Month: October 2011

That Girl Grace

eejoseph

Most of us know someone named “Grace”.  That would include all the Hannahs, Caras, Charitas, and so on.  Fur Christians, grace is God’s expression of His goodness to us – everyone on the planet.  The story of divine grace comes to us in the Biblical saga of the Mesopotamian Abraham and his descendants.

Grace for Christians and Jews are different beasts even though the need and the source are identical. My girl “Grace” is reason for gratitude, not pride in achievement or acquisition. The notion of grace is scorned by people who consider themselves self-sufficient aces. Grace is for cripples and beggars, but no individual or nation has yet shown mastery of this place we call home. We are all, somehow, missing the mark of master. We are at the mercy of upheavals of nature and people in motion.

Grace is definitely not a statue; she is motion personified, moving those who are willing to new vistas of peaace, contentment and joy. So why do so many people despise Grace? Why are so many people content to live in the shadow of their own achievements, no matter how fleeting or minuscule?

Standing in need of assistance is very human, from birth to death, and people either stand afar off aand claim to know Grace when in reality Grace is accessed only by intimacy. So are we really gods or humans? The answer is too obvious: ingratitude and inhospitable attitudes are the favourite halos of the present generation. When a new set of eyes begin to peer into the secret chambers of productive life Grace will no longer be an orphan or find herself neglected.

Look at What They’re Doing to My Child

eejoseph

You are not kidding!  A child bearing the brunt of insensitive and ignorant peers is not new.  Racist environments foster violence and we live in one now, and we have ourselves – in some way – been shaped by societies that could not see the future and care little about the past.

Feigning ignorance is an old racist ploy, but what if people really do not see the problem with certain discriminatory expressions and behaviours? What if the newspapers and watchdogs are equally biased against people of another race?
Someone needs to advocate for the child. Take the case to the primary perpetrators. Waiting is not an option. Things only get worse and the likelihood of permanent effect of this kind of pressure on a young child is too great to ignore.

Parents are the best judge of the actions that should be followed, with, of course, due consideration to the advice of professionals in the field of psychology and spirituality.  The school system can be cruelly apathetic to the needs of children and in this day and age they can be easily called to account, publicly or privately.

You will know that your struggle for decency and justice is having the desired effect when the perpetrators and their supporters are heard saying “Look at what they’re doing to my school!”

The Silence is Ironic

eejoseph

If people were thinking that a revolution was really happening in the Middle East they can start thinking again.  The states being racked by protests and revolts have shown their true colour: repression, cruelty, ignorance, and religious phoniness.  The neighbours seem  to lack the courage to condemn the use of military power to suppress the call for freedom.

The casualties caused by government troops in Syria, Libya, and by Islamic miltants in Pakistan are not heroes, not yet.   The survivors need reliable allies.  It is diagnostic that the honourable voices in these countries are no-where to be found.  The Arab League and Islam have failed to show their connection to Arab and Islamic populations.  How can any sane person, westerner or easterner, put any confidence in dictatorships and imams who seem willing to be silent about their own failures?

Is it really hard to explain how so much religious tradition be a hindrance to justice and freedom?  One should not forget the devastating effect of western imperialism, Jewish Zionism, bigotry from Pacific powers, Russian oligarchy and others.  It would seem that people are assuming that there is a corollary to western justice.  I do not want to assume anything when there is so much evidence of moral bankruptcy, which makes Middle Eastern corruption easy to explain, but nontheless daunting to terminate. 

With  both west and east climbing the wannabe pole of Judeo with smatterings of Christianity) and a commitment to human dignity in Islamic states.  One would also have to cover one’s eyes to explain how citizens of Canada can be engaged in peaceful resolution of crucial issues.  No one should be holding their breath for religious groups in these crumbling states to break into the silence.  Death and other really bad stuff await them.  The absence of moderate Islamic voices  is predictably shocking.  Is it possible that milions even in North America whose voices we have been inclined to call moderate are acquiescing over the denial of human rights, the iconization of unspeakable violence.  What could they be waiting for? Are they waiting for a backlash from Canadians?  People are beginning to peek past the rhetoric of politicans and clerics.  Many religious Canadian reject violence as a means to establish either religion or secularity, and their failure speak out shows that irony, as the nature of the world ruling powers, has already advanced to the doorstep of dirt-cheap propaganda.

What Will They Call You?

eejoseph

When power falls from the hands of other people who thought they were empire-builders and heros of social change things can get nasty.  Name calling, intimidation, silence, isolation and  denial of privileges take centre-stage.  Most of us have found ourselves in situations where we are constrained to be agents of change, not merely agents for change.  So we step up to the plate, to bat for those who we care about, we run for office, we offer ourselves for service.  They can call you winner because the path never really included the empire-builders and the privileged crew .  Those who have rejected change will call you every possible derogatory name , but you know who you are, and it is important to remmeber that names that your parents did not give you do not really matter.

Let’s say you do not have the face or body of a model, a TV or film star, or fitness guru, what does your mother call you?  The same thing she called you when she first looked at your alien physique: “beautiful and precious”.

Let’s say you do have the face or body of a model, a TV or film star, or fitness guru, and let’s say the TV shows and social media aren’t exactly friendly and call you something other than what your dad would call you.  What do you call yourself?

Knowing that name-calling can be a legal millstone around the neck I would prefer to call people by the name they most like to use.   I would hope that everybody would see how much that name reflects the you that is in motion, forward or backward.  For those whose activities can make others look bad, I offer one simple suggestion which I aply to myself: you call me what you are afraid of, and let me call you call what I am.  Either way people will see the difference between what some people call and what you are.