being present only in one place at a time, and having very little power or might to effect things in my own little world let alone the world at large...in other words completely lacking in all those special prerogatives normally associated with and subscribed to divinity.
Though I'd already come to strong and clear ideas about this matter following the alluded-to discussions upon New Zealand talkback radio over recent months and years, I am indebted for a reading I did last Saturday which helped crystallize my thinking in a somewhat new and different direction, though withal essentially confirming my previous convictions. The serendipitous reading came through a classic tome of the World War Two era, Dietrich Bonhoeffer's The Cost of Commitment.
Having just checked the copyright legalities and ethics involved, let me quote an intriguing passage from p33 ('Memoir') about which I am extremely ambivalent, both profoundly disagreeing and yet concurring all at the same time; (not that hard, I'll readily concede, for an extremely conflicted person like myself!)
Noting that the following are not the words (or necessarily even the sentiments) of Bonhoeffer himself - indeed the memoir is attributed to a 'G. Leibholz' - we read the following commentary upon the relative guilt of respective (non-)participants in the maintenance of the political regime in 1930s' and 1940s' Nazi Germany:
It has often been said that those of the many who are not directly guilty for the crimes of the former regime in Germany must be punished for their passive attitude towards it. In a modern dictatorship, however, with its subterranean ubiquity and all-embracing instruments of oppression, a revolt means certain death to all who support it. To reproach in a modern tyranny a people as a whole for failing to revolt is as if one would reproach a prisoner for failing to escape from a heavily-guarded prison. The majority of the people in all nations alike does not consist of heroes. What Dietrich Bonhoeffer and others did cannot be expected from the many. The future in modern society depends much more on the quiet heroism of the very few who are inspired by God.These few will greatly enjoy the divine inspiration and will be prepared to stand for the dignity of man and true freedom and to keep the law of God, even if it means martyrdom or death.
In this regard, though not able to give a blanket, cast-iron **pardon to much less to find it within me to rationalize/excuse/justify the silence of the so-called 'silent majority' of Germans (or similar nations) whilst evil and barbarism stalked the land, I do indeed believe such shared some, even significant complicity in the conditions which thus obtained there during their period of conspicuous silence and passivity. And not only in Nazi Germany but throughout then Fascist and/or largely Nazi- sympathizing pre-'Eastern' (and even Western) Europe. Indeed both before and since that time, in the Stalinist Soviet Union, Maoist China...before even considering such much more modern-day counterparts as Pol Pot's Cambodia, post-Tito Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Myanmar/Burma etc etc etc.But let me leave that for another discussion hopefully in the not too distant future.
What I do take unreserved exception to, however, with these oftentimes glib and facile talkback hosts and their ready-made, re-actionary clientele and acolytes is they're only too ready to lay in to male Syrian refugees who risked bailing out from their self-imploding homeland than stay and fight to the (probably inevitably) bitter end.
All I, all anyone can really do, I suppose, is reflect upon what I, what they, would do in like circumstances. Or so I imagine - suppose - hypothesize - surmise...-but suppositions and the like are free and easy, and accordingly worth little, when it comes to the necessary work of translating mere noble-sounding ideals into concrete, practical, on-the-ground realities, aren't they. And we're all so very wise long after the facts have moved in permanently and hunkered down for good.
But would I, if proverbial push came to shove and the long-time hypothesized, oft-bandied about Maori uprising, of sovereignty-seeking indigenous New Zealanders, ever actually occurred, and morphed into a full-scale civil war? Quite frankly, I've little doubt I would bail out - for good - I just don't have enough invested in the matter...as in strong enough feelings and convictions that this land wasn't originally acquired unlawfully and maintained upon that unethical basis a heckuva long time.
Which is hardly the same as even remotely suggesting that European kiwis, at least c/o their governing representatives - of both major political parties especially - haven't done a whole lot more than equivalent peoples of almost any other nation upon Earth in recent times (or perhaps anytime in history) to significantly seek to redress major and minor grievances of the indigenous people (excepting Moriori of course!)
But I'm 'afraid' to admit I would bail out, hook, line and sinker - but not before, naturally enough, ascertaining the safety of each and every one near and dear to me, and, moreover, of seeking to aid one and all (of such) willing family in joining me in a new life overseas, if necessary by stowing away unbeknownst as 'cargo, incognito' upon boats bound for better climes.
Expecting me or anyone else to stay on and 'fight to the bitter end' in a modern-day re-enactment of Custer's Last Stand is, frankly, I respectfully submit, making a whole lot of assumptions about me (and others) that no-one has any right to, placing a bucket-load of expectations upon my and others' shoulders that are not only ill-conceived, but really none of your business - if you'll pardon my French. To put it as politely as possible in the circumstances.
For one thing, I might - quite legitimately - consider the whole thing/enterprise a lost cause (i.e. unlikely to ultimately succeed) to begin with. For another the cause itself might in fact be one I simply don't happen to share, to feel deeply or passionately enough about. And - perhaps far more significantly - my very life might be worth a whole lot more to me than some cause my heart wasn't really in from the start.
And though it always sounds great and carries a real wallop whenever you hear it, JFK's idea of 'better being dead than red' might have some real validity and pack a punch when one is required - by law - to resile/recant or be killed; I pray when such occurs in the not too distant that I may truly, by God's grace alone, prove myself worthy of dying for my thoroughgoing and heartfelt convictions; but when it is employed for lesser aims and goals and man-made ideologies however well-packaged and beautifully presented and convincingly spin-doctored...sorry, folks...this precious life I've been vouchsafed is too valuable a 'thing' to fritter away for such - comparative - trifles and baubles.
Somehow I strongly suspect, however, that those suggesting such self-sacrifice of others for what those armchair critics suppose should matter to those others, would themselves in like, in selfsame circumstances, bail out at the drop of a hat...would themselves often lack the the gumption, the guts, the balls (if you'll pardon my vernacular) to do-or-die themselves in such a situation...were it to present itself (in their own personal circumstances)...impacting upon their own life and times.
Hey, we're all essentially paper tigers until our own lives are on the actual line.
*Upon my other blogsite, that is: http://davidedwinisms.blogpost.co.nz/(or .com/)
**Nor, God forbid, is it my prerogative to do so! Seeing I am a mere mortal made of dust and subject to finitude; neither knowing everything (believe it or not!), being present only in one place at a time, and having very little power or might to effect things in my own little world let alone the world at large...in other words completely lacking in all those special prerogatives normally associated with and subscribed to divinity.
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