Bad Behaviour

Went to see a movie and there was this group of older (75+) women in the back row. One of them talked incessantly throughout the latter half of the film. Incessantly and loudly. 
I wanted to turn round and tell her to shut up...but I didn't! 
 I think I behaved well and she behaved badly. 
The film had quite a serious side, about what it means to be married. This is what seemed to trigger this off. Anytime sex or marriage breakdown got mentioned , she felt the need to opinionate. 
And she did, over and over again.
 And then there was the aside about gay marriage "I think it's ok," she opined, "but not in church of course". I made a loud aside. 
Now that was bad behaviour! But she was so busy prattling on that she didn't hear! 
Perhaps the worst thing happened shortly after 3.40 "what time is it?" obviously she had tired of mr sondheim and ms lupone.
"It's 4.45!" one of them said.
"Surely it can't be!" 
We had after all got there for a start at 1.00.
I knew immediately that she had forgotten about daylight saving...and that we all had to turn the clocks back.
My only hope was that she was going to worry about missing the bus and would leave. But I was to be disappointed. She continued to prattle.
I want at least to observe that we often make the mistake that bad behaviour is the prerogative of the young.
Certainly not today

Not everyone would agree

I really like Jesus (actually I Love  Him) .   

I don't imagine that everyone would agree with how I think Jesus might feel about the current crass discussion about 'gay marriage'
But here goes:

Obviously a second class citizen

You will be pleased to know I got my first source code app for iPad to work...so I do apologise to Rory Lewis of the previous post.  I am now struggling with episode 2!

Too long

  

Images of the Aurora borealis and the Aurora australia

The Northern and Southern Lights 

It would be remiss of me (or any blog writer) to let this weekend go without observing that daylight saving has gone on three weeks too long! 
But I normally write in the morning and haven’t been able to find my computer as it’s too dark!!

Now there's something about source code

I should be wise to myself. Thought I could read one of those lovely library books about writing programs for iPads and follow it.

I was remembering when I did Computing 1H at Adelaide University in 1971.

Do you remember BASIC programming?

It very much seems to be a thing of the past.

So I started this book, seemed OK. Really liked Rory Lewis's style.

Enrolled, at some cost, for the iDeveloper scheme.

Well I must admit that lesson 1 doesn't seem to work. Rorry's promised follow up doesn't seem to be there. On his website he is laughing and smiling. I am sort of sorry, I had thought he was an educator not a conman
But it doesn't seem to work.
I don't want to believe that he is a conman (he may be but I hope he's not)
Probably the real issue is that already (after only six months) this text is out of date. There have been at least two major updates of iOs and of Xcode
It's all well and good to say 'trust me' but you go to the website and what seems to be there is advertising to buy yet more stuff!!

A good choice

Bishop John Stead, an assistant Bishop in Bathurst Diocese, has been elected to be the next Bishop of Willochra. Having lived in that Diocese for a number of years I have always watched with interest. There is not a great deal of information yet but he looks like quite a good thing.

I think Bp John is the one who is standing to right of his Diocesan, Richard Hurford

As a person who sometimes thinks I will retire into the joy that is remote South Australia I am glad that they seem to have found a good shepherd

Worth a look

Came across this little promo for a book Relax, Focus, Succeed.
Seems like a point worth making

I'm sure you've read this quote before: "The unexamined life is not worth living." Socrates said that at his trial for heresy. He was on trial for encouraging his students to challenge the accepted beliefs of the time and think for themselves. The sentence was death but Socrates had the option of suggesting an alternative punishment. He could have chosen life in prison or exile, and would likely have avoided death.

But Socrates believed that these alternatives would rob him of the only thing that made life useful: Examining the world around him and discussing how to make the world a better place. Without his "examined life" there was no point in living. So he suggested that Athens reward him for his service to society. The result, of course, is that they had no alternative and were forced to vote for a punishment of death.

Luckily, we don't have to choose between an examined life and death. But the sad thing is, most people avoid leading an examined life. It's not that they don't have time or make time. They actively avoid examining their lives.

People who do examine their lives, who think about where they've been, how they got here, and where they're going, are much happier people. No one has all the answers. And no one's life is free from trouble and strife. But those who have some sense of where they belong in the universe also have a context for understanding how all the elements of their life fit together.

If there are two people, one with a map and one without a map, who has the better chance of reaching her destination? The one with the map, of course.

When you set aside time to examine your life,

You get to choose your destination; You get to set the goals;

You get to determine the path; You get to decide how long it will take;

You get to decide whether you're on the right path or the wrong path.

In other words, you begin to know your self and to take control of your life. You decide who you want to be and begin to become the person you want to be.

Examining your life brings tremendous freedom. You can take control of your life and all you have to do is set aside half an hour a day to get started.

Meryl and Hilary

My admiration for Meryl Streep continues to grow. This Tribute to Hilary Clinton is quite wonderful and well worth watching
 Such depth of perception. Such articulateness. I really want to believe that this wasn't the work of a professional speechwriter, and it doesn't seem to be.

For all the greatness of his electioon, it is also the great sadness about Obama being elected that Hilary wasn't. But maybe she was saved the denigration that inevitably follows.

New Sexual morality

Is there actually a new sexuality.
I was interested to come across the expression
POMOSEXUALITY   during the week
Post-modern sexuaity. Refusing to fit into the narrow confines that we so easily invent...hetetro, homo, gay celibate
Maybe the Post modern invites us to reflect that we are so intent on fitting people into narrowly confined categories (easy for us to manage....easy for us to condemn if we think of people as two dmensional, black and white
Maybe POMO suggests that people are not so easily boxed in.

Judaeo Christian morality doesn't like that. We like to know what is definitely right, what is absolutely wrong. POMO suggests that many of these judgments may not be so much 'rational' as prejudicial and that while me might like it....that's not how liofe is!

A curious connection

stepI don't normally listen to Philip Adams (but he's no idiot) but he doesn't listen to the people he interview, so intent is he on putting his own ( not inconsiderable) point of view. Quite frankly when he intervieweth people I want to hear them rather than Philip...he doesn't always allow that to happen
But I do listen sometimes in the car...Tonight he was talking to someone about

Treasury Modelling

It struck me that this souinded awfullY like Astrology. All things working together and in 8 years we 'll discover we are better off than we were when we weren't

this doesn't seem to me very insightful, but more like the inevitable onslaught of time.
Is Treasury Modelling the new astrology?  Indefinite crap about stuff that never eventuates

A whole new world...or at least a whole new meaning

Loved this

I told you not to be surprised

I think of the Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC) as a faux church (some comments here and then again here )
I have commented more than once that I would like someone to challenge their use of the term "Anglican Communion" and indeed the word "Traditional" in juxtaposition.
There can only be one meaning of the expression Traditional Anglican Communion....and that is churches which see their roots in the Church of England and continue in Communion with that Church...and particularly as represented by its chief bishop, the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Clearly the so called TAC (which may see its roots in the C of E) has severed its communion with Canterbury...the most traditional link with Anglicanism!
Any way, it's falling apart!
In the last couple of weeks a majority of TAC bishops have met and voted out their Primate (who happens to live within my parish boundaries) John Hepworth.
Mr Hepworth (as the Roman Catholic Church of which he was once a member seems intent on calling him) along with his long term amigo John Fleming (a former Anglican priest who became a Roman Catholic) who has had his own troubles of late (see here..and then have a Google....but currently tied up in the courts)....well they have always been intent on claiming credit for the so-called Anglican Ordinariate (see a tangled web here)
Finally....Hepworth has been deposed. Of course he claims that the majority of Bishops had no right to do it.
But I was interested to hear conservative Anglican commentator David Virtue the so-called and self-declared "Voice for Global Orthodox Anglicanism" at least admitted on ABC Radio that the outlandish claim that the TAC had 400,000 adherents worldwide was always fanciful. He exposes some other bizarre issues here in his account of Hepworth's deposition.
A great churchman once said to me about breakaway churches "Once they've broken away, it's only a matter of time before they split and split again!"  These words have been proved to be very prescient.

Screw your courage to the sticking place!

What vulgar, prejudicial garbage is Bob Katter's ad  'denouncing' gay marriage.

There would be little or no doubt that this ad is neither about Gay Marriage nor Gay Adoption, it is about appealing to the basest prejudices of people.
Shame on Bob Katter!
I have tried in the past to suggest that Katter is part of the rich tapestry of Australian political mayhem. But this stuff is deeply offensive!
That great SA Senator, Sarah Hanson-Young, may be young(ish) but I was proud to commend her at a public meeting recently for being one of the few who has earnestly and steadfastly highlighted the awful treatment of asylum seekers.
Any way, SH-Y , rightly (in my trendy leftist way) names this ad not as "offensive"; But as offensive to us all. 
It diminishes the human community if all we assume is that we will/should appeal to our lowest most outrageous prejudices
When all that the political whores can do...and this is Katter I am referring to... is try and suggest that we are just homophobic...frightened of anything gay
and that "conservative" ( a label I claim for myself in many ways) means that we are not humanistic...but rather intolerant and ignorant
I, like Campbell Newman, am in favour of Gay marriage.....in fact I would relly want to say
I am in favour of marriage, and believe it should be open to all. Irrespective of achievement. Irrespective of gender. Irrespective of class. Irrespective of sexuality.. Irrespective of race.
I think marriage is about social stability. I think it is about bringing up children in safe, secure environments.
I think it is about treating prejudice with disdain, and encouraging people to act with integrity.

Middle Class Mayhem

One of my friends told me of another film that as they sat in the theatre after it was over soeone said in a very loud voice "What was that all about?"
I imagine that not a few people will go to see Carnage and feel tempted to do likewise! This wouldn't be entirely fair.
But, it is a film about the political correctness of the middle classes, their articulateness (is there such a word?); and the desperation of their lives.
It is not difficult to spot right away that this was once a play. Too many words. Too clever by half.
But, you know, I liked it!   Because I am the same...words and too clever (or I love to think I am).
Two families get together to discuss the fact that their sons have had a fight. they are trying to be civilised, but in so doing it exposes that all relationships...even the sensible relationships of the middle class;
avoiding conflict, and trying to be dispassionate, applying intelligence....yahda yahda
are shaky and have dark places where we prefere not to go
Prejudices based on our past, sexism, class difference and so on....don't protect us from the rawness of our relationships. I must admit I find this to be all too true.
Is this a great film?  Probably not.  Jodie Foster and Kate Winslett are pretty good, Christoph Waltz (of Inglorious Basterds (sic) fame) is, I think, disappointing...wooden and stereotypical...he should be better. But I think John C Reilly is the unlikely but standout player in this rather curious offering. Not everyone's cup of tea by any means! And in fact......I downloaded it!!!

Shoo booby doo!

I have been cautious about film-blogging over the years lest the Blog Nazis get the impression that all I do is go to the films....would that were true...but in this Oscar season we have just had an amazing group of films.
One of the things that I love about films is the way they just stimulate theological reflection!!!   This is possibly/probably not true for everyone!  Though many people may be reflecting theologically when they don't actually realise it (I have another incomplete blog (Reflecting on Ministry) which explains what theological reflection might be...but I digress.
What an exquisite film was My Week with Marilyn.  Not the sort of film I would usually go and see but was glad I did.
The theological reflection? Dougray Scott as a very understated Arthur Miller...says of Marilyn..."I can no longer live with her. I cannot work. She devours me"
Spooky stuff. Marilyn devoured people (who by and large loved to be devoured by her) and in so doing devoured herself.
This is how I enjoy overthinking films!

low the way is low

Haven't blogged on this blog for a long time, but mean to start soon...indeed now!
I realised a long time ago, as I watched other bloggers, that daily blogging requires energy and commitment.  And I think I have lacked the energy for the last two or three months. This is partly to do with adjustment of medications (a consequence of getting older being that the number of tablets increases)....and sometimes I have just felt exhausted or flat.
I love Robin Mann's song "The way is low!"...it's been rather like that. Both the low road and the seduction to the way of glory.
So I will try and do better.

I feel great today. Autumn weather in Adelaide is just amazing. Balmy days and lovely cool nights.

Really excited

Great Church tonight. Simple and beautiful. Really looking forward to Lent.
This seems strange to say.
But quite frankly I spend so much time doing crap that it is great to enter a time when we are actually at least going to try and be serious.
We may not succeed, but some of us will try

Pancake Tuesday- Mardi Gras

We loved this day as children, it was the only day we ever had pancakes. Now I have an 18 year old who can whip up a mean batch anytime and has even perfected the vegan variety.

The day is more commonly called  Shrove Tuesday in English speaking countries...it is the day before Lent begins (Ash Wednesday), 

In Latin countries sometimes it gets  called Mardi Gras  (anyone with a basic knowledge of French will tell you Mardi is Tuuesday and Gras is Grease  or fat. So it's or "greasy Tuesday" ...not Gay Parade Day! ) The explanation of this day';s meaning has got lost for most people.

The trouble is it's ancient. The trouble is it's northern hemisphere.  The trouble is we live in the (in my opinion) second-most secular country in the world (after France).

Any way..'shrove' means "having gone to confession"...when you are shriven you go to the priest and confess....I must admit that as a Shrivener I have not been run off my feet!!  

But perhaps give a thought before you guzzle another pancake with blueberry cream and ice cream, or with eggs and bacon (our childhood pancakes were never like this)..perhaps it's worth doing something about the crap in your life too.!!

Happy Lent!