a few emails and chats complaining about lack of posts!!!

Sorry all, life is good and busy, and computer time just isn't there! I mean who needs to blog when one can play scrabble. ;)

Tonight I went to the launch of a new book.

Not just any book but a book full of speeches delivered to THE ST. THOMAS MORE’S FORUM since its' inception in 2005. The book The St Thomas More's Forum Papers 2005 - 2007 can be purchased from Abebooks.

The book includes the talks given over twenty Forums with thirty-one speakers including:

• The Hon Tony Abbott, former Federal Minister of Health and Leader of the House of Representatives

• His Eminence George Cardinal Pell, Archbishop of Sydney

• Kevin Rudd MP, Then Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs, Trade and International Security now Prime Minister of Australia.

• Mick Keelty, APM, Australian Federal Police Commissioner

• Archbishop Mark Coleridge, Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn

The Hon Murray Gleeson, Chief Justice of the High Court, launched the book with reflections on the decline of Catholic Protestant animosity over the last 50 years especially in regard to the Irish community in Australia. Of particular interest was the increasing interest in virtue in the public square, also alluded to by Archbishop Coleridge who also spoke at the launch. An interesting tidbit was to learn of Hon Murray Gleeson relationship to Les Murray Australias' pre-eminent poet.

Both the Chief Justice and the Archbishop reflected on Thomas Mores multi-faceted role model status. The Romanian playwright Eugene Ionesco was cited by both speakers and Erasmus and Saint Ivo of Kermartin were also discussed. Thomas More was noted as the last of the medieval men, whilst Martin Luther was seen as the first 'modern' dude!

St Ivo, the patron saint of lawyers in France, is noted for his tombstone: Sanctus Ivo erat Brito/ Advocatus et non latro/ Res miranda populo. Roughly translated, this means: "St Ives was Breton/ A lawyer and not a thief/ Marvelous thing to the people." Literally translated, it is a quip that refers to the fact that lawyers have a reputation for thievery.

Anyway yours truly got two mentions by two speakers for advice and assistance rendered ;)
and also features in the books' acknowledgments!

Sadly I could not stay for the fine Margaret River wines, and cheesy combestibles as I had to dash off to the Archdiocesan Christmas Party.

And so to sleep, to sleep perchance to dream, I grow old, I grow old, but life is fun!!!

Advent blessings and best wishes for Christmas joy and peace to all my gentle readers.

Thanks for all your support in 2007, a better year than 2006 by far. You are all remembered in my prayers, and I appreciate the wide and diverse ways I have been encouraged and supported by so many, all over the world in the past 23 months!

God bless you one and all.

Times of mirth (1) continued (2)

Animator vs. Animation by *alanbecker on deviantART

AS HARD AS I TRY I CANNOT GET THIS TO SPIN ANTI-CLOCKWISE :(



listening to nature, traffic and bells in central park whilst my ukele gently weeps.

I quit
some background
poke rupert in the eye

meme manipulation!

I quit some background: poke rupert in the eye

meme manipulation!

Spirituality of relationships

International author and psychiatrist Fr Jack Dominian has provided the preface to a book written by Canberra priest and counsellor Fr John Ryan. "A Spirituality of Relationships. The Power of Both/ And" which was launched at a dinner at Ainslie Village on Wednesday, 26 September.

The launch by executive director of the Australia Institute Dr Clive Hamilton benefitted the Home in Queanbeyan project, with over $4,000.00 being donated. 120 people from literally all walks of life gathered at the Ainslie Village to enjoy a wonderful meal, great wine and the guest speakers: Clive, Fr John Ryan and Fr Peter Day. The evening was MC'd by veteran political journalist Paul Bongiorno.


The book may be obtained from the Catholic Bookshop Braddon, telephone 6201 9888, or e-mail bookshop@cg.catholic.org.au Please click _HERE_ to order online.

Whereas Bishop Geoffrey Robinsons book Confronting Power and Sex in the Catholic Church seeks to polarise and is almost heretical in places; Fr Ryans' book attempts to allow a dialogue that can accomodate the past and present into a secure future.

Some have expressed concern about lack of posts, I've been busy!!! The skyes are blue, and sand is golden.

Spring has sprung in Canberra, and the flowers and trees are blooming and blossoming. Some serious rain in late winter has produced wonderful displays of colour.

Last weekend it was time to head off to floriade. Of particualar interest was the beanie marquee, featuring over 90 beanies made from wool, cloth, barbed wire, twistie packet foil and other fibres and yarns.

Life is busy with organising a book launch that is raising money for the home in queanbeyan project. The former Governor General of Australia comments that: "the provision of long-term, supported accommodation for the chronically mentally ill who are presently unable to live with the basic dignity to which every human being is entitled is not simply a 'good idea'. It is an absolute must…."

Currently I am also proof-reading the third book manuscript authors have entrusted me with this year. I must have reached a certain age where what I know and what I don't know does not matter anymore. It is a privilege to be involved with finetuning a book before it is published. :D

Also keeping me occupied is a new blog promoting a book being released next year. See if you can find me posting as "cgo" ;)

Meanwhile, matters outside Australia give me pause. The last few days I have spent time fasting, praying and meditating for the situation in Burma. Today the Catholic News in Australia featured an article: Burma bishops call for prayer.

It seems like only yesterday I was boarding a plane for Cairns for the last school holidays; next week is another week off work, relaxing and having fun...

Trying to grasp the other.
Following the holocaust (world war 2) the Blake prize was established in Australia to encourage Synagogues and Churches to obtain Australian artwork, rather than European works.

Portraits of Osama bin Laden, a madonna wearing a veil a la islam, a toilet bowel representation of an Indian god are some of the recent entries.

The acclaimed winner this year however is a sand / ochre portrait of the stations of the cross by an indigenous artist, Shirley Purdie. This work is confronting, it speaks of a God that belongs to the outback, to the desert. The sand is not the paint of western artists, and has some commonality with buddhist mandalas. It reflects thus the fact that religion is universal. The sand also represents the land that is out there, past western civilizations attempt to conquer Australia.

The Jesus suffering in this art work is abrasive and represents the personal Jesus and the God of the indigenous people of the desert. It is the other, but still is a human endeavour to portray the mystery of a God who becomes personal. It is not the safe European or American art that city dwelling white Australians may have some identification with. The artist has managed to speak of her relationship with her God in this work of art. It also personalises her own history of holocaust as it reflects the massacres of her tribal ancestors 70 - 80 years ago. The 2000 year old western story of the passion of Jesus thus is incorporated into the more recent personal trauma of the last century.

The philanthropist and widow of millionaire businessman Kerry Packer yesterday declared her admiration for the Kushan dynasty second century Seated Buddha, her new $1 million-plus gift to the National Gallery of Australia's Asian art collection.

I recently viewed this statue sans fat belly ;) that has recently been purchased by the NGA. It also speaks of the other to me.

Both works of art challenge my perspective and relationship with spirituality and my attempt to reconcile myself with the created world and the world of eternity.

Both works are mysterious, created by people who are not culturally identifiable to me. Thus I share in the wider humanity and gain some idea that the world is populated by many who do not share my western consumerist ideals, that are shaped also by an attempt to identify with a global christianity. A christianity that can be interpreted in the context of an indigenous community far from mainstream Australian society far from my comfort zone.

Somedays bring home to me the fact that life teaches us far, far more than we ever learn from books. I have been humbled to meet in a circle with others who have experienced loss and heard stories of cruelty that make me weep.

No matter how awful life can treat people, people still dig deep within and find compassion and the ability to move on with life.

I know how much my capacity to live has been diminished over the past 20 months and I struggle greatly to make sense of the betrayal I have suffered. Sure I am to blame for being passive and letting events unfold into utter chaos, and I can understand how the cards I have been dealt in life made chaos happen.

Yet I have so much to be thankful for and know that life will continue to unfold. I can satisfied that there is a time for everything, and this is a new time.

Please pray for me gentle readers that I will choose wisely and embrace the future.

25 metres from shooting
Dan Glaister writes in the Guardian about Kenneth Foster.

Texas is poised to execute a man for a crime he did not commit. While the perpetrator of the murder in San Antonio was executed last year, Kenneth Foster, who was sitting in a car 25 metres away at the time of the shooting, was sentenced to death under the "law of parties".

The controversial Texas law removes the distinction between the principal actor and accomplice in a crime, and makes a person guilty if they "should have anticipated" the crime.

While a federal appeals court declared that Foster's death sentence contained a "fundamental constitutional defect", a legal anomaly means the state appeals court cannot overturn his conviction, there being no new evidence.
After the failure this month of Foster's most recent appeal, the 30-year-old African-American's final hope of avoiding execution on August 30 rests with an appeal for clemency to the Texas parole board and the Texan governor, Rick Perry.

continues here hattip Tina

Fr Michael Whelan writes:

The American Jesuit, William Lynch, speaks of the “absolutizing instinct.” (See William Lynch, Images of Hope, Notre Dame University, 1974, 105-125.) On the basis of this “instinct” – which affects us all in one way or another – we turn means into ends and relative things into absolute things. In other words, this “absolutizing instinct” has us turning the world upside-down. We probably do this, ironically enough, so we can be in charge of the world, even if it is upside down. If that plot sounds familiar, it is because you have read it in the third chapter of the Book of Genesis.

Lynch writes of the consequences of this “instinct” when it is allowed to create an upside-down world:

“The absolutizing instinct is the father of the hopeless and adds that special feeling of weight that hopelessness attaches to everything it touches. It is, in general, the creator of hopeless projects and the creator of idols.” (106)

Lynch goes on to note a particularly sinister aspect to this process. Human beings are inclined to give other human beings absolutized status and power and other human beings are inclined to accept this:

“Such is the need and such the demand of people for gods and absolutes, that it will often be wise to descend slowly but firmly from the throne. It is a pity that this must be. But the fact that there is one God and no more is for all of us, the well and the ill, the most difficult proposition in this world.” (125)

All human lives and all human systems are subject to this dynamic. The “absolutizing instinct” will, sooner or later, make itself felt unless there is constant vigilance and constant work to counter its insidious movements. Even then, it is hard to imagine any system that could remain entirely free of it.


So, I find some understanding. Not sure if it makes total sense, but at least I can comprehend that choices lead to other choices.

After the brain dump yesterday I find myself somewhat sated intellectually. On the eve of another anniversary I find much solace in quotes from yesteryear:

both from 1980:


and

Amen, amen, I say to you, when you were younger,
you used to dress yourself and go where you wanted;
but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands,
and someone else will dress you
and lead you where you do not want to go." John 21:18

I can look back over the past 26 years and realise that I am the product of so many influences both personal and societal, and that I have allowed the spirit of the living God to touch me. I have failed but I have also succeeded, I have been true to the greater ideals, yet fallen short in the minute details at times. I can celebrate so much and give thanks for so much. It is enough.

Shock and sorrow have been a bitter pill but I do know about grief! Hopefully I am becoming a more compassionate person, more understanding, more forgiving and loving. Empathy and self denial have still some way to go, but the grief hole has made me who I am now and I am less shallow and less oblivious to the pain of others.

I have a long way to go to understand fully how one enters into the shared suffering of Christ, but I dimly see the light.

Two movies that gave me pause for thought in the past six months have been V for Vendetta and Children of Men. Both movies attempt to contextualise violence within a future somewhat near to the present reality of western life today. Government and societal power structures have lost the ability to serve, and today perpetuate a new vision of broken and fragmented humanity. The anti-heroes of both movies have moved beyond saviour status and instead reflect broken, wounded men, striving to make some sense of the times and situations they find themselves in. At the expense of being a little too profound I hereby attempt a synthesis of some of my reading over the past six years.

The instant now society, gives people little chance of honouring or accomodating deeper desires. Spirituality has been sublimated into the excesses of a consumer driven society, fearful of the possibility of terrorist attack. People increasingly choose to hide inside suburbia, with bigger and larger LCD screens watching the world unfold somewhere out there, or otherwise drop down the rabbit hole into simulations such as Second Life.

Peoples minds, psyche and spirit are increasingly battered by the pace of modern life, and normality is no longer identifiable. Human beings are identified as being innately violent across various disciplines: from the pop psychology of I'm Ok, you're OK, to the bad parenting theories of Alice Miller, to the fracturing of relationships espoused by Carol Gilligan and Robin Morgan, The 'evolutionary' need for aggression taught by Lorenz and Morris, to Ellacurias' comments on the need to defend property. Weber saw State relationships as an initiator. Rene Girard postulates mimesis and scapegoating as integral. Foucault and Alison have attempted to nuance the place of sexuality within society and church as a pre-cursor of violence. Naturally one could argue that religion used to moderate base desire, but now the floodgates are open and desire becomes destructive. Interestingly society points the finger at the church and the abuse in indiginous communities rather than address the increasing violence in personal relationships in mainstream society.

This increasing violence is more and more typified by the breakup of relationships. Family law statistics reveal that over 65% of cases involve defacto couples, with drug and alcohol related problems almost present in 100% of cases. People are hurting and cannot anymore solve their problems without litigation. Increasingly, married couples too are finding the all pervasive violence too much to cope with, and retreat into solitude to lick their wounds and foster the rampant consumerism. The domestic GDP benefits so much from the increase in house building and the necesarry increase in the sales of white goods and electronics to set up another household.

Peter Black calls us to seek attributes of the erotic, after Gafni: intensity: an antidote to superficiality and passive aggression,
pleasurable common to both the erotic and the experience of the holy,
being present to the infinity of the moment,
the other as subject not object.
radical giving and receiving;
the defining of self discovering the self through intimacy with the other; overcoming alienation, as each opens up to the Other and engagement of the creative imagination. All calling one to seek the other, not to pay another to find oneself.

Daniel Bell and also Carrette and King note that the need for counselling and therapy has become another consumer product. I identify with them that New Age capitalism's overriding characteristic is the hawking of “personalised packages of meaning . . . rather than offering recipes for social change and identification with others.” Suffering has not been conquered, rather capitalism and consumerism have co-opted the new age.

Gail Bell has written on the worried well, the depression epidemic and the medicalisation of our sorrows. Whilst I have some sympathy with the radical orthodoxy movement and appreciate that relaxation is inducive to salvation, I find solace more in Henri Nouwen who challenges us to move downward and find security in less, not more. I recommend his "Selfless Way of Christ."

Object Lesson.

A glass with a huge crack in the base, has been used for beer, coke and water for many, many months.

However the integrity of the container was inadequate and today the base fell out with the resultant liquid mess all over the carpet.

I have fond memories of tfisb and his beloved visting me when I was in deep shock in late January 2006. They endured a mad Australia Day afternoon with my son and his mates. The mainsubset of the boys and a couple of girls called around tonight with several slabs, bottles of bourbon, rum and sundry wine.

Ms 9 was excited to meet again a babysitter from happier times.

Discarded chairs from the house where the hottest one hundred party was held, were consigned to the flames tonight.

As the evening wore on more people arrived. It's funny how a house can seem so empty one evening then 24 hours later it is alive, with Pink Floyd blasting out, people watching Dr Who, then Monsters Inc and much frivolity.

And to hear my son strumming the guitar and singing brought tears to moi eyes.


mp

For the past two weeks there has been a lot of one dimensional mosaic lego pattern making going on.

Today I was a bit bored, as all the patterns had been accomplished, so I began building up.

Ms 9 called it a maze, I taking a more poseur view saw it as an installation:

After the NGA.

Life, any life, has a value beyond anything else. There are just and reasonable alternatives to the death penalty. I, too, have made my choices and they are my own. I choose to believe in redemption and the power of forgiveness. I cannot change the world, I can only change myself and in that choice, I can be an example to others. So, to you all, I come to you and ask for your help, prayers, and any participation in my case and struggle

read more from Kenneth here .

Kenneth Foster jr.
Over the course of my adult life I have been privileged to have contact with criminals. As a nurse I cared for them when they had been bashed by other crims or their wardens. When the wardens were on strike I went into the jail and tried to feed them, but had food flung back out of the opening in the cell door and copped spit and verbal vitriol for my effort. I have experienced the uneasy standoff with a guy on the other end of the phone in a motel room with a gun, resisting going back inside, and having a friend in the room with him. I have been caught up in drug busts in the carpark of the building I work in, almost assaulting an officer until I realised his black shiny shoes meant he was the law, not the young hoodlum he was dressing as. Over the past eighteen months I have sat in the foyer of the court and watched the parade of humanity caught up in legal tussles. I have assisted friends who are penpals of prisoners in the USA and Africa with 'comfort bundles'. I have a workmate whose son was viciously killed in London.

However all this has been an outsider basically looking in. I have not personally had a friend killed.

Sean Paul has and his posts here, here and here show something very special. An attempt to reach beyond normal moral norms and strive to show a very deep form of love. I am impressed.! Life is so complex, and many just accept the social mores, but Sean Paul is confronting that complexity!

something is broken at blogger...

we apologise for this break in posting.