Another Contemplative Expression of Art....

"When they saw the star, they were overjoyed!" Matthew 2:10

Christmas Lights Craziness!

Every year at Christmas time this white man continues to be astonished at the superhuman efforts put into decorating the facades of houses and gardens everywhere with thousands of colourful lights and various ornaments. These displays can range from the fantastic to the forgettable but there has to be one constant - the expense. So pardon me for invoking the un-Christmas spirit of Scrooge for a moment but aren't we supposed to be conserving our energy output at present? Has global warming now been put to rest in lieu of the federal election being all but a distant memory? Have all those 'black balloons' flying out of our TV sets suddenly been forgotten in light of some twinkling christmas indulgences? Then again, we are all being encouraged to spend our pennys at present to revitalise a teetering recession-bound economy. Perhaps we all should spend our handouts on Christmas lights and life-sized robotic Santas because Kevin told us so! But save a little of your war-chest for your new year's electricity bill - what a pity they don't share the same Christmas spirit!

Call this white man old-fashioned but if I'm correct all it took on one dark celestial night some 2000 years ago was one star to shine a light and make a way for a dark world for all eternity. But then again, if Edison had of showed up a little earlier then I'm sure there would have been some garish flickering cycle of lights around the windows and eaves of that Bethlehem stable! In any case, let's just remember who the true Light of Christmas really is...

And by the way, this picture could well accurately depict the white man's christmas light effort this year!

Merry Christmas!

Sustaining Wisdom...

"Choose your friends carefully - you never know who is on your side, and remember; the truth shall prevail! "

AMEN!

A Battle Lost?

This white man sadly learnt today of the passing of champion Australian athlete Kerryn McCann. Kerryn McCann won two consecutive Commonwealth Games gold medals in the women's marathon event. Following this she was diagnosed with breast cancer and died last night surrounded by her husband and three children. Of course deep sadness and sympathy lie with those left behind, especially her children. She was 41 years of age.

Yet in the midst of this sad event this white man has an issue. What really irks me is a cliched explanation heard incessantly concerning people who die from illnesses, but particularly cancer. It is a personal pet hate of mine and by the time of writing this blog entry I've had a gutful of hearing it today. It's the expression "she lost her battle with cancer..." Since when is the process of dying a contest? Sickness is sickness; surviving is surviving; dying is dying. Many times death comes as a blessing, a win if you will. Likewise surviving illnesses that ravage one's body and reduce one's quality of life can be equally a curse. But for goodness sakes, Kerryn McCann was a world-class athlete with a level of personal fitness beyond 99% of us. If cancer would claim a physical specimen such as her then how can there be any notion of a contest?!

Maybe this white man is just hung up on a minor matter of semantics. Or perhaps this world needs a real perspective check so that it may see terminal illness and dying for what it really is - a natural reality that is not about winning or losing, but rather how well-remembered that soul will be and what legacy-print they leave behind. You lost nothing Kerryn McCann! You simply just crossed another finish line and hopefully those closest to you will one day be able to celebrate your life (and your death) as a victory and not a defeat.

Verse for the Day...

Another Two Amazing Photos...

A Cumulus trumpet blast...

And a supersonic stork!

Opinions & Pride...

As this white man was driving into church this morning he listened intently to the various issues/current affairs being discussed in earnest on 3AW693. Talk-back radio is one of my real pleasures in life when I happen to be in transit. This morning discussions ranged from the parliamentary performance of deputy PM Julia Gillard to suspected faulty fixed speed cameras on the new EastLink tollway. One thing continually amazes me about the callers who make talk-back radio so simultaneously pleasurable and painful. They all believe they are right. One caller phoned in responding to the pleas of many drivers who honestly believe they have been unfairly caught out by a speed camera on the aforementioned tollway. His opinion was that every person issued an infringement for speeding were, in fact speeding and had not been 'dudded' by a faulty camera. When asked why and how he could form such a resolute basis for this opinion he simply answered "because..."

And again it struck me...As human beings we have this incredibly audacious presumption of innate correctness on just about every issue known or relevant to us. Somehow, in the scope of all human wisdom and knowledge ever accumulated on this pale blue dot of a planet called Earth we really do believe that we are right. None of us are immune from this prideful condition, including myself. So this white man poses the following question; at what point can we, or do we have the ability to step outside of ourselves and confess the true condition of our innate selves...that actually we may be correct some of the time but actually more often than not we're just deluding ourselves as to how wise we really are. That more often than we'd care to admit we find ourselves just being wrong.

Pride is such a delusionary failing when you really think it through. It ultimately leads us back to a place an angel once stood in the throne-room of Heaven. The most beautiful angel in all God's creation looked at itself and then looked at it's Creator and made the fatal mistake of comparison. In pride that angel fell - for it boastfully assumed it's status was even higher than God. Is it so hard for us, just in the midst of our todays, to step outside of ourselves once in a while and gain some Divine perspective on who we really in light of who He really is? Maybe then, we might just come to a place of understanding, the vantage-point of humility perhaps, that our opinions may be valid and worthy but they are not 100% inerroneous. Or perhaps if all of that is just a little too existential or high-brow to consider then simply reflect on this timeless truth from Proverbs 29:23 ; "a man's pride brings him low, but a man of lowly spirit gains honour."

That's the white man's preach for today and by no means do I claim that my opinion is anywhere even near being all-consumingly correct or infallible. Amen to that!

What a Photo!

Guess we're never really out of the span of His reach!

Ballistic... (part 2)

Wow! Swimming must really bring out the worst in some parents. Today this white man was back at the pool and, would you believe it, another manic mum took her turn on the stage of theatrical hysterics! This time it was a barrage of abuse directed towards a young hapless swim instructor who, in this mums opinion, was 'pushing' her fragile flower-petal of a son just too hard. Her flip-out at Flippers ended on this momentous finale; "You're gonna goddam drown him you b......(just think illegitimate child)!" Whether her boy will return to swimming tomorrow is debatable. One thing's for sure...they won't be rolling out the red carpet for her!

And just in case you're wondering - the kid wasn't being pushed too hard at all. He was treated no differently from any other kid in his group. And by the way, the other boy from Monday's melt-down has been re-assigned to the rightful group according to his ability. Justice prevails... One and a half more weeks of swimming - will the mums of Mackellar cope? And what will tomorrow bring? My suggestion is that they ban all parents from being able to attend at all...for the kid's sake most of all!

Ballistic!

This white man has in times past reflected with bemusement upon the antics of over-zealous primary school parents in all sorts of situations. Today provided another lowlight in the annals of parents behaving badly much to the embarrasment of her son and everyone else present. The first day of summer saw Mackellar Primary School's Prep to Grade 2 classes begin their swimming program at Flippers Swim Centre in Sydenham. The first task for the small group of four besieged swim instructors is to group all the kids in accordance with the standard of their swimming skills. A short test on each kid quickly and effectively sorts out the porpoises from the pilchards and everyone moves on from there. Well usually everyone moves on...

One young Grade 1 boy, who looked reasonably competent in the water, appeared to have been mistakenly grouped in a lesser skilled group. This didn't please his Mum at all who started fuming in the parents area glassed off from the main pool deck. "What's he doing in that group?! He's better than those other kids! I don't pay big fees for his private swimming tuition for this crap! Change his grouping now or he won't be back tomorrow! You'd better do something or I'm really going to go ballistic!!" Honestly I think everyone feared seeing what 'ballistic' would entail! I guess there must be degrees of difference between merely ballistic and seriously BALLISTIC! Anyway, all the most venomous invective just continued to pour out of this poor kid's mum in one big spiteful rage-filled splurge! She was really flippin' out at Flippers!

This white man isn't sure what happened next - he decided to beat a hasty retreat to the safety of his car where the cricket on ABC radio provided a better form of entertainment. But it still causes me to question why and how some parents totally lose all semblance of self-control when it comes to trivialities involving their kids. Obviously it's not trivial to them but even so - you'd think there'd be a less loudly extraverted form of protest possible? Oh well - each to their own...if only they could keep it to their own!