Sunday 26 November 2017

On the Margins

The margin is getting crowded these days. So many are marginalised: poor, disabled, sick, homeless, imprisoned; widows, orphans, singles, divorced; gays, and straights who object to gays; religions victimised for their righteousness; various races in various places; even the rich. Many people do not like the rich, more envy them, and they will never know if they have any true friends. Even Jesus sent away the rich young man: his only recourse was to become less rich.
            The default is thought to be health: a trip to the medical rooms shows young, old, and  in-betweens: the default is actually, as Buddha says, suffering. Myriad names for mental illness depict the default as sane lucidity: there are priests, politicians and media magicians who demonstrate the default as opinionated folly.
            With so many marginalised, often marginalising each other, my question is: where’s the page? Jesus had compassion for all the marginalised (including the rich young man, with all his responsibilities; not so the righteous). His favourites were sex workers and tax collectors: go figure.

            Perhaps the page is the Way. Jesus called himself the Way; the Tao Te Ching says the Way is nameless. The page is blank: what do we write there?

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