Not the Eternal optimist - the eternal realist

Why would anyone keep trusting God? You can't seem Him . His world is full of laws that seem to operate reliably without intervention - so what's He doing and infact " what can He do?" .


Why pray except when you are desperate . And probably for many of you,  "Why take seriously a poor old farmer and his community - a community so desperate they would pray a lot -- wouldn't they ? A much need social construct you might think? "
Well not their neighbours - they are more like us , "The problem, they say ,  will be solved by less population and that means " less of YOU" .(Too quickfix, unsustainable - how many is too many?
No,  the attraction of faith ( small though it maybe on the surface ) is there before us in many ways but simply because "it works"  - we can't see how it works , but we can see in the myraid of books and the portrait of their lives and as people who pray we know (  some who may take it a bit too far?)" it works for them" .  It may be considered phantasmagorias of the brain but it costs nothing, unlike our childrens addictions. It might be considered phantasmagorias of the brain but its not draining the glass.

So why don't people try to pray? 
The answer is also there . Because individuals are afraid and lonely in this one space ( even Tevye and Golda are not always together - let alone the others) . Once individuals  try  a bit of faith  they may well find ( because there is the evidence there that it does often happen)that  they are hooked. To outsiders this looks like they will lose their freedom and their minds ( some may do?) -- as well as  their old sense of community ( the most precious thing we have?) . If God is truly there.... it is scary !( for lots of reasons that have to be faced individually)
Realism means taking advice 
The reality is that the reason many of us who started still pray is not only that we don't have a better option,  but also because we "see" that God does indeed ( like our parents and community might ) know what's best for us.( we feel it deeply enough to want to share it !)  One of the reasons we also still pray is because we have found our home - in the sort of community reported in the story . We have learnt ( perhaps the hard way) that money and success are not everything but that relationships are what we are made for ( good public relations)  Good restoring relationships !
Finding yourself in a good place is not a reason to be saying "we are brilliant and clever"

Realism means knowing our place

The honour for being somewhere wonderful  is not because of our brilliant thinking and logic ( Matthew 11:25)

Realism means warning about wrong roads and false optimism ( eg that taxes solve all problems)

The reason I am making this post long IS BECAUSE our children desperately need to know ( to avoid the pessimism that will confront them early if they don't) that the reactionaries in charge are in BIG trouble . Our children need to study and know  the drains before they can make the plumbing work as well as it did for us.

Our children need Hope ( remember that great song by Abba ) and that means the path to enjoy to good jobs . Listening to some of our leaders you might be tempted to think they mean " any job " No we want them to have the best jobs! ( I  had one) They can still have the best if they focus on what is best  and what works ( plumbing involves both pressure an gravity studies) ! Jobs with prevention and a full e

ducation ( the whole truth) as the focus are and always have been our core focus(in the above sketch and in Tevye's community mindset ) Its products aren't half baked and genarte their own sense of self satisfaction .  They produce results that are  best shared; good bi products are regeneration, renewal  mended relationships ( public ) and less ambulances.

Realism means you must look at why the glass is being emptied to take a Glass half full attitude that's realistic.

The old wannabes in charge ( by contrast) want to their old blinkered optimism in progress to keep being the

windscreen view- "what's ahead" (eg currently in Australia --"private knows best "- the blinkered and dumb incomplete view which makes individuals rich and exploits our shared assets eg land and environment) )

The wannabes in charge want to keep doing what they have been doing - pressing the accelerator . Their sort of optimism as Mark Twain reflected doesn't last and it doesn't last because these (also glass half full's)  don't want to look back and see what's actually emptying it . You can't develop good news stories about human progress unless you face the bad news .

Believe me, its quite reasonable ; without public engagement on " the state of our assets ",( the dysfunctional communities and their  aspirational disconnects  )and the current speed and direction ( eg expecting royal commissions to solve problems ) we are going to run out of fuel. The ambulance service is growing when it need not be . Matter of sound perspective and a focus on sustainability are the keys to a more fuel efficient culture

Roles undermined by unreasonability

Its Father's day today and most people will seek to honor their father today whether the family are still together or not. Celebrating roles is a really positive thing that reinforces mum's and dad's unique but sex/nature determined role seperately on different days of the year. Sure the boundaries between different roles are often blurred as both ideally ( which is the focus of the day)work together to balance the needs of the child. A child doesn't usually play fight with mum like he play fights with dad ;we celebrate their differences - the strength of one , the softness of the other.We celebrate their different contributions to balance and growth in a child's life - its a big story based on two often similiar but often different components. Even a gay couple or guardian can honor the role (however small) of these two people ,either alive or present , as substitute or real .
There is no getting away from the fact that some guardians feel threatened because they are not exactly one or other or together both : their own position seems to worry them . Single mums don't wish to relinquish there role as carers,( no name change) they just want "a dad" for their kids ( a job that may be taken on by gran etc ) .Why do some people  try to bully us into changing definitions so that there is less implied inferiority, when most people learn to accept what they have been given.  Why is bullying a growing problem is our woosy age and why do we put up with it? 
Changing the meaning of words to suit the noisy ones , does not seem to improve the situation, creating confusion and frustration amongst those who once knew exactly who they were before. The minority have got what they want, but has it worked?
No, the whole idea of changing what we are to be what we are not, is another anti-intellectual child like piece of nonsense that is based on the stupid idea of taking our/others  feelings of inferiority about who we are too seriously. A shared sense of inferiority ? afraid of offending ?
Was so pleased to see a well adjusted vertically impaired person on the panel of Australia's paralympics commentary team TODAY  use some clear definitions . She called herself a "crip"( short for cripple) and non disabled a "normy ". Sometimes the audience is more pathetic that the poor person who is the subject of some pity. How can we help someone who doesn't really accept who they are, accept themselves ( esp if we give in to something that just addresses feelings and not rationality )
People who think they will feel better about themselves or others by redefining a composite or more individual  definition may have a problem bigger than any redefinition of their identity will solve.

I told you I was ill

This might seem right off topic for some ,  but some of us have been really njoying the twists and turns of a man who used the English language well  and as well , taught us another language. Spike Milligan;
The language was Lurgi ( we are sick,  and we admit we are sick  but maybe we are not sure quite how to describe it . 

The story is complete in this . On his tombstone . I told you I was ill! "What a great symbol of a man who was not completely run over by the madness of lumbering logomachy that is our unfortunate  legacy. He bought confession, a desire for the truth and humor together 

The language of laughter:  Funny sic , funny ridiculous and funny blerrh
The language of survival  ( His and Cleese's book) Twist,  test and never accept the limits placed on words by mere pedants   Hooray!

The Mystery and Inspiration of Marriage

As Tevye would rightly say,  Marriage is truly God's idea......"but why , in your name,  did you have to make it so hard "? If there is a problem with marriage , as he meant it to be,  blame him ( that's what Teyve did in Fiddler on the Roof!)

Many young women of today would like an answer too! Their boyfriends( and themselves) are afraid to take the step into marriage .( I don't blame them . they have plenty to be fearful about )  Again follow the story before the song " Do you love me ?" .We are talking about the most popular musical of all time !

Marriage is like swimming-  you have to take the plunge . Its a matter of faith for all of us . If your marriage is,  like Tevye's,  a threesome,  its not as hard as it looks.  Infact it's a journey where the partnership is strong enough to endure anything and everything. Start it with a believer and you never know where you will go !

If men had their brain where they think it is, they would never get married . The idea of marriage is not something you would , in a completely rational moment buy into.  (Bernard Shaw was good at  making that point about "putting yourself into prison" in Pygmalion  but like many,   mistakenly reacted with no real alternative;  pretending to solve "others problems" but not his own .He convinced himself and many others it wasn't part of the best thing, so such is stupidity of mere rationale .It doesn't work for some combinations we know , but if everyone using excuses to not being committed to in the first place by many , everybody misses out. Shaw was a chicken and used his intellect to hide it.
Still we all know : A life sentence is shorter . Thankfully,  life lived , is more than we can see ...rationally .
For the first time since mum,  Mr Man is being told painful things . Things he " has to do" ;  things "he doesn't do" and when?  - the most painful of all ..."now"  .
As if that isn't enough, then come the children with their demands.  Even the best behaved couples  feel like killing each other in the process of trying to cope with the pain . As well as the pleasure of children there is the pain and more pain ( the pain of their arrogance and laziness and indiscipline the grief and the suffering . Marriage as God made it involves suffering. Scary ! Watch the movie - its easier and if you aren't defined as married - enjoy the children that you can hand back BUT are still part of your family !!!!!
"God  ....you tricked us!"  Tevye might have said It 's only because you gave us hormones that we buy in .
So the  faithful amongst us should not be surprised that an age which favors rationality above all else should fall for mere logic(How does it get  so high a status and so low a reward to even sell itself ?  ).Why do homosexuals want to have the pain or is the agenda something else? Why is the pleasure bit to the fore and the pain bit avoided.
Modern Aussie men  use this simple logic so well that  over a third of woman end up in hospital bearing children on their own . I can't work out why women don't go on strike for each other over this abortion of an impasse?
One of the reasons  maybe that non believers  have little faith in marriage and can't see the way forward. Many now don't believe in marriage because" the popular faith of our time" is a simple and blind faith in technology - "what works is kept and what doesn't is thrown out"  . The main problem with the currently popular idea of try it and see is that , unlike Teyve and his family, such people  don't choose to make a new home but choose to be constantly on the road .
Maybe we already bring too much personal baggage to any discussion about marriage, especially the always controversial issue of civil marriage .  I personally believe marriage is so personal that governments should stay out of it as much as they possibly can ( Marx Shaw and I agree ) Which is why Green labor shouldn't be trying to change the definition of marriage in Australia 2012. What would Trotsky and other thinkers think of such presumption by governments about defining closely what is deemed,  by most of us , to be the ultimate in matter of choice ?
The amazing thing is that even though the Divinyls know that "there is a fine line between pleasure an pain ", most unbelievers don't seem to get what this means for their own happiness.
You see , God at least is consistent here . No change of message . He promises that beyond the door of faith lies doors and windows to great adventure and opportunity. But if you don't open the door you won't know .

The faithless rationalist is promoting an indefensible intellectual position . You can't see everything just because you have eyes . Jesus explains it well in Matthew 5-7  The faithless rationalist is promoting an indefensible an unworkable and thoroughly impractical  position for real life .- a way to find your way through pleasure and pain .
Pleasure or Pain? Perhaps you can't just choose one like the Romans or the Russians did when they saw only pleasure and a way out of  promises at the beginning of the Russian Revolution .
Its unclear to me how the green left still argue for many wives or many lovers when only the aristocracy have been wealthy enough to afford that position for any length of time. Clearly the Russian history of experimentation has proved the idea unsustainable for society.    The myth of pleasure arguably brought down the once great family of the  Roman Empire with its unresolved rationales and vengeful  rates of  regicide , infanticide ,patricide , suicide and mere  murder.
What an adventure marriage and exercising self control can be for those who practice it . I didn't marry till I was 42 , so I remain somewhat open to advice . I used the energy within before marriage and commitment to share and play with children in my still huge family .( who needs to be married when you can hand them back!)  Many millions of single men and women throughout history have shared the wonder of marriage BY their wonderful support of marriage by supporting parents ( structure of oikonomia must be clear for people to walk in and out the door and still know where home is ) You don't have to be married to support marriage , but you need to know what it is , to even open its door  and know when to kick the kids out. The mystery and inspsiration of a good marriage means its not clear what the best looks like . The best definition of marriage is one whose confines are clear so that naysayers who are trying to refine  what's god from a bad marriage do not make it unclear to children,  in particular what can go wrong with this fine line between pleasure and pain .

The call to faith is a wonderful won because even when you only exercise a tiny bit of faith, you can find the promise of God to be true for you ; you can open doors you can't see through from the outside . You can truly celebrate the strength of the cord that looks like a frighteningly fine line between pleasure and pain .; that fine line that from a distance frighten and prevents people from ever taking a journey God himself can bless better than your mind could ever conceive . Go watch the film again and practice playing the tune.

Real men

Haven't posted here for a while; Not because I haven't reason to - nothing I enjoy more than thinking about people who get on with life in the way an old Hebrew would ; Thinking it through but without the headache of too much information and too little direction .
On that journey are tough men and  real men ( see Facebook page of same name ) .  Thinking Hebrew creates real men , tough men whose faith is not sentimental or weak , but is fully blown , mature, stable  and well directed . Such real men are not afraid to face the inevitable toughness of life ; they get on with " doing what they have to do " and being good at it .
You may think them quiet and unimportant . As mentors they are not lecturing you , but listening to you.  The kids chorus song "you in your small corner and I in mine"   is a man's song too -  any man who wants to be remembered as a tough man, a real man ;  someone to be admired ; I mean really admired in the sense that you don't go round adding qualifications.
Such men will be famous,  but sometimes only where it matters - to the people around them . Like Tevye, they represent the best of all tributes to their heavenly Father .Few of the musical bits of  the most famous musical of all time are big hits - Tevye , you see,  is the sensation who is the singing substance of this work .  Oh to to sing  and pray and look after the world ( including the donkey) like he did

My uncle was a man like that .I went to his  funeral  yesterday. He was a Tevye ,one who sang and shook  his heart out like he shook those hands and shared his life with us . A better uncle you couldn't wish for . While we all know what a big hole his death creates here , by gathering together  we saw his legacy in real terms and hardly needed to talk about it  because in three tributes up the front , God was honoured , he was honoured and we all felt greatly blessed ; the gifts he shared  keep growing amongst us.
 Met some other funny serious blokes and women later  on ,  one who reminded me that he too,  now,  was a teacher , like his father , and proudly so.( that makes 5 in his family one father and one grandfather - hope one of them will post here - it was one Pastor's  idea to share this idea of TH )
What a great tangible comfort to think that generation after generation ,we have each one of these individual men here amongst us as real men . Real people who celebrate their individual growth curves on their own pilgrims way to build , rebuild and re-establish this truth ;

That thinking can transform your life and clear thinking about your own attitude is great for you and those around you . Be blessed and be a blessing as the small company was yesterday .

The substance too was in the little bit of writing we have seen. His grand niece, in the car on the way out to his burial, was busy laughing at his written reflections from his childhood.
 You can't not but miss that tangible beautiful person that was in your presence only a moment ago.