I have a discussion with some pals on our stand of our domestic helpers sharing at dinner table and menu. Definitely each of us has their point of view, according to our own growning up experience and sense of what is proper and appropriate.
I don't have a helper, though I can share much but I did not share much.
If I am to have an opinion, this may be how I gague the decision:
Community. Everyone needs and desire community. Are they provision of avenues for such for the helpers, sharing a conversation over a meal with someone?
I am not sure this is true but from what I read and watched in movie.
In the older days, servants and slaves were hired in group and they have their own community in the household. So when they do meal together, it is still in a community. They have an avenue to share their day, share a conversation, have someone to talk to, cracked a joke. Some may even have their own family in the midst, so eating separately in understandable.
If I have a helper, I may not feel real comfy (not sure about them) about sharing of table and menu, but what is the harm anyway? They or she will sit in and eat in silence, responding when conversed.
So what shall I do?
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Friday, February 13, 2009
Permitted Extravagance and Waste
Last week, in the papers there is a discussion point on "Extravagance". It is due to the timing. With the exposure of the exploits of Wall Street CEOs, the insensitve and irresponsible extravagances. People are shouting crucifications.
A few members of the local high society were interviewed and expressed their points of view -true and untrue, relevant and irrelavant, useful and useless. Most see no wrong in extravagance but they will be more discrete now, given the sensitivity of the time.
++++
When I worked as a community organizer in the poorer Boston neighbourhoods of Roxbury and Dorchester, we often had meetings with local teachers, parents, clergy and social activitists , trying again and again to listen to the healing that would be possible in the lives of the struggling families who lived there.
One day we were meeting in Old South Church, one of the fine, traditional house of worship in Boston. One social activist was particularly enthusiatic in criticising the great disparities of wealth in the city. In his evangelical fervour, he used the church we were sitting in as an offending example. "Take this church. It is obscene, all this stained glass and gold chalice and fine tapestries. If the church really cared about poor people, they should sell all of this and give it to the poor."
This arguement is not new; it was made by Jesus's disciple themselves, and it clearly has some merit. But a woman from the neighbourhood, who had lived there all her life, said quietly, "This is one of the most beautiful placesin the city. It is one of the only places where poor folks can afford tobe around beauty. All other beauty in this city costs money. Here we can be surroundedby beautiful things and it all belongs to us. Don't even think about taking awaywhat little beauty we have."
We are a nation of hectic healers, refusing to stop. Our drive to do better faster, to develop social programme more rapidly, to create helpful agencies more quickly can create a sea of frantic busyness with negligible, even questionable, results. In our passionate rush to be helpful, we miss things that are sacred, subtle and important.
(Taken from Sabbath,Wayne Muller)
++++
But I am not too sure if that is what I observe at where I am. We are self-activitist rather social-acitivist.
Also I hope the churches would not take it wrongly in the reasoning for the mega projects. But who am I to judge when I don't even really know their thought process and also I am the one they are ultimately accountable for in the decision.
extravagance, extravagancy -- the quality of exceeding the appropriate limits of decorum or probability or truth;
Matt 26:6-13
While Jesus was in Bethany in the home of a man known as Simon the Leper, a woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, which she poured on his head as he was reclining at the table.
When the disciples saw this, they were indignant. "Why this waste?" they asked. "This perfume could have been sold at a high price and the money given to the poor."
Aware of this, Jesus said to them, "Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me. The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me. When she poured this perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial. I tell you the truth, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her."
A few members of the local high society were interviewed and expressed their points of view -true and untrue, relevant and irrelavant, useful and useless. Most see no wrong in extravagance but they will be more discrete now, given the sensitivity of the time.
++++
When I worked as a community organizer in the poorer Boston neighbourhoods of Roxbury and Dorchester, we often had meetings with local teachers, parents, clergy and social activitists , trying again and again to listen to the healing that would be possible in the lives of the struggling families who lived there.
One day we were meeting in Old South Church, one of the fine, traditional house of worship in Boston. One social activist was particularly enthusiatic in criticising the great disparities of wealth in the city. In his evangelical fervour, he used the church we were sitting in as an offending example. "Take this church. It is obscene, all this stained glass and gold chalice and fine tapestries. If the church really cared about poor people, they should sell all of this and give it to the poor."
This arguement is not new; it was made by Jesus's disciple themselves, and it clearly has some merit. But a woman from the neighbourhood, who had lived there all her life, said quietly, "This is one of the most beautiful placesin the city. It is one of the only places where poor folks can afford tobe around beauty. All other beauty in this city costs money. Here we can be surroundedby beautiful things and it all belongs to us. Don't even think about taking awaywhat little beauty we have."
We are a nation of hectic healers, refusing to stop. Our drive to do better faster, to develop social programme more rapidly, to create helpful agencies more quickly can create a sea of frantic busyness with negligible, even questionable, results. In our passionate rush to be helpful, we miss things that are sacred, subtle and important.
(Taken from Sabbath,Wayne Muller)
++++
But I am not too sure if that is what I observe at where I am. We are self-activitist rather social-acitivist.
Also I hope the churches would not take it wrongly in the reasoning for the mega projects. But who am I to judge when I don't even really know their thought process and also I am the one they are ultimately accountable for in the decision.
extravagance, extravagancy -- the quality of exceeding the appropriate limits of decorum or probability or truth;
Matt 26:6-13
While Jesus was in Bethany in the home of a man known as Simon the Leper, a woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, which she poured on his head as he was reclining at the table.
When the disciples saw this, they were indignant. "Why this waste?" they asked. "This perfume could have been sold at a high price and the money given to the poor."
Aware of this, Jesus said to them, "Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me. The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me. When she poured this perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial. I tell you the truth, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her."
Everyone is looking for you!" (Mark1:37)
Mark 1: 36 Simon and his companions went to look for him (Jesus), 37 and when they found him, they exclaimed: "Everyone is looking for you!"
The times I have a similar experience of such an exclamation is when the other party needs something from me and I am considered lagging in fulfilling the needs/ requests. And usually there is a tinge of frustration and reprimand from the other party.
In the gospel, it may be natural for this expectation. As just the day before many were healed, message was preached. Needs were met... but there were still more needs, greater needs, needed to be met..., so the Lord's work was not done, he was still needed, demanded.
38 Jesus replied, "Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come."
To Jesus, it was not the case. He considered it finished. His accountability is towards the One who sent him, not to the ones he was sent for. But it is difficult to distinct between the One and the ones at times.
The times I have a similar experience of such an exclamation is when the other party needs something from me and I am considered lagging in fulfilling the needs/ requests. And usually there is a tinge of frustration and reprimand from the other party.
In the gospel, it may be natural for this expectation. As just the day before many were healed, message was preached. Needs were met... but there were still more needs, greater needs, needed to be met..., so the Lord's work was not done, he was still needed, demanded.
38 Jesus replied, "Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come."
To Jesus, it was not the case. He considered it finished. His accountability is towards the One who sent him, not to the ones he was sent for. But it is difficult to distinct between the One and the ones at times.
Trees in Solomon Islands
In the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific, some villagers practise a unique formof logging.if a tree is too large to be felled with an axe, the nativesw cut it down by yelling at it. Woodsmen with special powers creep up on a tree just at dawn and suddenly scream at it at the top of their lungs. Theu continue it for thrity days. The tree dies and falls over.
The theory is that the hollering kills the spiritof thr tree. According to the villagers, it always work.
Ah,those poor naive innocents. Such quaintly charming habits of the jungle. Screaming at trees, indeed. How primitive. Too bad they don't have the advantages of modern technology and the
advantages of modren technology and the scientific mind.
Me? I yellat my wife. And yell at the telephone and the lawn mower. And yell at the TV and the newspaper and my children. I have even been know to shake my fist and yell at the sky at times.
Man next door yell at his car a lot. And this summer I heard him yell at a stepladder for most ofan afternoon. We modern,urban, educated folks yell at traffic and umpires and bills and banks and machines - especially machinese.
Don't know what good it does. Machines and things just sit there. Even kicking does not always help. As for people, well, the Solomon Islanders may have a point. telling at living things does tend to kill the spirit in them. Sticks and stones may break our bones, but words will break our hearts...
(Robert Folghum, All I really needtop know I learned in Kindergatren)
++++
Singaporean's list:
The theory is that the hollering kills the spiritof thr tree. According to the villagers, it always work.
Ah,those poor naive innocents. Such quaintly charming habits of the jungle. Screaming at trees, indeed. How primitive. Too bad they don't have the advantages of modern technology and the
advantages of modren technology and the scientific mind.
Me? I yellat my wife. And yell at the telephone and the lawn mower. And yell at the TV and the newspaper and my children. I have even been know to shake my fist and yell at the sky at times.
Man next door yell at his car a lot. And this summer I heard him yell at a stepladder for most ofan afternoon. We modern,urban, educated folks yell at traffic and umpires and bills and banks and machines - especially machinese.
Don't know what good it does. Machines and things just sit there. Even kicking does not always help. As for people, well, the Solomon Islanders may have a point. telling at living things does tend to kill the spirit in them. Sticks and stones may break our bones, but words will break our hearts...
(Robert Folghum, All I really needtop know I learned in Kindergatren)
++++
Singaporean's list:
- Domestic helper
- Children
- Parents
- Spouse
- Foreign Workers
- Call Centre and Service Centre staff
- Telemarketer
- Service Staff (when Q is long)
- Teachers(???)
- Neighbour (???)
- Driver with Triangle-plate
- ERP
- Long weekend Q at the Causeway
- ... ...
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Emptiness is the Pregnant Void
In spite of her significant career accomplishments, Elaine experienced a nagging emptiness.
But this emptiness has nothing at all to do with our value or our worth. All life has emptiness at its core; it is the quiet hollow reed through which the wind of God blows and makes the music that is our life. Without this emptiness, we are clogged and unable to give birth to music, love or kindness. All creation springs from emptiness.
Emptiness is the pregnant void out of which all creation springs. But many of us fear emptiness.. Most are far more axious about having to confront whatever will come up in empty space, when they are quiet and alone.
Who know what terror lurks in the anonymous solitude? What voices will arise in th silence? At the very same time, she says, people are afraid of what will not come up. WHAT IF I have no vision at all? What if there is nothing of value in my heart and soul, no strength, no voice of guidance, no wisdom at all - just an empty, hollow echo?
Wayne Muller "Sabbath"
But this emptiness has nothing at all to do with our value or our worth. All life has emptiness at its core; it is the quiet hollow reed through which the wind of God blows and makes the music that is our life. Without this emptiness, we are clogged and unable to give birth to music, love or kindness. All creation springs from emptiness.
Emptiness is the pregnant void out of which all creation springs. But many of us fear emptiness.. Most are far more axious about having to confront whatever will come up in empty space, when they are quiet and alone.
Who know what terror lurks in the anonymous solitude? What voices will arise in th silence? At the very same time, she says, people are afraid of what will not come up. WHAT IF I have no vision at all? What if there is nothing of value in my heart and soul, no strength, no voice of guidance, no wisdom at all - just an empty, hollow echo?
Wayne Muller "Sabbath"
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