Fr Bob Blog - 2 October 2009
Friday, October 2, 2009
Red dust storm Sydney dropped tonnes of nutrients into Pacific Ocean, just as it has been designed to do over millennia.
Tsunami across Pacific Ocean destroys human life and property and underwater animals and vegetables, as it, too, has done for millennia.
Seems something pretty big is going on, has been going on and will continue to go on, forever and ever.
A Samoan man, returning home from Australia to check upon his family (extended, of course) made a prophetic statement at the airport: “Some of my family will be dead, others injured. Many will have lost homes. They’ll just move on and get on with their lives.”
No drama there. No pages and pages of newsprint. “They’ll just move on and get on with their lives.”
This is a descendant of an earlier civilisation speaking. We westerners need much more time and space to indulge our anguish when nature strikes.
We in Australian cities aren’t in the middle of disasters very often, except Darwin. We’ve had only a few lifetimes of urban living. We’re a younger, sophisticated civilisation. We’re more afraid of bombs and epidemics, power blackouts and traffic chaos. Rain and wind discomfort us.
A bloke wrote last week that we Australians need less, more businesslike, charities to respond to urban poverty of body and mind; the root of lawlessness. Thousands of young men and women “living” in Australian cities, have no connection with a healthy family or neighbourhood tribe. They’re disconnected and, therefore, flawed members of society.
The rest of us don’t know what to expect from them, especially at night and affected by mind altering substances.
I think we need more, smaller, ready response charities to keep an eye on this, relatively recent, urban epidemic of alienation.
They may be inefficient to the trained eye of my learned friend, an expert in the $ market predictions. But, I bet they’ll be efficient investors in neighbourhood social capital.
Michael Carr Gregg, psychologist and social commentator (one of many secular prophets in this country) just today suggests reviving interest in the scouting movement as one way of learning “anger management”. Of course, he’s right. Goodness is caught not taught, same as religion.
Nature has its own rhythms. So has “supernature”. That’s the other www inhabited by the angels of our better nature. There’s more to us than meets the eye.
I was moved this week at the Carlton HQ of Melbourne Storm. The players were being farewelled to play Parramatta in the NRL grand final. Hundreds of men, women and children were there. Nothing flash expected. Just respect from players and connectedness with them. “Wherever 2 or 3 gather for a good purpose, I’m there”, says the Lord.
Tsunami across Pacific Ocean destroys human life and property and underwater animals and vegetables, as it, too, has done for millennia.
Seems something pretty big is going on, has been going on and will continue to go on, forever and ever.
A Samoan man, returning home from Australia to check upon his family (extended, of course) made a prophetic statement at the airport: “Some of my family will be dead, others injured. Many will have lost homes. They’ll just move on and get on with their lives.”
No drama there. No pages and pages of newsprint. “They’ll just move on and get on with their lives.”
This is a descendant of an earlier civilisation speaking. We westerners need much more time and space to indulge our anguish when nature strikes.
We in Australian cities aren’t in the middle of disasters very often, except Darwin. We’ve had only a few lifetimes of urban living. We’re a younger, sophisticated civilisation. We’re more afraid of bombs and epidemics, power blackouts and traffic chaos. Rain and wind discomfort us.
A bloke wrote last week that we Australians need less, more businesslike, charities to respond to urban poverty of body and mind; the root of lawlessness. Thousands of young men and women “living” in Australian cities, have no connection with a healthy family or neighbourhood tribe. They’re disconnected and, therefore, flawed members of society.
The rest of us don’t know what to expect from them, especially at night and affected by mind altering substances.
I think we need more, smaller, ready response charities to keep an eye on this, relatively recent, urban epidemic of alienation.
They may be inefficient to the trained eye of my learned friend, an expert in the $ market predictions. But, I bet they’ll be efficient investors in neighbourhood social capital.
Michael Carr Gregg, psychologist and social commentator (one of many secular prophets in this country) just today suggests reviving interest in the scouting movement as one way of learning “anger management”. Of course, he’s right. Goodness is caught not taught, same as religion.
Nature has its own rhythms. So has “supernature”. That’s the other www inhabited by the angels of our better nature. There’s more to us than meets the eye.
I was moved this week at the Carlton HQ of Melbourne Storm. The players were being farewelled to play Parramatta in the NRL grand final. Hundreds of men, women and children were there. Nothing flash expected. Just respect from players and connectedness with them. “Wherever 2 or 3 gather for a good purpose, I’m there”, says the Lord.
Posted at
1:44 PM
