Vines and fig trees.
Micah 4
1. In days to come
the mountain of the Lord's house
shall be established as the highest of the mountains,
and shall be raised up above the hills.
Peoples shall stream to it,
2. and many nations shall come and say:
"Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
to the house of the God of Jacob;
that he may teach us his ways
and that we may walk in his paths."
For out of Zion shall go forth instruction,
and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
3. He shall judge between many peoples,
and shall arbitrate between strong nations far away;
they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war any more;
4. but they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees,
and no one shall make them afraid;
for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken.
5. For all the peoples walk,
each in the name of its god,
but we will walk in the name of the Lord our God
forever and ever.
Friday, February 22, 2008
oh. my. goodness.
Un. be. lievable.
Pine gap protesters' conviction quashed
Four anti-war protesters who broke into the Pine Gap spy base have had their convictions quashed by a Northern Territory court.
Donna Mulhearn, 39, Tim Dowling, 52, Adele Goldie, 31, and Bryan Law, 52, were the first Australians to be charged under the 1952 Defence (Special Undertaking) Act (DSU Act).
The four protesters - from the Group Christians Against All Terrorism - were found guilty of using bolt cutters on a high security fence and entering the secret spy base near Alice Springs in 2005.
They were convicted last June and together were fined more than $3,000. They had faced a maximum prison sentence of seven years each.
The Commonwealth DPP applied against what it said was the leniency of the sentence while the defendants appealed their convictions.
In the NT court of Criminal Appeal in Darwin on Friday, the full bench unanimously acquitted all four defendants of their conviction under the DSU Act.
Chief Justice Brian Martin said the full bench also declined to order a retrial.
The court will publish its reasons at a later date.
The four are still convicted of minor charges under the criminal code including damaging commonwealth property.
Outside the court, Mr Law said he had been entitled to call evidence during his trial about the role of the defence facility.
He said the commonwealth had tried to punish the protesters for a peaceful "expression of conscience".
"This court has found that is unjust, a miscarriage of justice and we are within our rights to challenge the existence of Pine Gap," he told reporters.
"We are completely vindicated and very happy.
"Pine Gap is not a base for the defence of Australia, Pine Gap is an instrument of international aggression."
Ms Mulhearn said there had been a misuse of the DSU Act.
"It's a draconian act and it was an extremist move that the act be used against us," she said.
"It means the federal government will have to look at the Defence (special undertakings) Act and the application it has now for any other activists who want to participate in non-violent civil disobedience at Pine Gap."
(I must admit I giggled at the 'Tim Dowling' bit...)
Pine gap protesters' conviction quashed
Four anti-war protesters who broke into the Pine Gap spy base have had their convictions quashed by a Northern Territory court.
Donna Mulhearn, 39, Tim Dowling, 52, Adele Goldie, 31, and Bryan Law, 52, were the first Australians to be charged under the 1952 Defence (Special Undertaking) Act (DSU Act).
The four protesters - from the Group Christians Against All Terrorism - were found guilty of using bolt cutters on a high security fence and entering the secret spy base near Alice Springs in 2005.
They were convicted last June and together were fined more than $3,000. They had faced a maximum prison sentence of seven years each.
The Commonwealth DPP applied against what it said was the leniency of the sentence while the defendants appealed their convictions.
In the NT court of Criminal Appeal in Darwin on Friday, the full bench unanimously acquitted all four defendants of their conviction under the DSU Act.
Chief Justice Brian Martin said the full bench also declined to order a retrial.
The court will publish its reasons at a later date.
The four are still convicted of minor charges under the criminal code including damaging commonwealth property.
Outside the court, Mr Law said he had been entitled to call evidence during his trial about the role of the defence facility.
He said the commonwealth had tried to punish the protesters for a peaceful "expression of conscience".
"This court has found that is unjust, a miscarriage of justice and we are within our rights to challenge the existence of Pine Gap," he told reporters.
"We are completely vindicated and very happy.
"Pine Gap is not a base for the defence of Australia, Pine Gap is an instrument of international aggression."
Ms Mulhearn said there had been a misuse of the DSU Act.
"It's a draconian act and it was an extremist move that the act be used against us," she said.
"It means the federal government will have to look at the Defence (special undertakings) Act and the application it has now for any other activists who want to participate in non-violent civil disobedience at Pine Gap."
(I must admit I giggled at the 'Tim Dowling' bit...)
Friday, February 15, 2008
wendell berry on industrial sex
After seeing this article in today's Age, my mind immediately went to this quote of Wendell Berry from Feminism, The Body And The Machine. I suspect when he wrote it (1989), it was intended as more wry overstatement than prediction, but there it is.
It is odd that simply because of its "sexual freedom" our time should be considered extraordinarily physical. In fact, our "sexual revolution" is mostly an industrial phenomenon, in which the body is used as a idea of pleasure or a pleasure machine with the aim of "freeing" natural pleasure from natural consequence.
Like any other industrial enterprise, industrial sexuality seeks to conquer nature by exploiting it and ignoring the consequences, by denying any connection between nature and spirit or body and soul, and by evading social responsibility. The spiritual, physical, and economic costs of this "freedom" are immense, and are characteristically belittled or ignored. The diseases of sexual irresponsibility are regarded as a technological problem and an affront to liberty.
Industrial sex, characteristically, establishes its freeness and goodness by an industrial accounting, dutifully toting up numbers of sexual partners, orgasms, and so on, with the inevitable industrial implication that the body is somehow a limit on the idea of sex, which will be a great deal more abundant as soon as it can be done by robots.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
st francis I ain't
I ran over a bird today. no, not in the car. on my bike. you heard right.
so I'm riding to work along Lygon St in peak hour traffic and as I try to avoid the mirrors of the cars that are crawling along, I see this myna (like the one pictured above) hop out of the path of one car. unfortunately, it hopped into my path. I had nowhere to go - parked cars to my left and traffic to my right, and only a couple of feet in between. I assume it sees me - birds always move when there's something coming at them, right? so I watch it as I approach. and I watch. thinking it will move I wait until the last moment before I swerve out of its way, only to have it try to jump out of my way...
but we both moved the same way.
I can still feel the sensation of it getting caught in the grip of my front tyre and getting pulled under.
it was all over in a split second, of course. and it survived the incident - or I assume it did. after one wheel went over it, it flew away - toward the cemetary admittedly, but it did fly away from the scene, and without so much as exchanging phone numbers.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Friday, February 01, 2008
finally...some good news for JD
Received this from John Dear...absolutely delighted for him, especially in the week he was called a "renegade priest and a renegade citizen" and a "phoney" by the judge at his sentencing. It's almost a year since we hung out here in Melbourne, and what a year. John's been really supportive of me personally through that time. Continue to pray for him.
Dear friends, I'm sharing with you this amazing letter I just received which Archbishop Tutu sent to Norway!
Keep me in your prayers! Peace, John
* * * * * *
In support of The Reverend Father John Dear, S.J. : Nobel Peace Prize 2008
Dr Leo Rebello, World Peace Envoy from Bombay, India and Dr Charles Mercieca, President of International Association of Educators for World Peace, USA have nominated the Reverend Father John Dear, SJ for the 2008 Nobel Peace Prize. I commend Father Dear to you and support his nomination.
Fr John Dear is a Jesuit priest who has been in the forefront of the religious peace movement in the United States. He is the embodiment of a peacemaker. He has led by example through his actions and in his writings and in numerous sermons, speeches and demonstrations. He believes that peace is not something static, but rather to make peace is to be engaged, mind, body and spirit. His teaching is to love yourself, to love your neighbor, your enemy, and to love the world and to understand the profound responsibility in doing all of these.
He is a man who has the courage of his convictions and who speaks out and acts against war, the manufacture of weapons and any situation where a human being might be at risk through violence. Fr John Dear has studied and follows the teachings of non-violence as espoused by Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr., he serves the homeless and the marginalized and sees each person as being of infinite worth. I would hope that were he to receive this honor his teachings and activities might become more widely accepted and adopted. The world would undoubtedly become a better and more peaceful place if this were to happen.
For evil to prevail requires only that good people sit on the sidelines and do nothing. Fr John Dear is compelling all of us to stand up and take responsibility for the suffering of humanity so often caused through selfishness and greed. I hope you will consider his nomination favorably.
God bless you
Archbishop Desmond Tutu
Thursday, January 31, 2008
enneagram
For those who understand this whole thing, I recently discovered that I'm a type 4 with a strong 5 wing. Ah yes, it all makes sense now.
Not that it can explain me at all of course, because I'm special and unique and can't be understood by anyone...;)
Not that it can explain me at all of course, because I'm special and unique and can't be understood by anyone...;)
defining irony
I've been doing a lot of clearing lately, making space for a veggie patch. First I needed to cut back the massive hedge which had grown over the top, blocking all sunlight. Then I had to clear the garden.
What resulted was a great piece of land to do some growing in. After having worked hard for weeks creating this space, I was finally able to add the piece de resistance - my pumpkin plant, which had been struggling in a pot.
The day after was 35 degrees in the height of summer.
Needless to say the plant was burnt beyond recognition, prompting me now to set up a temporary shade over it. So having removed all the shade from that area in order for it to grow, I've now had to create shade in order for it to not die completely.
What resulted was a great piece of land to do some growing in. After having worked hard for weeks creating this space, I was finally able to add the piece de resistance - my pumpkin plant, which had been struggling in a pot.
The day after was 35 degrees in the height of summer.
Needless to say the plant was burnt beyond recognition, prompting me now to set up a temporary shade over it. So having removed all the shade from that area in order for it to grow, I've now had to create shade in order for it to not die completely.
My veggie patch (or, how I learned about the birds and the bees)
As I mentioned here, I was having some problems with my zucchinis.
Since then I transplanted them from the kiddie pool they were in to a garden bed that I've attempted to revitalise. Alas, the zucchinis were growing no larger there - until I discovered what everyone else probably already knows about zucchinis; that there are two types of flowers, males and females, and the female flowers have to be pollinated by the male flowers. The ones I'd picked before hadn't been pollinated, so never grew beyond that size. So obviously, with no bees in my garden, I was going to have to do it myself. So I've been out there at 7am some mornings handpollinating them just to make sure it happens.
Hence, we are finally growing some decent sized zucchinis, now that I know what I'm doing.
Passionfruits have a rather amusing history in my family, but here's the one I planted in just December, and has grown from half a foot to this in late January. It's already flowering, so I may even squeeze out a fruit or two before autumn hits.
We were given this strawberry plant for Christmas. It was tiny then, just a little seedling, so we may just get some strawberries out of it this season.
We needed a climber for the side of the garage that doesn't need too much sunlight. These pepinos are doing nicely there.
Then there's the capsicums. For a while they were too crowded in, so didn't do much, but recently they've gone mad and we're doing quite well out of it.
And the beans are now taking over. They look fantastic up against the bare fence. Particularly since I cleared the fence to actually give them some room to grow.
And finally, my lettuces are doing great - using our old used coffee grounds we've had no problems with snails or slugs.
The saddest thing was that almost the entire worm farm died on a particularly hot day (drowned in their own urine - what a way to go) and the same happened when I transplanted my pumpkin from a pot to the garden (it just got obliterated by the sun). I've since got more worms, so the farm is back up and running, though my pumpkin still needs a lot of healing before it'll even look like fruiting. Of course by then it'll probably be too late.
Still, I'm pretty happy overall. More to come on my gardening adventures.
Since then I transplanted them from the kiddie pool they were in to a garden bed that I've attempted to revitalise. Alas, the zucchinis were growing no larger there - until I discovered what everyone else probably already knows about zucchinis; that there are two types of flowers, males and females, and the female flowers have to be pollinated by the male flowers. The ones I'd picked before hadn't been pollinated, so never grew beyond that size. So obviously, with no bees in my garden, I was going to have to do it myself. So I've been out there at 7am some mornings handpollinating them just to make sure it happens.
Hence, we are finally growing some decent sized zucchinis, now that I know what I'm doing.
Passionfruits have a rather amusing history in my family, but here's the one I planted in just December, and has grown from half a foot to this in late January. It's already flowering, so I may even squeeze out a fruit or two before autumn hits.
We were given this strawberry plant for Christmas. It was tiny then, just a little seedling, so we may just get some strawberries out of it this season.
We needed a climber for the side of the garage that doesn't need too much sunlight. These pepinos are doing nicely there.
Then there's the capsicums. For a while they were too crowded in, so didn't do much, but recently they've gone mad and we're doing quite well out of it. 
And the beans are now taking over. They look fantastic up against the bare fence. Particularly since I cleared the fence to actually give them some room to grow.
And finally, my lettuces are doing great - using our old used coffee grounds we've had no problems with snails or slugs.
The saddest thing was that almost the entire worm farm died on a particularly hot day (drowned in their own urine - what a way to go) and the same happened when I transplanted my pumpkin from a pot to the garden (it just got obliterated by the sun). I've since got more worms, so the farm is back up and running, though my pumpkin still needs a lot of healing before it'll even look like fruiting. Of course by then it'll probably be too late.Still, I'm pretty happy overall. More to come on my gardening adventures.
Friday, January 11, 2008
Whatever doesn't kill you...
...only makes you stronger. In which case, I must be mighty strong after finishing this sucker, 'cos it was a close-run thing.
I just had a thought...
Does Microsoft really recycle the stuff you put into the so-called 'recycle bin', or is the name just greenwash?
All those pixels...what a waste.
All those pixels...what a waste.
Wednesday, January 09, 2008
Musings on Brueggemann's 19 theses
I sent them to a friend, and replied by saying, amongst other things, that he found them "deliberately and negatively provocative". So what follows is my reply to him.
First, I'm completely fascinated that you found them "deliberately and negatively provocative". It just sounded like reality to me! And hopeful reality at that. There IS a counter-narrative! What could be more hopeful?
Perhaps it's some of the experiences I've had in the last year or two, but it certainly reflected much of my (very hopeful, deeply meaningful!) reality. Like you, I'm particularly interested in the script/counterscript idea. Much of my theological upbringing lacked such an idea. In fact, mostly it went along with the dominant script, diverging only at the point of after death. That is, we are saved now so we can go to heaven when we die; in the meantime we wait around a bit, maybe doing some good deeds here and there but because we can't be perfect we might as well not strive to be, and if we do we're in danger of thinking we're saved by works! So you might as well just wait around to die, and spend your time trying to get as many individual souls 'saved' as possible. There is no challenge to the dominant script there; no politicisation or even socialisation.
So what I like about the theses is firstly the focus on narrative, or scripting, itself. What we are invited into is not abstract, disembodied concepts but a living story, here and now. We are, in fact, invited to live Jesus' story - as Daniel Berrigan puts it, "To make your life fit into Jesus' life."
Secondly, we're invited to a particular counter-narrative - one that has been building since the creation of the world, and features such luminaries as Abraham, Moses, Joshua, Isaiah, and was ultimately revealed and embodied in Jesus. Describing the dominant script as "technological , therapeutic consumer militarism" gives some shape to our counter-narrative, but also helps us to see what we are socialised into. So, for example, we're socialised into might makes right - redemptive violence (including the use of coercive power over). We're socialised into technology = good. We're socialised into consuming = good.
And so my experience of trying to live the counter-script is precisely as Brueggemann describes - that I frequently find myself profoundly ambiguous about it. I see Jesus clearly saying "this way to true, abundant life" ("blessed are the poor, the meek, the peacemakers", etc) and yet I am so socialised into the dominant script it makes it incredibly difficult to believe. It's only by living the alternative script that I recognise its truth, and the lie of the dominant script. It's only by consuming (profoundly) less, and living the counter-script of abundance that I understand its truth. It's only by trusting in the God of peace in the face of militarism that I understand that peace does not come through war. It's only by singing in a police holding cell that I understand that power has nothing to do with governments, police, or the 'legal system'.
Four of my Christian friends are going to prison soon for their nonviolent citizen's inspection of the Pine Gap military facility. The dominant script says they should be afraid, that this will deter them from acting in such a way again. Yet they live by a different script. They are not afraid: they are rejoicing to be worthy of suffering for acting in the name of Christ. And by doing so they demonstrate that it's possible not to go along with the dominant script. I may well follow them to prison later this year. And my prayer is that I will be able, by the grace of God, to do the same.
But many of my colleagues, no less faithful servants of God, will disagree with such a characterisation of the counterscript (if they agree that there even IS a counterscript). Of which, once again, Brueggemann is aware. The script, he says, is not monolithic, one dimensional or seamless. To me this is an acknowledgment that it is not always clear; that we do see "through a glass darkly" and can only be faithful to what we know; and that this is based in the mystery that is God. Then, like Vincent Donovan, we can say, "Never accept and be content with unanalyzed assumptions, assumptions about the work, about the people, about the church or Christianity... The day we are completely satisfied with what we have been doing; the day we have found the perfect, unchangeable system of work, the perfect answer, never in need of being corrected again, on that day we will know that we are wrong, that we have made the greatest mistake of all."
So the 19 theses (or my posting of them) probably tells you a lot more about me and where I'm at than it tells you about Walter Brueggemann. That's ok. I don't agree with everything he says either. But that's the magic of the counterscript. So long as we "quarrel among ourselves" about the main focus of the script (without detracting from it), hopefully we're just provoking each other on to love and good deeds.
First, I'm completely fascinated that you found them "deliberately and negatively provocative". It just sounded like reality to me! And hopeful reality at that. There IS a counter-narrative! What could be more hopeful?
Perhaps it's some of the experiences I've had in the last year or two, but it certainly reflected much of my (very hopeful, deeply meaningful!) reality. Like you, I'm particularly interested in the script/counterscript idea. Much of my theological upbringing lacked such an idea. In fact, mostly it went along with the dominant script, diverging only at the point of after death. That is, we are saved now so we can go to heaven when we die; in the meantime we wait around a bit, maybe doing some good deeds here and there but because we can't be perfect we might as well not strive to be, and if we do we're in danger of thinking we're saved by works! So you might as well just wait around to die, and spend your time trying to get as many individual souls 'saved' as possible. There is no challenge to the dominant script there; no politicisation or even socialisation.
So what I like about the theses is firstly the focus on narrative, or scripting, itself. What we are invited into is not abstract, disembodied concepts but a living story, here and now. We are, in fact, invited to live Jesus' story - as Daniel Berrigan puts it, "To make your life fit into Jesus' life."
Secondly, we're invited to a particular counter-narrative - one that has been building since the creation of the world, and features such luminaries as Abraham, Moses, Joshua, Isaiah, and was ultimately revealed and embodied in Jesus. Describing the dominant script as "technological , therapeutic consumer militarism" gives some shape to our counter-narrative, but also helps us to see what we are socialised into. So, for example, we're socialised into might makes right - redemptive violence (including the use of coercive power over). We're socialised into technology = good. We're socialised into consuming = good.
And so my experience of trying to live the counter-script is precisely as Brueggemann describes - that I frequently find myself profoundly ambiguous about it. I see Jesus clearly saying "this way to true, abundant life" ("blessed are the poor, the meek, the peacemakers", etc) and yet I am so socialised into the dominant script it makes it incredibly difficult to believe. It's only by living the alternative script that I recognise its truth, and the lie of the dominant script. It's only by consuming (profoundly) less, and living the counter-script of abundance that I understand its truth. It's only by trusting in the God of peace in the face of militarism that I understand that peace does not come through war. It's only by singing in a police holding cell that I understand that power has nothing to do with governments, police, or the 'legal system'.
Four of my Christian friends are going to prison soon for their nonviolent citizen's inspection of the Pine Gap military facility. The dominant script says they should be afraid, that this will deter them from acting in such a way again. Yet they live by a different script. They are not afraid: they are rejoicing to be worthy of suffering for acting in the name of Christ. And by doing so they demonstrate that it's possible not to go along with the dominant script. I may well follow them to prison later this year. And my prayer is that I will be able, by the grace of God, to do the same.
But many of my colleagues, no less faithful servants of God, will disagree with such a characterisation of the counterscript (if they agree that there even IS a counterscript). Of which, once again, Brueggemann is aware. The script, he says, is not monolithic, one dimensional or seamless. To me this is an acknowledgment that it is not always clear; that we do see "through a glass darkly" and can only be faithful to what we know; and that this is based in the mystery that is God. Then, like Vincent Donovan, we can say, "Never accept and be content with unanalyzed assumptions, assumptions about the work, about the people, about the church or Christianity... The day we are completely satisfied with what we have been doing; the day we have found the perfect, unchangeable system of work, the perfect answer, never in need of being corrected again, on that day we will know that we are wrong, that we have made the greatest mistake of all."
So the 19 theses (or my posting of them) probably tells you a lot more about me and where I'm at than it tells you about Walter Brueggemann. That's ok. I don't agree with everything he says either. But that's the magic of the counterscript. So long as we "quarrel among ourselves" about the main focus of the script (without detracting from it), hopefully we're just provoking each other on to love and good deeds.
Tuesday, January 08, 2008
Walter Brueggemann's 19 theses
These have been out for a while now, but I've just come across them and I think it's brilliant. Brueggemann originally talked about them in 2004 at an Emergent gathering. You can find the original here, with the mp3s of his talk. Incidentally, this is a transcription from the tapes, so words like "illusive" could possibly be "elusive".
1. Everybody lives by a script. The script may be implicit or explicit. It may be recognized or unrecognized, but everybody has a script.
2. We get scripted. All of us get scripted through the process of nurture and formation and socialization, and it happens to us without our knowing it.
3. The dominant scripting in our society is a script of technological, therapeutic, consumer militarism that socializes us all, liberal and conservative.
4. That script (technological, therapeutic, consumer militarism) enacted through advertising and propaganda and ideology, especially on the liturgies of television, promises to make us safe and to make us happy.
5. That script has failed. That script of military consumerism cannot make us safe and it cannot make us happy. We may be the unhappiest society in the world.
6. Health for our society depends upon disengagement from and relinquishment of that script of military consumerism. This is a disengagement and relinquishment that we mostly resist and about which we are profoundly ambiguous.
7. It is the task of ministry to de-script that script among us. That is, too enable persons to relinquish a world that no longer exists and indeed never did exist.
8. The task of descripting, relinquishment and disengagement is accomplished by a steady, patient, intentional articulation of an alternative script that we say can make us happy and make us safe.
9. The alternative script is rooted in the Bible and is enacted through the tradition of the Church. It is an offer of a counter-narrative, counter to the script of technological, therapeutic, consumer militarism.
10. That alternative script has as its most distinctive feature, its key character – the God of the Bible whom we name as Father, Son, and Spirit.
11. That script is not monolithic, one dimensional or seamless. It is ragged and disjunctive and incoherent. Partly it is ragged and disjunctive and incoherent because it has been crafted over time by many committees. But it is also ragged and disjunctive and incoherent because the key character is elusive and irascible in freedom and in sovereignty and in hiddenness, and, I’m embarrassed to say, in violence – [a] huge problem for us.
12. The ragged, disjunctive, and incoherent quality of the counter-script to which we testify cannot be smoothed or made seamless. [I think the writer of Psalm 119 would probably like too try, to make it seamless]. Because when we do that the script gets flattened and domesticated. [This is my polemic against systematic theology]. The script gets flattened and domesticated and it becomes a weak echo of the dominant script of technological, consumer militarism. Whereas the dominant script of technological, consumer militarism is all about certitude, privilege, and entitlement this counter-script is not about certitude, privilege, and entitlement. Thus care must betaken to let this script be what it is, which entails letting God be God’s irascible self.
13. The ragged, disjunctive character of the counter-script to which we testify invites its adherents to quarrel among themselves – liberals and conservatives – in ways that detract from the main claims of the script and so too debilitate the focus of the script.
14. The entry point into the counter-script is baptism. Whereby we say in the old liturgies, “do you renounce the dominant script?”
15. The nurture, formation, and socialization into the counter-script with this elusive, irascible character is the work of ministry. We do that work of nurture, formation, and socialization by the practices of preaching, liturgy, education, social action, spirituality, and neighboring of all kinds.
16. Most of us are ambiguous about the script; those with whom we minister and I dare say, those of us who minister. Most of us are not at the deepest places wanting to choose between the dominant script and the counter-script. Most of us in the deep places are vacillating and mumbling in ambivalence.
17. This ambivalence between scripts is precisely the primary venue for the Spirit. So that ministry is to name and enhance the ambivalence that liberals and conservatives have in common that puts people in crisis and consequently that invokes resistance and hostility.
18. Ministry is to manage that ambivalence that is crucially present among liberals and conservatives in generative faithful ways in order to permit relinquishment of [the] old script and embrace of the new script.
19. The work of ministry is crucial and pivotal and indispensable in our society precisely because there is no one [see if that’s an overstatement]; there is no one except the church and the synagogue to name and evoke the ambivalence and too manage a way through it. I think often; I see the mundane day-to-day stuff ministers have to do and I think, my God, what would happen if you talk all the ministers out. The role of ministry then is as urgent as it is wondrous and difficult.
1. Everybody lives by a script. The script may be implicit or explicit. It may be recognized or unrecognized, but everybody has a script.
2. We get scripted. All of us get scripted through the process of nurture and formation and socialization, and it happens to us without our knowing it.
3. The dominant scripting in our society is a script of technological, therapeutic, consumer militarism that socializes us all, liberal and conservative.
4. That script (technological, therapeutic, consumer militarism) enacted through advertising and propaganda and ideology, especially on the liturgies of television, promises to make us safe and to make us happy.
5. That script has failed. That script of military consumerism cannot make us safe and it cannot make us happy. We may be the unhappiest society in the world.
6. Health for our society depends upon disengagement from and relinquishment of that script of military consumerism. This is a disengagement and relinquishment that we mostly resist and about which we are profoundly ambiguous.
7. It is the task of ministry to de-script that script among us. That is, too enable persons to relinquish a world that no longer exists and indeed never did exist.
8. The task of descripting, relinquishment and disengagement is accomplished by a steady, patient, intentional articulation of an alternative script that we say can make us happy and make us safe.
9. The alternative script is rooted in the Bible and is enacted through the tradition of the Church. It is an offer of a counter-narrative, counter to the script of technological, therapeutic, consumer militarism.
10. That alternative script has as its most distinctive feature, its key character – the God of the Bible whom we name as Father, Son, and Spirit.
11. That script is not monolithic, one dimensional or seamless. It is ragged and disjunctive and incoherent. Partly it is ragged and disjunctive and incoherent because it has been crafted over time by many committees. But it is also ragged and disjunctive and incoherent because the key character is elusive and irascible in freedom and in sovereignty and in hiddenness, and, I’m embarrassed to say, in violence – [a] huge problem for us.
12. The ragged, disjunctive, and incoherent quality of the counter-script to which we testify cannot be smoothed or made seamless. [I think the writer of Psalm 119 would probably like too try, to make it seamless]. Because when we do that the script gets flattened and domesticated. [This is my polemic against systematic theology]. The script gets flattened and domesticated and it becomes a weak echo of the dominant script of technological, consumer militarism. Whereas the dominant script of technological, consumer militarism is all about certitude, privilege, and entitlement this counter-script is not about certitude, privilege, and entitlement. Thus care must betaken to let this script be what it is, which entails letting God be God’s irascible self.
13. The ragged, disjunctive character of the counter-script to which we testify invites its adherents to quarrel among themselves – liberals and conservatives – in ways that detract from the main claims of the script and so too debilitate the focus of the script.
14. The entry point into the counter-script is baptism. Whereby we say in the old liturgies, “do you renounce the dominant script?”
15. The nurture, formation, and socialization into the counter-script with this elusive, irascible character is the work of ministry. We do that work of nurture, formation, and socialization by the practices of preaching, liturgy, education, social action, spirituality, and neighboring of all kinds.
16. Most of us are ambiguous about the script; those with whom we minister and I dare say, those of us who minister. Most of us are not at the deepest places wanting to choose between the dominant script and the counter-script. Most of us in the deep places are vacillating and mumbling in ambivalence.
17. This ambivalence between scripts is precisely the primary venue for the Spirit. So that ministry is to name and enhance the ambivalence that liberals and conservatives have in common that puts people in crisis and consequently that invokes resistance and hostility.
18. Ministry is to manage that ambivalence that is crucially present among liberals and conservatives in generative faithful ways in order to permit relinquishment of [the] old script and embrace of the new script.
19. The work of ministry is crucial and pivotal and indispensable in our society precisely because there is no one [see if that’s an overstatement]; there is no one except the church and the synagogue to name and evoke the ambivalence and too manage a way through it. I think often; I see the mundane day-to-day stuff ministers have to do and I think, my God, what would happen if you talk all the ministers out. The role of ministry then is as urgent as it is wondrous and difficult.
Christmas 2007
This year my family decided to make Christmas presents instead of buying them. I think maybe it's one of the best ideas we've ever had. It meant that everyone had to think harder, both about what you're going to give and about the person you're giving it to. It meant you also had to put a lot of time and effort in instead of money, and a lot of yourself at the same time.
We did it Kris Kringle style, so each person had one person to make something for. I got my brother, and made him a wine rack. Admittedly I had some technical help from Chelsea (and the dog toy she plays with in the bath), but mostly did it myself.
And Jane got me. She made me this amazing painting, which is now hanging up in pride of place in our kitchen.
We did it Kris Kringle style, so each person had one person to make something for. I got my brother, and made him a wine rack. Admittedly I had some technical help from Chelsea (and the dog toy she plays with in the bath), but mostly did it myself.
And Jane got me. She made me this amazing painting, which is now hanging up in pride of place in our kitchen.
Persevering with faith
Just sent this to a friend - an excerpt from a letter Thomas Merton wrote to Dorothy Day. I think it covers well why sometimes our wanting to control our experience of God, or have God meet our expectations, it doesn't work...why the more we struggle to control faith the less we actually get of it. Only Merton puts it much better than that.
Perseverance – yes, more and more one sees that it is the great thing. But there is a thing which must not be overlooked. Perseverance is not hanging on to some course which we have set our minds to, and refusing to let go. It is not even a matter of getting a bulldog grip on the faith and not letting the devil pry us loose from it – though many of the saints made it look that way. Really, there is something lacking in such a hope as that. Hope is a greater scandal than we think. I am coming to think that God (may He be praised in His great mystery) loves and helps best those who are so beat and have so much nothing when they come to die that it is almost as if they had persevered in nothing but had gradually lost everything, piece by piece, until there was nothing left but God. Hence, perseverance is not hanging on, but letting go. That of course is terrible. But as you say so rightly, it is a question of His hanging on to us, by the hair of the head, that is from on top and beyond, where we cannot see or reach. What man can see the top of his own head? If we reach it – this we can do – we stand a good chance of interfering with God’s grip (may He forgive us).(On a lighter note, why is it that none of my emails to people contain such profound zingers as Merton's letters? 'Hope is a greater scandal than we think'? 'Perseverance is not hanging on, but letting go'? Yeesh. Maybe if I become a hermit my correspondence will improve.)
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
The cost of defending the indefensible
Good article here - the last paragraph especially. Here's an excerpt:
Vietnam was the first war in which it cost $1 million to kill one enemy soldier.
Our alliance with the US is a pressure upon us to arm expensively and inappropriately. It is clear from what is occurring in Iraq that high-tech systems are ineffective when the enemy is elusive. We are also incompetent in the high-tech marketplace. We have submarines which after rebuilding still cannot do the job and we have obsolete navy helicopters purchased as state-of-the-art.
Without counting the surveillance and other aircraft on order, we are talking of spending $22 billion just on new fighter planes. That is enough money to save dozens of our dying country towns. We have lost many of our F111s in training crashes, and the new fighter planes cost about $US170 million apiece: should such high-tech wizardry be out of contention for a nation the size of Australia?
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Fresh produce
I've become quite the keen gardener. It's all Wendell's fault. Not really interested in flowers and such, I'd much prefer to grow something useful like fruit and vegetables, and so growing fruit and vegetables is exactly what I've been doing. So imagine my delight when my zucchini plant finally yielded results a couple of weeks back. Check this fine specimen out:
Impressive, no? What a marvellous piece of produce. All by the sweat of my brow. What a fine meal that zucchini will make.
But perhaps appearances can be deceiving. Scroll down for a more accurate picture.
Yep, it's miniature. Only about 4cm long, and not getting any longer. Needless to say not too many meals will be gleaned from it. Looks like it's going into the box marked "Simon's failed fruit and vegetable projects". Along with these carrots from a few years ago:
(Actually we're doing quite nicely out of my vegetable patch now, but the tiny zucchini did amuse me)
Impressive, no? What a marvellous piece of produce. All by the sweat of my brow. What a fine meal that zucchini will make.But perhaps appearances can be deceiving. Scroll down for a more accurate picture.
Yep, it's miniature. Only about 4cm long, and not getting any longer. Needless to say not too many meals will be gleaned from it. Looks like it's going into the box marked "Simon's failed fruit and vegetable projects". Along with these carrots from a few years ago:
(Actually we're doing quite nicely out of my vegetable patch now, but the tiny zucchini did amuse me)
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
April 24
Many of you will be aware that in June 2007, I was involved in disrupting Operation Talisman Sabre, a series of military exercises involving over 30,000 Australian and US troops. Along with four friends (Simon Reeves, Carole Powell, Sarah Williams, Krystal Spencer), I walked onto the Samuel Hill Air Base in the Shoalwater Bay Military Area in Queensland, to invite military personnel to trade in their war games for peace games. After spending an hour and a half with the troops, we were arrested and charged with trespassing (without lawful excuse) on Commonwealth land. More information about our action can be found at http://samuelhill5.blogspot.com/.
Those of you who have been following the (seemingly interminable) court processes will be relieved to know that today the four of us who pleaded not guilty received the date of our trial. We will front the Yeppoon Magistrates Court on April 24th 2008. Having already signed and submitted a formal admission of our presence on the base, we intend to argue that we had lawful excuse for doing so. While the chances of such an argument succeeding are slim, we plan to take the same spirit of transforming hopefulness, joy and peace into the courtroom that we took with us into the military zone.
If you're of the praying persuasion, please pray that the truth would be spoken and known on that day. Pray for boldness and courage, for peace and the presence of Christ in our words and actions.
For those who follow the church year, our trial date falls on the feast day of St Fidelis of Sigmaringen, who paid the ultimate price for refusing to renounce his beliefs (ironically, at the hands of my fellow Protestants). He died praying, as Jesus did, "Pardon my enemies, O Lord: blinded by passion they know not what they do." May we all, like Jesus, have the courage to renounce violence even when threatened, and learn to love and forgive our enemies.
Those of you who have been following the (seemingly interminable) court processes will be relieved to know that today the four of us who pleaded not guilty received the date of our trial. We will front the Yeppoon Magistrates Court on April 24th 2008. Having already signed and submitted a formal admission of our presence on the base, we intend to argue that we had lawful excuse for doing so. While the chances of such an argument succeeding are slim, we plan to take the same spirit of transforming hopefulness, joy and peace into the courtroom that we took with us into the military zone.
If you're of the praying persuasion, please pray that the truth would be spoken and known on that day. Pray for boldness and courage, for peace and the presence of Christ in our words and actions.
For those who follow the church year, our trial date falls on the feast day of St Fidelis of Sigmaringen, who paid the ultimate price for refusing to renounce his beliefs (ironically, at the hands of my fellow Protestants). He died praying, as Jesus did, "Pardon my enemies, O Lord: blinded by passion they know not what they do." May we all, like Jesus, have the courage to renounce violence even when threatened, and learn to love and forgive our enemies.
Spare Change: my soundtrack to 2007
(Spare change refers to the fact that most of these songs are from albums I picked up for under $3, but also the theme of a broader type of change, and how I've engaged with it more deeply this year. If you want a copy, email me your address.)
It’s been quite a year – visits from John Dear, Jarrod and Harry from Peace Tree, and Ciaron O’Reilly have inspired and moved me beyond talk of nonviolence to action. The central event of peace games in the midst of war games at Talisman Sabre continues to be a formative experience as we go through the court process into 2008. But most of all this year I’ve learnt to value my family and my mobs: Julie and the girls especially, but also inspiral, Urban Seed and Brunswick Baptist.
1. Something Beautiful – Sinead O’Connor
I picked this up for $3 at a primary school fete. It was an advanced copy of her new album Theology, in which she basically appropriates a bunch of Psalms and sings them out of her own experience. Now I’m not much one for worship songs, but this one captures it pretty much perfectly – not just the usual ‘divine ego-boosting’, but an acknowledgement of our own brokenness, and lament for the brokenness of the world, and the final cry of “Who’ll dress their wounds?” which becomes the exhortation to be “something beautiful”. It’s Sinead’s response to the events following 9/11 and you can’t help but hear the heartbreaking agony when she sings the outro.
I wanna make
Something beautiful
For you and from you
To show you
To show you
I adore you…
They dress the wounds of my poor people
As though they're nothing
Saying "peace, peace"
When there's no peace
And in their want
Who'll dress their wounds?…
2. The Tallest Man, the Broadest Shoulders Pt 1 – The Great Frontier Pt II: Come To Me With Only Playthings Now – Sufjan Stevens
I’d been hearing about Sufjan Stevens and Illinoise since 2005 when Thom Morgan was banging on about him, but I managed to hold out on hearing him until this year. The first time I heard this song was when I sat down on the plane to return to Yeppoon for our first court appearance, and I fell in love with it immediately. Partly because it’s unlike anything I’d heard before – the arrangements are so delightfully lush, and it’s more like soundtrack music than just your average pop song.
I count the days the Great Frontier
Forgiving, faced the seventh year
I stand in awe of gratefulness
I can and call forgetfulness
And when I, and when I call
The Patient, the Patient fall
The Spirit, the Carpenter
Invites us to be with her
3. The Hard Road (Restrung) – Hilltop Hoods with Adelaide Symphony Orchestra
When I take kids on an Urban Seed walk, we always finish up with a reflection on the time, with a slide show set to a groovy, contemporary (but relevant) song. For years, it’s been Joel Turner’s These Kids, until this year began and we all said that if we heard These Kids once more, we’d have to do something rather unpleasant to Joel Turner (and most of his Modern Day Poets). So we found another song. And now, after a whole year of it, I’d like to do something unpleasant to the Hilltop Hoods.
Bail me out, a failure out once again,
Next weekend, bail me out, drunk again,
And I never will forgive myself,
For putting you through all that hell,
I went from high school dropout to factory labourer,
Slave to the clock until four, went from sleeping on the floor,
To being out on tour, now no stopping me,
I’ll finish with a bang like Kurt Cobains biography.
Going down the hard road, down the hard road,
Don’t know where I’ve been, and don’t know where to go its like,
Going down the hard road, down the hard road,
Don’t know where I’ve been.
4. Cowboys – Counting Crows
This album’s not out until next year, but since they’ve delayed the release of the album for six months (and because I’ve listened to it enough this year), I reserve the right to release this song right about now. It’s a return to form for what has been my favourite band for many years now.
I’ll wait for you where Saturday’s a memory
And Sunday comes to gather me
Into the arms of God who’ll welcome me
Because I believe…Oh I believe…
And I know I could look at anyone but you now
I could fall into the eyes of anyone but you now
So come on, come on, come on, come on,
Come on through now…
This is a list of what I should have been but I’m not
5. Times Like These – Jack Johnson
The night before we went into the military base we stayed at a local’s house. His support of us was totally amazing, not just giving us a place to sleep, but feeding us too. And then, just because he somehow knew, he put on Jack Johnson. And now Jack Johnson will always be that moment in my mind of perfect hospitality and the way God sometimes makes her presence so clear when you most need it.
There will always be stop and go and fast and slow
And action reaction and sticks and stones and broken bones
Those for peace and those for war
And God bless these ones not those ones but these ones
Make times like these and times like those
What will be will be and so it goes
6. Close to Me – The Cure
Picked up the Cure’s best of album for just $2 at Savers, and it’s been on regular rotation. Close to Me got more airplay than most.
But if I had your faith
Then I could make it safe and clean
If only I was sure
That my head on the door was a dream
I've waited hours for this
I've made myself so sick
I wish I'd stayed asleep today
I never thought this day would end
I never thought tonight could ever be
This close to me
7. Eve of Destruction – Screaming Jets
A sensational cover of a Barry McGuire song written in 1965, this could just as easily have been written last week. Great protest song.
Think of all the hate there is in Red China
Then take a look around at your own backyard
You may leave here for four days in space
And when you return it's the same old place
They’re pounding out the drums, the fright and disgrace
You can bury your dead, but don't leave a trace
Hate your next-door-neighbor but don't forget to say your grace…
Tell me over and over and over again my friend
You don’t believe we’re on the eve of destruction
8. With My Hammer – Seize the Day
Following the trials and tribulations of the Pine Gap 4 was really inspiring for me, and lots of what was done early this year by the Christian Activist Network was supporting them. This song comes from the album put out to raise funds for their defence, and is itself an incredibly inspiring story about the four women who participated in the Seeds of Peace Ploughshares action, when they disabled an Indonesian warplane bound for East Timor.
With my hammer I break the chains
I will not remain in silence
I will stand and I will defend
My right to fight against violence
No prison can contain the freedom that we gain
When we move through fear
9. This Flight Tonight – Joni Mitchell
I spent a lot of time away from home this year, at least compared to usual. I swore I’d never get sick of flying, it’s too much fun, but there were some times this year when I was done with it. But this song is less about flying than it is about being away from home…from those people and places you love. There were definitely lots of times this year when I missed those I loved, especially because of the geographical distances between us. This is about sitting on the plane and thinking, “Turn this crazy bird around…I shouldn’t have got on this flight tonight…”
I’m drinking sweet champagne
Got the headphones up high
Can't numb you out
Can't drum you out of my mind
They’re playing goodbye baby, baby goodbye,
Ooh, ooh, love is blind
Starbright, starbright
You got the lovin' that I like, all right
Turn this crazy bird around
I shouldn’t have got on this flight tonight
10. Never Never Gonna Give You Up – Barry White
Picked up Barry White’s Best Of for 50 cents at a Salvos Op Shop, and it’s totally awesome. This is vintage Barry. Barry White always makes me think of my mate Anthony. Not for romantic reasons, just because when I first met Anthony at a nonviolence workshop, we were set the task of creating our ideal nonviolent community, and Anthony decided that in such a community, people would only listen to Barry White. I can see why. How can you fight with music like this?
Never, never gonna give you up
I'm never, ever gonna stop
Not the way I feel about you
Girl, I just can't live without you
I'm never ever gonna quit,
'Cause quittin' just ain't my schtick
I'm gonna stay right here with you
Do all the things you want me to
11. On This Side – Claire Bowditch
Last summer I’d been listening to a bit of Claire and was just loving how local it is. This is just a happy little tune about everyday joys. And that’s what I’ve learnt towards the end of this year – that running around furiously trying to save the world means nothing when you don’t have a healthy home life. I know that now.
It's a quiet night at home now,
Little miracles in bed
And a birdy on my windowsill,
That makes happy happen in my heard.
It's funny all the little things,
So boring to describe,
They taught my joy her roots,
And they brought my life alive.
12. Touch – Noiseworks
Corny? Heck yeah. Overearnest 80’s pop rock? You better believe it. Just let yourself go, get caught up in the soaring guitar riffs and you’ll feel it.
Another day is goin' out, yeah
A sea of faces cryin' out
With all we have today
You think we'd stop and take a look now, yeah
All I want to say
Is maybe that we should reach out
Everybody - reach out and reach out and
Reach out and touch somebody
Reach out and reach out and
Reach out and touch somebody
13. Dogs – Damien Rice
This year I decided I would make more intentional time to be alone, for my sanity. One Monday (my day off) in January I went to a park over in Northcote and laid down in the shade of a tree for an hour and just listened to music. There were certain points when I was listening to this song where it was pure bliss; you’re lost in the feelings the music evokes in you, and it’s nothing but delight.
She lives with an orange tree
The girl that does yoga
She picks the dead ones from the ground
When we come over
And she gives, I get without giving anything to me
Like a morning sun
Like a morning
Like a morning sun
Good good morning sun
14. Impossible – Screaming Jets
My song of the year. Screaming Jets were one of the big bands of my youth, but I somehow missed their strong social conscience. It’s been a theme song the whole year, getting more deeply involved in activism, often against what seems like overwhelming odds. But this song brings home to me that it’s not just about “winning”, it’s actually about the kind of person I want to be. Maybe the end result sometimes feels impossible…but I’m gonna die trying.
You can’t do much about whats gonna happen today
And you can’t do much about yesterday
You can’t say much against some angry individual
You can’t say much against the majority.
Well ain’t it like being impossible
But there ain’t no harm in trying
And I say hell man
Ain’t this like being impossible.
But I'm gonna die tryin’.
It’s been quite a year – visits from John Dear, Jarrod and Harry from Peace Tree, and Ciaron O’Reilly have inspired and moved me beyond talk of nonviolence to action. The central event of peace games in the midst of war games at Talisman Sabre continues to be a formative experience as we go through the court process into 2008. But most of all this year I’ve learnt to value my family and my mobs: Julie and the girls especially, but also inspiral, Urban Seed and Brunswick Baptist.
1. Something Beautiful – Sinead O’Connor
I picked this up for $3 at a primary school fete. It was an advanced copy of her new album Theology, in which she basically appropriates a bunch of Psalms and sings them out of her own experience. Now I’m not much one for worship songs, but this one captures it pretty much perfectly – not just the usual ‘divine ego-boosting’, but an acknowledgement of our own brokenness, and lament for the brokenness of the world, and the final cry of “Who’ll dress their wounds?” which becomes the exhortation to be “something beautiful”. It’s Sinead’s response to the events following 9/11 and you can’t help but hear the heartbreaking agony when she sings the outro.
I wanna make
Something beautiful
For you and from you
To show you
To show you
I adore you…
They dress the wounds of my poor people
As though they're nothing
Saying "peace, peace"
When there's no peace
And in their want
Who'll dress their wounds?…
2. The Tallest Man, the Broadest Shoulders Pt 1 – The Great Frontier Pt II: Come To Me With Only Playthings Now – Sufjan Stevens
I’d been hearing about Sufjan Stevens and Illinoise since 2005 when Thom Morgan was banging on about him, but I managed to hold out on hearing him until this year. The first time I heard this song was when I sat down on the plane to return to Yeppoon for our first court appearance, and I fell in love with it immediately. Partly because it’s unlike anything I’d heard before – the arrangements are so delightfully lush, and it’s more like soundtrack music than just your average pop song.
I count the days the Great Frontier
Forgiving, faced the seventh year
I stand in awe of gratefulness
I can and call forgetfulness
And when I, and when I call
The Patient, the Patient fall
The Spirit, the Carpenter
Invites us to be with her
3. The Hard Road (Restrung) – Hilltop Hoods with Adelaide Symphony Orchestra
When I take kids on an Urban Seed walk, we always finish up with a reflection on the time, with a slide show set to a groovy, contemporary (but relevant) song. For years, it’s been Joel Turner’s These Kids, until this year began and we all said that if we heard These Kids once more, we’d have to do something rather unpleasant to Joel Turner (and most of his Modern Day Poets). So we found another song. And now, after a whole year of it, I’d like to do something unpleasant to the Hilltop Hoods.
Bail me out, a failure out once again,
Next weekend, bail me out, drunk again,
And I never will forgive myself,
For putting you through all that hell,
I went from high school dropout to factory labourer,
Slave to the clock until four, went from sleeping on the floor,
To being out on tour, now no stopping me,
I’ll finish with a bang like Kurt Cobains biography.
Going down the hard road, down the hard road,
Don’t know where I’ve been, and don’t know where to go its like,
Going down the hard road, down the hard road,
Don’t know where I’ve been.
4. Cowboys – Counting Crows
This album’s not out until next year, but since they’ve delayed the release of the album for six months (and because I’ve listened to it enough this year), I reserve the right to release this song right about now. It’s a return to form for what has been my favourite band for many years now.
I’ll wait for you where Saturday’s a memory
And Sunday comes to gather me
Into the arms of God who’ll welcome me
Because I believe…Oh I believe…
And I know I could look at anyone but you now
I could fall into the eyes of anyone but you now
So come on, come on, come on, come on,
Come on through now…
This is a list of what I should have been but I’m not
5. Times Like These – Jack Johnson
The night before we went into the military base we stayed at a local’s house. His support of us was totally amazing, not just giving us a place to sleep, but feeding us too. And then, just because he somehow knew, he put on Jack Johnson. And now Jack Johnson will always be that moment in my mind of perfect hospitality and the way God sometimes makes her presence so clear when you most need it.
There will always be stop and go and fast and slow
And action reaction and sticks and stones and broken bones
Those for peace and those for war
And God bless these ones not those ones but these ones
Make times like these and times like those
What will be will be and so it goes
6. Close to Me – The Cure
Picked up the Cure’s best of album for just $2 at Savers, and it’s been on regular rotation. Close to Me got more airplay than most.
But if I had your faith
Then I could make it safe and clean
If only I was sure
That my head on the door was a dream
I've waited hours for this
I've made myself so sick
I wish I'd stayed asleep today
I never thought this day would end
I never thought tonight could ever be
This close to me
7. Eve of Destruction – Screaming Jets
A sensational cover of a Barry McGuire song written in 1965, this could just as easily have been written last week. Great protest song.
Think of all the hate there is in Red China
Then take a look around at your own backyard
You may leave here for four days in space
And when you return it's the same old place
They’re pounding out the drums, the fright and disgrace
You can bury your dead, but don't leave a trace
Hate your next-door-neighbor but don't forget to say your grace…
Tell me over and over and over again my friend
You don’t believe we’re on the eve of destruction
8. With My Hammer – Seize the Day
Following the trials and tribulations of the Pine Gap 4 was really inspiring for me, and lots of what was done early this year by the Christian Activist Network was supporting them. This song comes from the album put out to raise funds for their defence, and is itself an incredibly inspiring story about the four women who participated in the Seeds of Peace Ploughshares action, when they disabled an Indonesian warplane bound for East Timor.
With my hammer I break the chains
I will not remain in silence
I will stand and I will defend
My right to fight against violence
No prison can contain the freedom that we gain
When we move through fear
9. This Flight Tonight – Joni Mitchell
I spent a lot of time away from home this year, at least compared to usual. I swore I’d never get sick of flying, it’s too much fun, but there were some times this year when I was done with it. But this song is less about flying than it is about being away from home…from those people and places you love. There were definitely lots of times this year when I missed those I loved, especially because of the geographical distances between us. This is about sitting on the plane and thinking, “Turn this crazy bird around…I shouldn’t have got on this flight tonight…”
I’m drinking sweet champagne
Got the headphones up high
Can't numb you out
Can't drum you out of my mind
They’re playing goodbye baby, baby goodbye,
Ooh, ooh, love is blind
Starbright, starbright
You got the lovin' that I like, all right
Turn this crazy bird around
I shouldn’t have got on this flight tonight
10. Never Never Gonna Give You Up – Barry White
Picked up Barry White’s Best Of for 50 cents at a Salvos Op Shop, and it’s totally awesome. This is vintage Barry. Barry White always makes me think of my mate Anthony. Not for romantic reasons, just because when I first met Anthony at a nonviolence workshop, we were set the task of creating our ideal nonviolent community, and Anthony decided that in such a community, people would only listen to Barry White. I can see why. How can you fight with music like this?
Never, never gonna give you up
I'm never, ever gonna stop
Not the way I feel about you
Girl, I just can't live without you
I'm never ever gonna quit,
'Cause quittin' just ain't my schtick
I'm gonna stay right here with you
Do all the things you want me to
11. On This Side – Claire Bowditch
Last summer I’d been listening to a bit of Claire and was just loving how local it is. This is just a happy little tune about everyday joys. And that’s what I’ve learnt towards the end of this year – that running around furiously trying to save the world means nothing when you don’t have a healthy home life. I know that now.
It's a quiet night at home now,
Little miracles in bed
And a birdy on my windowsill,
That makes happy happen in my heard.
It's funny all the little things,
So boring to describe,
They taught my joy her roots,
And they brought my life alive.
12. Touch – Noiseworks
Corny? Heck yeah. Overearnest 80’s pop rock? You better believe it. Just let yourself go, get caught up in the soaring guitar riffs and you’ll feel it.
Another day is goin' out, yeah
A sea of faces cryin' out
With all we have today
You think we'd stop and take a look now, yeah
All I want to say
Is maybe that we should reach out
Everybody - reach out and reach out and
Reach out and touch somebody
Reach out and reach out and
Reach out and touch somebody
13. Dogs – Damien Rice
This year I decided I would make more intentional time to be alone, for my sanity. One Monday (my day off) in January I went to a park over in Northcote and laid down in the shade of a tree for an hour and just listened to music. There were certain points when I was listening to this song where it was pure bliss; you’re lost in the feelings the music evokes in you, and it’s nothing but delight.
She lives with an orange tree
The girl that does yoga
She picks the dead ones from the ground
When we come over
And she gives, I get without giving anything to me
Like a morning sun
Like a morning
Like a morning sun
Good good morning sun
14. Impossible – Screaming Jets
My song of the year. Screaming Jets were one of the big bands of my youth, but I somehow missed their strong social conscience. It’s been a theme song the whole year, getting more deeply involved in activism, often against what seems like overwhelming odds. But this song brings home to me that it’s not just about “winning”, it’s actually about the kind of person I want to be. Maybe the end result sometimes feels impossible…but I’m gonna die trying.
You can’t do much about whats gonna happen today
And you can’t do much about yesterday
You can’t say much against some angry individual
You can’t say much against the majority.
Well ain’t it like being impossible
But there ain’t no harm in trying
And I say hell man
Ain’t this like being impossible.
But I'm gonna die tryin’.
Tuesday, December 04, 2007
"it's not difficult to be magical. do try to keep up!"
Totally amazing article in today's Age about children...read it and devour it. By Barry Dickins, a playwright.
NOT long ago I was in the merry midst of very contented infants for whom I was the guest poet. Children know poetry is for them.
Sometimes I think that's all they know; but of course their wisdom is endless because they swear allegiance to Joy.
Happiness they are good at. Grief they respect. Death they write about.
The children I was with were preps at Saint John's Catholic Primary School, in Clifton Hill. How old are preps? How old is Joy?
I have no idea why they were so carefree that first morning when I started to write verses with them; it was a pretty nice day and two women teachers sat in with us.
The birds whistled to each other and I politely inquired of a pretty little girl of four or so, what she was up to?
It wasn't quite nine in the morning, and we were all sitting on the floor.
"Well," she replied casually, shielding her eyes from the sun in the bright window panes. "At 4½ you are not up to that much."
Another child, so small I nearly trod on him, looked up innocently and said: "I had no idea you were this old."
Well, I am.
We commenced to compose cartoons and draw eagles and cypress trees, that sort of thing.
One boy wept in a perfect fury because he couldn't sharpen his grey lead pencil.
These emotions are understandable in a world filled with frustrations and anguishes.
He sobbed so much his drawing paper submerged beneath his sorrows.
Later we were talking, still on the floor, where it's always best to talk because there are no levels of importance, about drugs and overdoses, for they know everything, children.
A particular North Melbourne AFL footballer had turned up drunk to train at Arden Street Oval, and the media had swooped on him — called him moronic, in fact.
"I think that his mummy should have hugged him a lot more," smiled a young pupil, resting her chin on her fingertips in the most nonchalant way imaginable.
"If she had actually hugged him more he might have been late for training; but he wouldn't have been able to do wrong."
We drew an elephant.
Lately the commentators have been writing most hatefully about the footballer Ben Cousins, calling him everything, including a drug addict and drunkard. They won't be happy until he is dead, I think; then they'll say he is tragically misunderstood.
But kids see all things differently. A tree can look like flames to them.
I asked a child last week at a school what she thought of Ben Cousins. She said she didn't think of him.
I know the reason I work so often in schools is to be taught by children.
They're the future and they trust surrealism. They're interesting. And exuberant.
Just for once it would be terrific if children called the shots, and not the experts, who aren't funny.
Children's molecular structure is comic and indestructible and they know it.
And they are not afraid to draw cancer or write about the end of the world either. Adults are often the end of it.
Each year I work at the Benalla Regional Art Gallery. They employ me to listen.
I listen to the local artists and that includes kids who draw and paint and write poems.
I then do some drawings myself and include snippets of conversations I've been involved in. It's fun. It's beautiful. So free.
Last year I met a tiny girl of three named Maeve. She was putting the final touches on an incredible sort of cabinet that was half-drawn with coloured crayons, yet some of the tiny drawers in it undid and pulled out; it was definitely magical.
I asked the child how she did it, and she grinned at me and said in a whisper, "It's not that difficult to be magical. Do try to keep up!"
I've never forgotten she said that.
Children are a better world. That is all I understand of this bewildering phase of our battered old planet.
They redeem everything that is debauched.
They are rather like perpetual flowers, children, incapable of poison.
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