Wondering Pilgrim
“Where are your haiku?” they ask
“Watch this space!” I say
Little Houses
What to do with those pesky alley loiterers and wagon wheels scraping on the walls? I know, let’s fill in the alley with a little house. My daily Worldle exercise gave me this photo to locate somewhere in Google Earth and my sleuthing, dear Watson, led me to the Hollensbury Spite House in Washington DC.
“Little houses” and “spite” naturally led me to think of the three-year-long battle my wife and I have been waging for redress concerning the notorious Sterling housing collapse, revealed early this year through a Senate Inquiry, to be a badly-regulated retirement housing scheme that saw aged pensioners lose life savings and the security of sound housing.
A tenuous link? I think not. How often has housing been weaponised to serve purposes other than the basic human need for secure shelter? Whether it’s to fill in a problem lane-way, keep the pockets of financial climbers well-lined, or serve as a symbol of status, the primary purpose of a house is to provide space for dwelling, a place to call home.
Jesus affirms the indignation of prophets of old when he berates those who hypocritically “devour widows’ houses” Our own country has a growing housing crisis because of the loss of focus on the primary purpose of housing. So now widows have a choice of sleeping in their cars or couch-surfing.
Which leads to this haiku:
How many times must
Human need yield to tycoons
Lining their purses?
Thinking Inside The Box!
The second attempt at today’s Worldle took me to La Tête Carrée Library, Nice, France. It has four stories of offices and three stories of library shelves.
The lion had no courage
The tinman had no heart
The scarecrow had no thinking head
But dreamed of being smart
If only the road of yellow bricks
Passed through the city of Nice
Our straw man might have completed his quest
Within this stunning piece.
Japan’s All Saints
Worldle Daily is a fun online exercise that throws up an image of somewhere on planet Earth and urges six tries to locate it using its embedded Google Earth tool. Clues in the photo generally help me to a solution within the first three attempts. Yesterday I found myself in Japan’s Nagoro Scarecrow Village, where the scarecrow-to-human ratio is 300:40.
Nagoro’s getting smaller; only 40 people left
Big City’s Call and Death have left them all bereft
Tsukimi Ayano has devised a populating plan;
Kakashi to the rescue – for each woman, child and man.
A scarecrow for each absentee dwells on the village scene
In garden, street, and bus-stop, silent presence reigns serene
Each painted face and stance recalls the person gone
And helps the town recall how together they are one.
The Christian world commemorates today for All the Saints
Those who have gone before and who inspire without constraints
It seems our village, though not so small, is larger than it seems
The Cloud of Witnesses surrounding us, breathing life to all our dreams.
The Magi come to Halloween
‘Twas the day before All Saints
When all through the ‘burbs
Monsters and goblins
Swarmed the streets and the kerbs
I was wandering the mall
And stopped in surprise
At the atrium vision
– An apparition so wise.
“It’s far too early”
Part of me cried out!
Another part welcomed
And bid me chill-out.
Do the visiting wise men go
With what bumps in the night?
Do Halloween and Christmas
Converse on what’s right?
The shops rub their hands
For both bring in cash –
The saints and the Magi
Seek ponderings less brash.
The gifts for the Child
Speak of great destiny for all
The saints we so cherish
Receive it in thrall.
The veil is so thin
That divides now and those gone
Thin also the wall
‘Tween mammon and yon.
Dennis Ryle – 31 October 2022
Why Do They Persist!
Prompted by the Parable of the Unjust Judge (Luke 18:1-8)
Why do they persist
When those in power resist?
Don’t they ever tire?
Won’t anything douse their fire?
Three years now they have kept up their cry
These seniors who wont let justice slip by
Homes and savings have gone down the drain
A preventable scandal that has caused swathes of pain.
Evictions and deaths arouse nought but acedia
In spite of Senate and courtroom and media
And still these old folk make loud their complaint
For the Sterling home scandal yields no constraint.
The minions of ASIC hide in their tower
The Havelock pollies sit on their power
The bureaucrats wring their hands in dismay
If only those pensioners would just go away!
The Lord tells a story of a widow distressed
Pursuing a judge for fairness with zest
The judge isn’t interested, but finally gives way
To stop her from nagging, and call it a day.
This is why we Facebook and Twitter
To do otherwise would leave us twice bitter
All we seek is an earnest conversation
And a just outcome with fair compensation.
So Mr Premier come out and meet us
You’ve seen all the data and how it did cheat us
The system needs fixing to avoid all deception
But right now we look for a righteous reception.
Apocalypse!
Nuclear sabres rattling
Politicians prattling
Whistleblowers tattling
Surely the Apocalypse is nigh!
Economy disarraying
Energy dismaying
Climate change displaying
Surely the Apocalypse is nigh!
Plague the world surrounding
Fear in all compounding
Rage and ire resounding
Surely the Apocalypse is nigh!
Fly by nighters cheating
Scammers repeating
Their benefactors treating
Surely the Apocalypse is nigh!
The four horsemen out ariding
But One is ever abiding
Alpha with us siding
Surely Omega is ever nigh!
All that Glitters …
“No more glitter on the shelves,”
So decree those Christmas elves,
“Micro-plastics bring sad disgrace
and festive cheer must make new space.”
Hear the protests loud and strong
Cancelling Christmas? – Oh how wrong!
“Fear not!” the Christmas angels sing,
“Bethl’em’s manger wore no bling!”
https://www.perthnow.com.au/news/major-retailers-scrapping-glittery-decorations-this-christmas-c-8407284
Ballad of the Street Lamp
Night light, night light, oh so bright!
‘Though my eyes are shut real tight.
‘Tis the clock on dimmest setting
Yet our sleep we are not getting.
The street lamp’s out – the lane’s in gloom
Diffused light once filled our room
Now dark and clock light contrast more
Hence our sleep becomes a chore.
They say its best to light a candle
Than to curse the darkness one cannot handle
The reverse applies when ’tis good to block
The source of light with a well-placed sock!
(c) Dennis Ryle 2022
Triangles
This morning we considered triangles.
Particularly those that occur when two people in disagreement appeal to a third person for support.
Specifically the one that occurred when hospitable but anxiety-ridden Martha appealed to Jesus to command Mary to leave her learning and come and help her. Jesus took Mary’s side – she had chosen the better thing and it would not be taken from her. See Luke 10:38-42. Classic triangle! Hearers have been taking sides ever since!
Those with Martha assert that she is left with all the hard work of many things. There is no help and little sympathy from the Lord on whom she had lavished such exuberant hospitality. Besides, practical down-to-earth service is necessary for the function of any enterprise.
Supporters of Mary endorse her breaking of the traditional domestic role of ceding the boon of learning and discipleship to the males of the human species. She receives the best of what Jesus has to offer and Martha can too.
Those with Jesus note how often he refused to play the arbitrator when difficult propositions were put to him. His habit was to answer a question with a question or a request for judgement with a parable. It is evident that he used this strategy, not to avoid engagement, but to draw listeners to fresh and Kingdom-inviting ways to see their situations. To chide Martha, a faithful supporter, in the way he did, seems atypical and puzzling.
Triangles can be unsettling. They can also be unifying.
Within the Christian tradition, the triangle describing the perfect union of Father, Son and Holy Spirit stands out. Ironically, it is a relationship into which all are invited.
Relationships are also a journey. The drama in the Bethany household of the two sisters can be recast as a necessary journey of the pathways to Gospel wholeness described in the Quadratos work of Alexander Shaia. Martha is on the second pathway marked by struggle through overwhelming anxiety about many things. It is typical for encounters with the divine on this pathway to be terse and confronting, but ultimately healing. Mary, sitting at the feet of Jesus, is on the third pathway of peace and joy, savouring union with her Teacher. Both sisters, however, are called to be on Luke’s road of costly ministry, the fourth pathway of mature service, the overriding theme for discipleship in Luke’s gospel.
Triangles are meant to be transcended!
