26 February 2008
rubbish free
I've just been reading www.rubbishfreeyear.co.nz/ - a Christchurch couple attempting to live rubbish free all year. They offer great tips for recycling, avoiding waste etc. They have hens - we've been thinking about getting some as well as we try to live more simply.
who looks?
In the latest magazine of Spanz (my denominational magazine which can also be viewed online at http://www.presbyterian.org.nz/) my colleague Fyfe Blair (from Highgate, Dunedin days) and I contributed some ideas about blogging - you can read the article here: http://www.presbyterian.org.nz/4800.0.html.
I am rather cautious about the whole concept of blogging and even more so after reading Ben Elton's latest and excellent novel Blind Faith. Elton exposes how many of the things of our culture can be taken too far, get too serious, be too personally invasive etc etc.
In the last week I've had a couple of encouraging emails from overseas ministers who say they enjoy my blog - which is encouraging (though I have no idea how they found their way to it). But I do wonder how many people do look, and whether those who do might have any suggestions about what kind of content they enjoy and would like more of.
Would you dare to email me martin@ststephens.co.nz or hit the comment header below and share a thought?
I am rather cautious about the whole concept of blogging and even more so after reading Ben Elton's latest and excellent novel Blind Faith. Elton exposes how many of the things of our culture can be taken too far, get too serious, be too personally invasive etc etc.
In the last week I've had a couple of encouraging emails from overseas ministers who say they enjoy my blog - which is encouraging (though I have no idea how they found their way to it). But I do wonder how many people do look, and whether those who do might have any suggestions about what kind of content they enjoy and would like more of.
Would you dare to email me martin@ststephens.co.nz or hit the comment header below and share a thought?
24 February 2008
address at rochester & rutherford halls
I've picked up the chaplaincy responsibility at R & R Halls - a student residential college at Canterbury University. We had our commencement service and meal last Thursday. I gave the following address on freedom and boundaries, mentioning among other things a reference to Yann Martel's Life of Pi and the outcome of the Tea Ropati rape trial...
I wonder how you are going as you settle into life in Christchurch, at University and at R&R in particular.
Because of talking with you tonight I’ve thought a lot about my own experience starting at university – living in a hall and what it was like (Knox College in Dunedin for me).
Actually I revelled in the residential hall experience – after a few days of adjustment that is. I recall dealing with the competing feelings of excitement at the great adventure of it all, along with the grief associated with moving away from a life I had known and enjoyed… everything had changed…
I think home-sickness is a lot about the grief associated with letting go what was good and safe and secure… it affects people differently because some people are more attached to the life of home than others…
In my observation, come the second weekend away, almost all home-sickness finds its rightful place – not so overwhelming, more a gentle reminder that you are loved and you are missed and that whatever this place becomes, there is always another place called home.
Mostly I recall the sense of freedom associated with shifting away and going to university. It was great – I had entered another world with significantly fewer constraints – if I was absent from something no one checked up on me – if I wanted to go out I could – if there was something on that I wanted to go to I did.
Are you enjoying that freedom?
But I also recall the sense of security that went along with that freedom because of where I lived – the security of knowing where my next meal was coming from – the comfort of a warm place to sleep at night surrounded by my things – the sanctuary of being in a community of peers, many of whom I got to know and enjoy and whose support I valued.
As much as I revelled in the freedom of being at university, I also valued the boundaries that were in my life, especially because of being in a hostel. I could go out but there was always a base to head back to.
That’s the strange thing about freedom – it seems to need boundaries around it for it to exist.
I’ll try and explain.
There’s a great little novel by Yann Martel called Life of Pi. Have you read it? It’s mostly about a boy who ends up on a lifeboat with 227 days with a tiger named Richard Parker. Pi’s father owned a zoo in India and they were relocating to another country when the ship sunk. The bit about freedom that I found fascinating was Pi’s observation about whether the animals in the zoo were freer in the wild or in the zoo. He observed that in the zoo the animals could relax in a way that they never would in the wild. Surrounded by fences they were free of the threat of predators and free of the worry over their next meal. Zoo life was almost stress-free for these animals – and they generally lived much longer because of it.
I think it was the same with my children – by having some rules and boundaries they have been able to be free to grow without great stress in their lives. They have known lines that are not to be crossed (mostly for their safety and my sanity), and they have known who is in charge, and as they have grown those boundaries have loosened as they have been ready for more independence. Around me at times have been other parents who have not provided such boundaries – their children act out, always seemed to be over-tired, and many of them struggled among their peers and in their schooling. They were stressed. Why? Because those kids were in charge before they were mature enough to handle the responsibility – those kids were in charge, whereas the adults should have been.
What do you get if life has no boundaries? Anarchy. Of course, every so often the boundaries need to be challenged. That’s the problem with boundaries – the fences can get too high and too unyielding and they begin to oppress people. But if there are no boundaries then people have no security – no safe-guards and no freedom.
I don’t know if you are familiar with the 10 Commandments [Exodus 20:2–17 and Deuteronomy 5:6–21]. The ‘thou shalt not’s’ of the Old Testament. For a long time I kind of resented the way they were used in the church as a kind of stick to beat people around with. But lately I’ve come to understand their role as being the boundaries for human freedom. Kind of like a fence that we can live within and be free. The commandments were given to Israel when they were in the desert having escaped enslavement in Egypt and before they entered the Promised Land. These boundaries were about how the people could be truly free in their new land and how they could achieve that freedom by being attentive to how they were before God and before each other.
I want to suggest that if there are not some good boundaries in place in your new life in Christchurch then you will be vulnerable to some things that might cause you considerable harm and distress and work to rob you of your freedom.
I don’t know if you caught up with the outcome of the Tea Ropati trial a week or two ago. He was acquitted of a rape charge. It appears that the woman who had laid the complaint of rape was grossly intoxicated and in a blackout phase (which doesn’t mean she was comatosed but rather that she could function but without any clear memory of what was going on). But it also appears that Ropati was aware of that state and still pursued a sexual encounter with her.
Was it rape? No, the court determined. But was it honourable on Ropati’s part? No, but there is no law against being dishonourable. Was the woman free? Hang no, she was incredibly vulnerable – very at risk, and fundamentally she put herself into the position where it was unclear whether the sex was consensual or not. She didn’t have appropriate boundaries in her life. But neither did Ropati – who also had a partner and family. Both of them have a lot to think about.
The Apostle Paul had given thought to the freedom that he experienced in Jesus Christ. He saw that once he had been a slave to a life of having to get everything right in his own strength – and he had even overseen the killing of followers of this Jesus thinking that he was right. But it all changed for him in knowing Jesus.
“It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life,” he wrote to the church in the region of Galatia (modern day Turkey). “Just make sure that you don't use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom. Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that's how freedom grows. For everything we know about God's Word is summed up in a single sentence: Love others as you love yourself. That's an act of true freedom. If you bite and ravage each other, watch out—in no time at all you will be annihilating each other, and where will your precious freedom be then?”
My prayer is that as you enter this new season in your lives and enter into the adventure of it, that you will also find your security and thereby your freedom in some of the boundaries offered to you in the discipline of study, the loyalty of new friendships, and especially in your life in this Hall. Keep yourselves safe and God bless you and keep you! Amen.
I wonder how you are going as you settle into life in Christchurch, at University and at R&R in particular.
Because of talking with you tonight I’ve thought a lot about my own experience starting at university – living in a hall and what it was like (Knox College in Dunedin for me).
Actually I revelled in the residential hall experience – after a few days of adjustment that is. I recall dealing with the competing feelings of excitement at the great adventure of it all, along with the grief associated with moving away from a life I had known and enjoyed… everything had changed…
I think home-sickness is a lot about the grief associated with letting go what was good and safe and secure… it affects people differently because some people are more attached to the life of home than others…
In my observation, come the second weekend away, almost all home-sickness finds its rightful place – not so overwhelming, more a gentle reminder that you are loved and you are missed and that whatever this place becomes, there is always another place called home.
Mostly I recall the sense of freedom associated with shifting away and going to university. It was great – I had entered another world with significantly fewer constraints – if I was absent from something no one checked up on me – if I wanted to go out I could – if there was something on that I wanted to go to I did.
Are you enjoying that freedom?
But I also recall the sense of security that went along with that freedom because of where I lived – the security of knowing where my next meal was coming from – the comfort of a warm place to sleep at night surrounded by my things – the sanctuary of being in a community of peers, many of whom I got to know and enjoy and whose support I valued.
As much as I revelled in the freedom of being at university, I also valued the boundaries that were in my life, especially because of being in a hostel. I could go out but there was always a base to head back to.
That’s the strange thing about freedom – it seems to need boundaries around it for it to exist.
I’ll try and explain.
There’s a great little novel by Yann Martel called Life of Pi. Have you read it? It’s mostly about a boy who ends up on a lifeboat with 227 days with a tiger named Richard Parker. Pi’s father owned a zoo in India and they were relocating to another country when the ship sunk. The bit about freedom that I found fascinating was Pi’s observation about whether the animals in the zoo were freer in the wild or in the zoo. He observed that in the zoo the animals could relax in a way that they never would in the wild. Surrounded by fences they were free of the threat of predators and free of the worry over their next meal. Zoo life was almost stress-free for these animals – and they generally lived much longer because of it.
I think it was the same with my children – by having some rules and boundaries they have been able to be free to grow without great stress in their lives. They have known lines that are not to be crossed (mostly for their safety and my sanity), and they have known who is in charge, and as they have grown those boundaries have loosened as they have been ready for more independence. Around me at times have been other parents who have not provided such boundaries – their children act out, always seemed to be over-tired, and many of them struggled among their peers and in their schooling. They were stressed. Why? Because those kids were in charge before they were mature enough to handle the responsibility – those kids were in charge, whereas the adults should have been.
What do you get if life has no boundaries? Anarchy. Of course, every so often the boundaries need to be challenged. That’s the problem with boundaries – the fences can get too high and too unyielding and they begin to oppress people. But if there are no boundaries then people have no security – no safe-guards and no freedom.
I don’t know if you are familiar with the 10 Commandments [Exodus 20:2–17 and Deuteronomy 5:6–21]. The ‘thou shalt not’s’ of the Old Testament. For a long time I kind of resented the way they were used in the church as a kind of stick to beat people around with. But lately I’ve come to understand their role as being the boundaries for human freedom. Kind of like a fence that we can live within and be free. The commandments were given to Israel when they were in the desert having escaped enslavement in Egypt and before they entered the Promised Land. These boundaries were about how the people could be truly free in their new land and how they could achieve that freedom by being attentive to how they were before God and before each other.
I want to suggest that if there are not some good boundaries in place in your new life in Christchurch then you will be vulnerable to some things that might cause you considerable harm and distress and work to rob you of your freedom.
I don’t know if you caught up with the outcome of the Tea Ropati trial a week or two ago. He was acquitted of a rape charge. It appears that the woman who had laid the complaint of rape was grossly intoxicated and in a blackout phase (which doesn’t mean she was comatosed but rather that she could function but without any clear memory of what was going on). But it also appears that Ropati was aware of that state and still pursued a sexual encounter with her.
Was it rape? No, the court determined. But was it honourable on Ropati’s part? No, but there is no law against being dishonourable. Was the woman free? Hang no, she was incredibly vulnerable – very at risk, and fundamentally she put herself into the position where it was unclear whether the sex was consensual or not. She didn’t have appropriate boundaries in her life. But neither did Ropati – who also had a partner and family. Both of them have a lot to think about.
The Apostle Paul had given thought to the freedom that he experienced in Jesus Christ. He saw that once he had been a slave to a life of having to get everything right in his own strength – and he had even overseen the killing of followers of this Jesus thinking that he was right. But it all changed for him in knowing Jesus.
“It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life,” he wrote to the church in the region of Galatia (modern day Turkey). “Just make sure that you don't use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom. Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that's how freedom grows. For everything we know about God's Word is summed up in a single sentence: Love others as you love yourself. That's an act of true freedom. If you bite and ravage each other, watch out—in no time at all you will be annihilating each other, and where will your precious freedom be then?”
My prayer is that as you enter this new season in your lives and enter into the adventure of it, that you will also find your security and thereby your freedom in some of the boundaries offered to you in the discipline of study, the loyalty of new friendships, and especially in your life in this Hall. Keep yourselves safe and God bless you and keep you! Amen.
22 February 2008
So long Madge
Madge Allsop has died.
Actress Emily Perry, who played Dame Edna Everidge's glum-faced, brow-beaten bridesmaid, died in an English retirement home on Wednesday, aged 100.
Barry Humphries (aka Dame Edna) commented that he thought if Dame Edna was to pay tribute, she'd say: "I'd wish I'd been nicer to her."
I have from time to time wondered if a Madge Allsop-type figure sitting near the pulpit of most preachers would be a good foil for those times when the preacher is a bit excessive and over-the-top. To have a Madge sitting deadpan and unresponsive would be the perfect foil - a counter-measure to any flights of ego.
In her blankness Madge was a perfect foil to Dame Edna's flambouyance - a reminder that some balance helps the world go around as it should.
08 February 2008
great site
I've just linked up with free range studios and their stunning series on YouTube: "The Story of Stuff" - my friend Bruce Hamill pointed me in that direction, and in the direction of an acquainatnce Jolyon White who is attempting to live on $1 a day in Dunedin starting 5 Feb. You can track him by hitting: http://www.onedollaraday.net.nz
http://www.youtube.com/Freerangestudios
http://www.youtube.com/Freerangestudios
31 January 2008
a quote from Sojourners Community
The Creator goes off on one wild, specific tangent after another, or millions simultaneously, with an exuberance that would seem to be unwarranted, and with an abandoned energy sprung from an unfathomable font. What is going on here? The point of the dragonfly’s terrible lip, the giant water bug, birdsong, or the beautiful dazzle and flash of sunlighted minnows, is not that it all fits together like clockwork—for it doesn’t, particularly, not even inside the goldfish bowl—but that it all flows so freely wild, like the creek, that it all surges in such a free fringed tangle. Freedom is the world’s water and weather, the world’s nourishment freely given, its soil and sap: and the creator loves pizzazz.
- Annie Dillard Teaching a Stone to Talk
- Annie Dillard Teaching a Stone to Talk
29 January 2008
Bernard's poem
My friend Bernard Thornton writes poems - the ones I see are often related to conversations we have - he picks up something and takes it somewhere special. His latest came through a couple of weeks ago and he wasn't unhappy about it appearing in the blog...
Disciple
For our New Year’s resolution
let us agree
to find new ways
of letting things
enter us
shoals
simply having the faith
to put out our nets
without question
without anxiety concerning outcomes
let us be ready
standing quietly
patiently
at the edge of things
listening looking
Bernard Thornton
Disciple
For our New Year’s resolution
let us agree
to find new ways
of letting things
enter us
shoals
simply having the faith
to put out our nets
without question
without anxiety concerning outcomes
let us be ready
standing quietly
patiently
at the edge of things
listening looking
Bernard Thornton
Barack Obama
Anne and I are big fans of Barack Obama - the attached speech on reconciling faith and politcs from 2006 is very interesting... we hope he makes it this year but are nervous about monsters with guns in the land of polarisations.
Power, madness & victory Part 2
the rant on power etc from last Tuesday turned into the following sermon by Sunday...
http://www.ststephens.co.nz/ministry/sermons/collection/20080127.1201313698.php
http://www.ststephens.co.nz/ministry/sermons/collection/20080127.1201313698.php
folly of our ways
Foolishness
by Bertrand Russell
Modern methods of production have given us the possibility of ease and security for all; we have chosen, instead, to have overwork for some and starvation for others. Hitherto we have continued to be as energetic as we were before there were machines; in this we have been foolish, but there is no reason to go on being foolish forever.
Source: In Praise of Idleness
from: inward/outward
by Bertrand Russell
Modern methods of production have given us the possibility of ease and security for all; we have chosen, instead, to have overwork for some and starvation for others. Hitherto we have continued to be as energetic as we were before there were machines; in this we have been foolish, but there is no reason to go on being foolish forever.
Source: In Praise of Idleness
from: inward/outward
26 January 2008
Thoughts on the church and power
I'm enjoying receiving daily 'thoughts' from the 'inward/outward' site of the Church of the Savior in Washington DC. You even get a chance to interact! Here's one thought they sent a couple of days ago and my interaction - these can be viewed at http://www.inwardoutward.org/?p=620
Moving From Talk to PowerWritten by admin January 24th, 2008 in on the way
By John Perkins
If we as Christians can see the issues of our day—the poverty, the racism, war and injustice—and if we can use the skills and resources that we get from our training at school or on the job, and if we can really be open to being equipped by the Spirit of God, then we will be used. We must lie on our beds at night and wrestle with how we can individually and collectively bring our faith from talk to power, how we can bring our faith and works to bear on the real issues of human need.
I believe that right now we are facing a most difficult time in history. We are discovering that old strategies have failed and that the new ones, or rediscovered ones, will not let us hold onto our old lifestyles.
Source: A Quiet Revolution
and...
Martin Stewart Jan 24th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
Parts of John’s words work for me and other parts cause concern - without a doubt he is right to say that our faith should move to action. But what kind of action. His use of the word power (instead of action) makes me nervous. Being a Power is not the calling of the church - rather we are to call the powers to account and remind them of their vocation which is to serve. Excellent work on this has been done by Marva Dawn in recent times, and the likes of Jacques Ellul and William Stringfellow in the past 50 years. If we become a power and powerful then we will oppress, we will cause injustice, etc. Our posture before the world is that of Christ - who acted, spoke out and exposed the powers, and then submitted to them. He never called us to power, but to serve.
Moving From Talk to PowerWritten by admin January 24th, 2008 in on the way
By John Perkins
If we as Christians can see the issues of our day—the poverty, the racism, war and injustice—and if we can use the skills and resources that we get from our training at school or on the job, and if we can really be open to being equipped by the Spirit of God, then we will be used. We must lie on our beds at night and wrestle with how we can individually and collectively bring our faith from talk to power, how we can bring our faith and works to bear on the real issues of human need.
I believe that right now we are facing a most difficult time in history. We are discovering that old strategies have failed and that the new ones, or rediscovered ones, will not let us hold onto our old lifestyles.
Source: A Quiet Revolution
and...
Martin Stewart Jan 24th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
Parts of John’s words work for me and other parts cause concern - without a doubt he is right to say that our faith should move to action. But what kind of action. His use of the word power (instead of action) makes me nervous. Being a Power is not the calling of the church - rather we are to call the powers to account and remind them of their vocation which is to serve. Excellent work on this has been done by Marva Dawn in recent times, and the likes of Jacques Ellul and William Stringfellow in the past 50 years. If we become a power and powerful then we will oppress, we will cause injustice, etc. Our posture before the world is that of Christ - who acted, spoke out and exposed the powers, and then submitted to them. He never called us to power, but to serve.
23 January 2008
Prayer
A man prayed, and at first he thought that prayer was talking. But he became more and more quiet until in the end he realized that prayer is listening.
- Søren KierkegaardChristian Discourses
- Søren KierkegaardChristian Discourses
Power, madness & victory
Today's news... kind of bleak really - that five top military advisors to Nato and the US are promoting the idea of pre-emptive nuclear strikes as a way of the West protecting their way of life and dealing with other countries that are going down the nuclear weapons road. Great! Here is the way to handle people different from us - hit them with the very thing we want to discourage them from having! Yeah right! Why is the military option always the only option? In what ways does escalation and threat prevent a repsonse of escalation and threat?
God help us!
I popped onto the website of The Press the Christchurch daily, and here is a fairly sad list of what else is going on...
More World Stories
Zimbabwe opposition challenges protest ban
Sick Indonesian man has bird flu
Russia to investigate opposition challenger
Militants kill five Pakistani troops
Chess champion Bobby Fischer buried in Iceland
Transport problems persist in flooded UK
No peace deal if Israel keeps building
Diana bodyguard to reveal details of her final moments
Double killing shocks Tonga
Israel agrees to ease Gaza blockade after protests
Italy govt wobbles as party withdraws support
US White House contenders celebrate King legacy
Musharraf pledges free elections
Beijing denies 10 deaths at Olympics stadium
Heavy rains kill 17 canoeing on Zambia lake
Parliament challenges Brown on EU treaty
Bomber kills 15 at funeral in northern Iraq
Israeli blockade deepens hardship in Gaza
Security breach after UK defence ministry laptop stolen
Ukraine family seeking asylum saved from Swiss Alps
Kenya condemns opposition 'sabotage' plan
France's oldest man - a WW1 vet - dies
Top Fiji businessman slams military regime
Graffitists swept to death in Sydney drain
Nationalist ahead in first round Serb president vote
New pictures of Madeleine 'suspect' released
Metal detectors to fight knife crime in British schools
McCain, Clinton look to next White House battle
Lights go out in Gaza as power plant shuts down
Man dies after police taser gun shot
Cambodian police block Mia Farrow's rally
McCain expects to do well in Florida
Japan follows Europe by tapping offshore wind for power
Three killed in Kenya clashes, opposition defiant
Pakistan forces press attack on militant stronghold
Georgia, Russia pledge better ties at inauguration
Mountain searched after Angolan plane crash
Sometimes it is getting hard to breathe and I need to go up for air...
I subscribe to a daily 'thought' from the Church of the Savior in Washington and got the air I needed today from these words of William Stringfellow (one of my heroes)
"It is worse than you think it is and you are freer than you think you are. The powers are raging beyond your control and they are already overcome in Christ. The division is an uncrossable spiritual chasm and it's been crossed."
Source: Conference on Religion and Race, Chicago, 1963
We Christians live into another reality - the victory won and the kingdom coming... it is our Christ-given, hopeful, radical posture before ther world with all its travail and woe... "God help us, God give me hope. Amen."
http://inwardoutward.org/
God help us!
I popped onto the website of The Press the Christchurch daily, and here is a fairly sad list of what else is going on...
More World Stories
Zimbabwe opposition challenges protest ban
Sick Indonesian man has bird flu
Russia to investigate opposition challenger
Militants kill five Pakistani troops
Chess champion Bobby Fischer buried in Iceland
Transport problems persist in flooded UK
No peace deal if Israel keeps building
Diana bodyguard to reveal details of her final moments
Double killing shocks Tonga
Israel agrees to ease Gaza blockade after protests
Italy govt wobbles as party withdraws support
US White House contenders celebrate King legacy
Musharraf pledges free elections
Beijing denies 10 deaths at Olympics stadium
Heavy rains kill 17 canoeing on Zambia lake
Parliament challenges Brown on EU treaty
Bomber kills 15 at funeral in northern Iraq
Israeli blockade deepens hardship in Gaza
Security breach after UK defence ministry laptop stolen
Ukraine family seeking asylum saved from Swiss Alps
Kenya condemns opposition 'sabotage' plan
France's oldest man - a WW1 vet - dies
Top Fiji businessman slams military regime
Graffitists swept to death in Sydney drain
Nationalist ahead in first round Serb president vote
New pictures of Madeleine 'suspect' released
Metal detectors to fight knife crime in British schools
McCain, Clinton look to next White House battle
Lights go out in Gaza as power plant shuts down
Man dies after police taser gun shot
Cambodian police block Mia Farrow's rally
McCain expects to do well in Florida
Japan follows Europe by tapping offshore wind for power
Three killed in Kenya clashes, opposition defiant
Pakistan forces press attack on militant stronghold
Georgia, Russia pledge better ties at inauguration
Mountain searched after Angolan plane crash
Sometimes it is getting hard to breathe and I need to go up for air...
I subscribe to a daily 'thought' from the Church of the Savior in Washington and got the air I needed today from these words of William Stringfellow (one of my heroes)
"It is worse than you think it is and you are freer than you think you are. The powers are raging beyond your control and they are already overcome in Christ. The division is an uncrossable spiritual chasm and it's been crossed."
Source: Conference on Religion and Race, Chicago, 1963
We Christians live into another reality - the victory won and the kingdom coming... it is our Christ-given, hopeful, radical posture before ther world with all its travail and woe... "God help us, God give me hope. Amen."
http://inwardoutward.org/
15 January 2008
Sir Edmund Hillary
I was writing to a correspondent from North Carolina yesterday and mentioned the following about Sir Edmund Hillary's death: "We are mourning the loss of Sir Edmund Hillary over here – he died last Friday… he kind of epitomizes what kind of people we like to think we [NZers] are… he was humble and generous to the poor… not a bad role model really!
The Maori people of New Zealand talk of the death of a significant person as being like a mighty Totara tree falling… it makes a big noise and leaves a huge gap in the landscape. That’s how it feels here."
One of the early images of Sir Edmund epitomises the man... while he is credited with being the first to summit Mt Everest, he actually was there because of a partnership with the local Sherpa, Tenzing Norgay... that partnership proved in time to be more than a means to an end to get up the mountain, it became a partnership with a people. Sir Ed used the prestige bestowed on him to serve the impoverished Nepalese people. That's the kind of person I admire. I have less and less time for people who use their fame to satiate their egos. Sir Ed's humility was one of his most endearing qualities.
Here are few quotes of his that illustrate that humility:
"It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves."
"People do not decide to become extraordinary. They decide to accomplish extraordinary things."
"You don’t have to be a fantastic hero to do certain things – to compete. You can be just an ordinary chap, sufficiently motivated."
Perhaps the best one is his thought that it wasn't so much that he conquered the mountain but that the mountain relented to let them up.
The Maori people of New Zealand talk of the death of a significant person as being like a mighty Totara tree falling… it makes a big noise and leaves a huge gap in the landscape. That’s how it feels here."
One of the early images of Sir Edmund epitomises the man... while he is credited with being the first to summit Mt Everest, he actually was there because of a partnership with the local Sherpa, Tenzing Norgay... that partnership proved in time to be more than a means to an end to get up the mountain, it became a partnership with a people. Sir Ed used the prestige bestowed on him to serve the impoverished Nepalese people. That's the kind of person I admire. I have less and less time for people who use their fame to satiate their egos. Sir Ed's humility was one of his most endearing qualities.
Here are few quotes of his that illustrate that humility:
"It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves."
"People do not decide to become extraordinary. They decide to accomplish extraordinary things."
"You don’t have to be a fantastic hero to do certain things – to compete. You can be just an ordinary chap, sufficiently motivated."
Perhaps the best one is his thought that it wasn't so much that he conquered the mountain but that the mountain relented to let them up.
09 January 2008
Truck progress #15
We are over the $20,000 mark now - $20,810!! Any money over the $20,000 purchase price will be used to enable maintenance - this money will be held in the Global Mission Office. Yesterday we got a donation from a couple who had already donated last month! Great!
18 December 2007
Christmas New Year and stuff like that
I found an old message I sent out a few Christmases ago... I've adapted it for now...
I have decided to declare my New Year's resolutions even though I don't do that sort of thing and never intend to keep them anyway - but you never know...
#1 ignore the television for the summer... I totally ignore TV news anyway - I have done for 3 years now and there are no side effects - but there are huge benefits... for instance, I am more pleasant to be around because I no longer argue out loud with the newsreaders about their content, their assumptions and their blatant manipulation of the news in order to entice an audience.
#2 instead of drinking too much, I have decided to drink less more often. (I don't think I drink too much anyway but have decided to make this resolution just in case I am tempted).
#3 befriend dairy farmers. Actually I will only need to befriend one and immediately there will be the thrill of basking in the company of someone who has $800,000 plus surplus money this year. If I earned $800,000 in one year I could move a few mountains, but these people have received on average $800,000 as a bonus payment above the existing record payouts for milk this year - come on you lot... do something amazing with that money!
#4 stage a protest at the cost of cheese, milk, butter and meat. The cheese prices have doubled in the last three years - why? Everywhere you look there is a blimmin cow eating grass. Our water ways are being polluted with the excess nitrates from all the fertiliser applied, the cows fart all the time, and every farm looks the same with huge paddocks and all the trees removed. This has to be bad for the land in the long term... good things in excess always have a cost... so at least can't we get discount milk products??? Soon we will have to import cheese because our local stuff costs too much - how dumb is that when there is a bloody cow wherever you look?
#5 stop swearing
#6 live each day as if it is the last one. This might sound easy to you but it is not for me - it means not wishing any time away (including the shitty things of life) and it means never winning Lotto because I will not invest in it (I know that this is radical counter-culture thing in NZ society, to not believe that something will appear out of nowhere and make my life all better, but I am prepared to stick out in the crowd on this one). Another way of putting this is to live life to the full... each blessed minute... I put this to the test this year when I went to visit the dentist. There I was sitting in the chair watching as the needle approached and saying to myself - live in the moment mate... look for the good, take the pain, wear a gummy smile on your face as you part with a significant proprortion of your weekly income - and hey, it was ok! I have finally found a very competent dentist! (And I will have this to say to my new-found cow farmer friends: "Go to the dentist as soon as possible and you will have only half the pain you usually have because with your big payout you won't notice what happens as you do the tally up at the reception desk!)
#7 make more time to talk with George Bush about why I think his foreign policy is nothing more than fearmongering and doing wease [Rory (see comment below) thinks it is wees but I think he only thinks that way because he is such a small guy] into the wind, and advise him to read Brave New World by Huxley. If he is not available I will set up a meeting with Condolezza Rice and the people standing for election as President. This is very important.
#8 vote Labour in the 2008 election. The signs are there that Labour may struggle to hold office after the election, and as I have a heart for the underdog I will vote for them. Added to this, I still don't detect any heart at all for the underdog in the National Party's policies.
#9 try not to save the world in 2008. You might think this is silly, but to actually step back and trust that God has the salvation thing in hand is a big thing for any Christian. I truly wonder how many people would hear God saying 'Shut up and let me handle this' if they would only shut up and listen to God instead of putting words into God's mouth.
#10 make war less, make love more, stop to smell flowers, smile at children, take a deep breath before responding to fools, and give thanks in all things.
#7 looks do-able but I may struggle with the rest
I have decided to declare my New Year's resolutions even though I don't do that sort of thing and never intend to keep them anyway - but you never know...
#1 ignore the television for the summer... I totally ignore TV news anyway - I have done for 3 years now and there are no side effects - but there are huge benefits... for instance, I am more pleasant to be around because I no longer argue out loud with the newsreaders about their content, their assumptions and their blatant manipulation of the news in order to entice an audience.
#2 instead of drinking too much, I have decided to drink less more often. (I don't think I drink too much anyway but have decided to make this resolution just in case I am tempted).
#3 befriend dairy farmers. Actually I will only need to befriend one and immediately there will be the thrill of basking in the company of someone who has $800,000 plus surplus money this year. If I earned $800,000 in one year I could move a few mountains, but these people have received on average $800,000 as a bonus payment above the existing record payouts for milk this year - come on you lot... do something amazing with that money!
#4 stage a protest at the cost of cheese, milk, butter and meat. The cheese prices have doubled in the last three years - why? Everywhere you look there is a blimmin cow eating grass. Our water ways are being polluted with the excess nitrates from all the fertiliser applied, the cows fart all the time, and every farm looks the same with huge paddocks and all the trees removed. This has to be bad for the land in the long term... good things in excess always have a cost... so at least can't we get discount milk products??? Soon we will have to import cheese because our local stuff costs too much - how dumb is that when there is a bloody cow wherever you look?
#5 stop swearing
#6 live each day as if it is the last one. This might sound easy to you but it is not for me - it means not wishing any time away (including the shitty things of life) and it means never winning Lotto because I will not invest in it (I know that this is radical counter-culture thing in NZ society, to not believe that something will appear out of nowhere and make my life all better, but I am prepared to stick out in the crowd on this one). Another way of putting this is to live life to the full... each blessed minute... I put this to the test this year when I went to visit the dentist. There I was sitting in the chair watching as the needle approached and saying to myself - live in the moment mate... look for the good, take the pain, wear a gummy smile on your face as you part with a significant proprortion of your weekly income - and hey, it was ok! I have finally found a very competent dentist! (And I will have this to say to my new-found cow farmer friends: "Go to the dentist as soon as possible and you will have only half the pain you usually have because with your big payout you won't notice what happens as you do the tally up at the reception desk!)
#7 make more time to talk with George Bush about why I think his foreign policy is nothing more than fearmongering and doing wease [Rory (see comment below) thinks it is wees but I think he only thinks that way because he is such a small guy] into the wind, and advise him to read Brave New World by Huxley. If he is not available I will set up a meeting with Condolezza Rice and the people standing for election as President. This is very important.
#8 vote Labour in the 2008 election. The signs are there that Labour may struggle to hold office after the election, and as I have a heart for the underdog I will vote for them. Added to this, I still don't detect any heart at all for the underdog in the National Party's policies.
#9 try not to save the world in 2008. You might think this is silly, but to actually step back and trust that God has the salvation thing in hand is a big thing for any Christian. I truly wonder how many people would hear God saying 'Shut up and let me handle this' if they would only shut up and listen to God instead of putting words into God's mouth.
#10 make war less, make love more, stop to smell flowers, smile at children, take a deep breath before responding to fools, and give thanks in all things.
#7 looks do-able but I may struggle with the rest
06 December 2007
Truck progress #10
$12,810 as of today - a few parishes have had people contribute... St Mark's in Avonhead, and St Martin's in St Martin's (yeah I know) - they have had an ongoing relationship with the Meier's and wanted to support this! Thanks! There's room for a few more to be on board as well!
05 December 2007
A Touch of Sleeve
On Monday night I was involved in the launching of my friend Susan Bell's amazing book, A Touch of Sleeve. Susan asked if I would be the launcher which was an honour and a privilege (if the two things aren't the same!). Around 90 people gathered at the University Bookshop and we had a lot of fun... the neat thing was that Hisashi (who the book is about) was able to be there. He is in his late 80's.
Hisashi is Japanese and has done what Japanese men don't do - he has recounted to Susan his experience of life in Japan during World War II, the defeat and occupation. Culturally he has broken a kind of taboo - and according to a proverb he relates, been the frog who opens his mouth so wide that the contents of his insides can be seen...
The insight into Japanese life that comes from this opening his mouth widely is profound. I read some of the early draft chapters (that have since been radically revised as the book took its current shape) and the account of the fire bombing of Tokyo in particular was both harrowing and astonishing.
Until now, little has been known of the Japanese side of the war experience.
Susan with Hisashi's help has opened the window for us to look in - it promises to be a break-through book and I wish Susan well!
It is available around the country for $39.95 - I hope people get the opportunity to read it.
02 December 2007
Truck Progress #8
I didn't get time to do the Friday update - so here is Friday and Saturday combined...
we are up to $11,000! One couple were particularly generous sending in a $2000 cheque! That really helped. Things had been a bit slower...
Hopefully there are some others out there who will help us meet at least the truck cost of $20,000! But we are over halfway!
I am in Dunedin for a couple of days to catch up with Anne and help launch a book - more on that later so the next update will be Wednesday.
28 November 2007
Truck progress #6
$7450 after today's mail. What was really pleasing was to receive three donations from people who have heard about it from others! Great! Thanks!
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