Friday 24 February 2017

On Reliability

Reliability: not the most glamorous quality, you say. Charm, energy, strength, creativity, self-expression being more engaging. Charisma and dominance stand out from the crowd. Spectacle makes an impression. Which would you rather be, impressive or reliable? Who would you rather trust?
            Unreliability in big public systems leaves thousands without power and takes down the phones. Health and communications need reliability. Unreliability in private curates anxieties and dramas. Reliability charges the batteries and fills the tank. Reliability watches your back.
             Reliability partakes of the virtue of justice, that gives back to everything what belongs to it. While we ache to be noticed and long to be stars, reliability is also divine. God is said to be plenteous in steadfast love: reliable attentiveness.
            Watchful attention, care and cultivation, being there at the right time: all are godly qualities. Picking up the pieces, setting out a wholesome order, healing, cure and holding on: assisted by reliability. Wouldn’t you like someone to do all this for you? And think of the skill, concentration, commitment and desire you show when you exercise the divine process of being reliable for others. Value it in yourself. Treasure it in others. On it the world spins.

Sunday 12 February 2017

On Not Caring

The man in the street: ‘Oh, the refugees, they come from a war zone, blah blah, blah blah…’ This morning’s man in the street, bearded, aged, drinking coffee outside in the suburbs. A lot of people don’t care about a lot of things. Politicians Do Not Care about sections of the suffering public, proud to say so. A speeding driver might say I Do Not Care that someone was killed in the collision: I have my own problems. Homelessness, family violence, poverty, distant wars: why care?
            Caring is a subset of attention. We suffer from ethical exhaustion, it’s true; we have our own problems. We have looser and more burdened attention than we think we did. Attention, not merely mental activity, includes impressions of courtesy, consideration, persevering watchfulness. It has traces of the divine. Hagar says: ‘Thou God seest me’; the divinity pays attention to her case. God, of course, has endless ways and timeless hours for paying attention. We humans have to choose.
            We have our own problems. How much attention do they take? We live with others, knowingly or not. Do we hug our troubles so tight, loving them so dearly? Where does attention rest?

Sunday 5 February 2017

On Saying

Many things are unsaid; few are unspeakable. I’ve seen enough sudden death, often of young people. Significant speech is hard to come by. I can’t confront it, engage it, or ameliorate it. It confronts you.
     Mourning is actually a virtue. It stands with mercy, peace-making, pure hearts and desire for right living. Mourning falls under the cardinal virtue of Justice, that gives back to every thing what rightfully belongs to it. What can the beloved dead require? Mourning gives back the treasures their presence gave to us. It’s an honest rendering of account.
     Suicide is not unspeakable, nor is murder. We live in an unjust world. It doesn’t only happen to other people, other families, other friends. It’s here. Closer than you think.
     At the crossroads, where we won’t be missed, or will we? the virtue of mourning may display how the most desperate will still be missed. Saying is saving. So few things are actually unspeakable. However unlikely it seems, we will be mourned.
     Find someone you can trust. There will be one person, perhaps not the one you expect, who can be trustworthy. For one honest soul, the Lord will not let the city be destroyed.