It's a Boy!

Today was the birth our second child and first boy, Elijah. He's absolutely gorgeous. This is him about three hours old. Mum and baby are doing well and very tired.

The Sheep and the Goats and the Lamas

Imagine if while Jesus told the parable of the Good Samaritan he threw in a fourth character who arrives just before the Good Samaritan. We’ll call him the concerned Samaritan. This character sees the injured man, offers him a cup of coffee and a chat and tells him that the registered services who are qualified to help him with his particular issues are currently full and gives him a phone number of somewhere to call the next working day. What would Jesus say about this character?

Or, imagine if while Jesus was telling the parable of the sheep and the goats he added some lamas. This third group of people saw the homeless and instead of giving them a home gave them a cup of coffee, someone to talk to and the phone number of a service for homeless people with a six month waiting list. What would Jesus say about the Lamas?

Last weekend while at work driving a homeless to a slightly safer squat it struck me that I am the Concerned Samaritan and the Lama. My job limits me from going the extra mile as such because I’d be breaking all sorts of safety protocols. I'm finding this difficult to say the least.

As Good as it Gets: Reflections from a Mining Town

We are living in an economic boom where I live. Things we chose not to address now as a society will only be due to our lack of collective political will. No where is this more apparent than when I recently visited one of our states mining towns. I could almost feel the money leaving the town. There were seventeen year olds with 40,000 dollar cars and people flying in and out of the town earning six figure salaries. There is also a large Aboriginal population, one older man I saw was walking bare foot with a wooden leg that I couldn’t imagine any white person considering acceptable (It looked like something that might be given to a Pirates of the Caribbean extra). Every time I see older members of our Aboriginal population in this sort of condition I can't help but imagine the pain of being a generation raised without parents. I can still remember the pride of one Aboriginal woman I met who said she knew who her grandparents were. Something I took for granted but something that was the exception to the rule for her. I am amazed that as much Aboriginal culture has been passed on as has. I also visited this town the day Kevin Rudd apologised to the stolen generation. It felt strange to feel elated about this step one visit and saddened by the harsh reality of what so many have to live with.

A Bag of Chips

Last night a homeless man bought a bag of chips to share with me and a bunch of other homeless people most of whom he didn’t know. It reminded me both of the widow who gave two small coins to the temple treasury (Mark 12:42, Luke 21:12) and a quote from Shane Claiborne's book Irresistible Revolution "true generosity is measured not by how much we give away but by how much we have left." It certainly put anytime I've felt like I was generous into perspective.

Make White Bands History

I stopped wearing my Make Poverty History wrist band some time ago. It's not that I don't believe in the cause it's just I'm not sure how helpful it is to wear a fashion accessory is. In a recent Counterpoint interview Sarah Moore (Ribbon Culture: Charity,Compassion and Public Awareness) talked about someone who had a gold Make Poverty History wrist band and did not see the irony in it at all. She suggests that it's more about identifying yourself with for a cause rather than raising awareness. Instead I've taken one of my old bands turned it inside out and written Make Affluence History on it with permanent marker instead. It was an idea I got from the Make Affluence History site. I think there is a connection between one persons poverty and another persons affluence and for me this band makes that explicit. Most people smile politely and agree with the "Make Poverty History" sentiment. I'm keen to see what kind of reaction I get to this wrist band.

Something I think is similar is the new Radiohead film clip done in conjunction with MTV's exit campaign. A great clip and again a great cause but I'd rather hear that all MTV Merchandise or Radiohead Merchandise will be sweat shop free. If they are it doesn't mention it on their respective websites.

Not Individuals or Communities but Nodes

Ever since my Tom Sine Post I've been wrestling with the idea of community. Often is Xns and people are talked about as either part of a community or as an indivdual. I think there is a third option, the node. Most people are not part of discrete community only and neither are they alone in the world. People are like nodes or web pages. I might be linked to you but not everyone I'm linked to is also linked to you. It's fine to reject individualism for community, as many have often done, but what about nodes? Do we embrace, subvert or reject this structure? That for me is the big question.

Todd Hunter ex Alpha National Director and thief ;)

I haven't been so devastated since I was fourteen and designing a land based windsurfer, only to see a soft drink ad staring a land based windsurfer almost exactly identical to the one I was designing. The other day I was listening to a podcast by Todd Hunter ex US Alpha National director talking about his "three is enough" groups. These groups are based on the idea of "prayer, grow and serve" which is pretty much identical to my idea of "connect, grow and serve". I couldn't believe someone else had come up with exactly the same idea as me. After 10 minutes of devistation I got to thinking that since I think the whole "connect, grow and serve" thing is a good idea and that hardly anyone would listen to me but heaps of people will listen to him it's probably not such a bad thing. None the less he'll be hearing from my lawyers soon. ;)

All I want for Christmas is R2D2

Need I say more... It's only US $2900 mum and dad.