Sermons and Confessions

I wonder the extent of mental illness in our community.  How many of the people that we come across day to day are actually suffering, diagnosed or otherwise? Of those people who annoy, shock, frighten or surprise us how many are just arse holes and how many have at least a partial excuse of being sick? Where’s the line between behaviour that can’t be helped and a tendancy to behaviour that is not controlled because the person either doesn’t care or won’t take their medication?

Mental illness must surely be one of the most frightening illnesses for both the sufferer and for those around them.  If you watch a friend suffering from cancer you, no doubt, grieve as you see the physical changes and the pain that your friend endures, but basically it’s still your friend.  If your friend has a mental illness it may be that a person who looks like your friend is now behaving in an embarrassing, dangerous or aggressive way.

 Thankfully my own experience is fairly limited.  Some years ago my younger brother, who also had an intellectual disability, had a phyciatric episode.  It was particularly stressful for my parents and to this day Dad in particular is very critical of the staff of the local mental hospital who had to restrain their “little boy who wouldn’t hurt anyone” because at that moment he was a 100kg man who was acting completly unpredictably and would have been quite frightening.

A collegue at work is having serious difficulty with a tenant who is behaving agressively and unreasonably.  She’s recently found out that he has bi-polar disorder.  Does this explain or excuse his behaviour?  I don’t know but it certainly wouldn’t be making the problem any easier to deal with.

What’s the answer?  I don’t have one.  I suspect like a lot of things it’s partially about money.  Are we as a community prepared to support people with mental illnesses who can not hold down work?  Are we prepared to pay higher taxes to fund more support, research and care for these people?  I suspect we’re probably not but at what cost?

Today the four of us had lunch at Mum and Dad’s house with them and with my two brothers, one sister in law and one nephew. It’s not a great revelation, I suppose, but these sort of things are important and special. Mum and Dad still live in the house that I grew up in. It’s too big for them now and they are looking at moving in the next short while. I must admit that I will miss that house and the gatherings on the back verandah such as today.

Magic too to see the young nephew running around and doing all the things that yougens do.

She-Ra’s parents and family are great and I love going over there. I’ll always be greatful for the way they welcomed me into their family with open arms when we were courting and first married. However, there’s something about going to your own parents place, I don’t feel as comfortable anywhere else. So much so that I have to be careful about not ignoring She-Ra and the kids who, of course, get bored and want to come home eventually.

Sorry that I haven’t posted anything in the last couple of days. I know there are at least a couple of people who actually read this blog and I wouldn’t want to lose you. It’s not been a great week really. Actually it’s been a real bummer but perhaps a chance to practice counting one’s blessings.

1. The clutch on the car died and it will cost over $3000 to repair. Even this brings little bits of good stuff. My two sons enjoyed seeing the tow truck come. We’ve hired a car for the weekend and that’s exciting. At least we have a car and it has been pretty good to us over the years.

2. The computer died. Not sure what the extend of the damage is at this stage, hopefully just a power problem and not a total hard drive failure. At least I have a computer I can use while we get the other one fixed.

3. I turned 39. Could be worse, there are people who never made it this far. 39 may not be as good as 29, but it’s a heck of a lot better than 19. Thank God I’ve learnt a few things since then. I also have a lovely wife and two great boys to help me celebrate. They made me really great birthday cards and got me a ticket to the movies. What more could a man want.

An area of trees has been cleared near my in laws place.  That isn’t the magic moment, that bit is a bit sad actually, but they have made three huge piles of mulch from all the vegetation.  When we drove past on the recent foggy and rainy Brisbane winter mornings we saw great clouds of steam eminating from the tops of these piles.  Three mini volcanoes in a Brisbane suburb.  Magic.

I’m thinking of creating a whole new category of horrible TV shows my wife watches.  There are many advantages to being married.  One of them is that I am exposed to a whole array of television, of which I might otherwise have been oblivious.

Top of the list at the moment is “Ladette to Lady”.  This English abuse of the airwaves features a cast of unfortunate girls who for various reasons behave poorly in their personal lives.  They seem to have been neglected as children and are rebelling in their early adult years with over drinking, indiscriminate sex and generally anti social behaviour.

The show takes advantage of these unfortunate girls by putting them in an old fashioned “finishing school” where a team of embittered old hags pretend to teach them how to be ladies.  It’s hinted that this training will enable the girls to find a nice man to keep them.  Each week one girl is expelled from the school for some “terrible infringement” of the rules.

This show is an abomination.  The producers seem to have sought out vulnerable young girls who they know will do outrageous things like show their boobs, or get drunk.  Then they deliberately put bitchy old crones in the school to make the girls life hell.  All for the sake of making TV.

I confess I keep getting drawn into this show.  Like a car crash I sometime can’t help but watch.  Then I get so angry about it that I have to leave the room.   

I think it’s a bad idea for children (or even some young adults really) to be allowed to have photographs taken of them in the nude.  A photograph is a very permanent thing.  I don’t think I would want a photo of me naked to be available for anyone to see, even of me naked as I was at 13 or 14.  Children need to be protected.  It isn’t fair to expect them to be able to make decisions that will effect them for the rest of their lives until they have the wisdom of life experience to equip them to make the decision.  I would even go so far as to say such photos should be illegal, even with parental consent.  Sometimes children should be protected from their parent’s stupidity.

So why don’t I support Hetty Johnson?  Hetty is the lady who made the complaints to the police about the photographs taken by Bill Henson.  She expressed her extreme disapointment that the police and prosecution authorities had decided no charges should be laid.  She says this decision will mark Australia as a haven for pedophiles.  She says the photograph is evidence of commercial sexual exploitation of a child.

I don’t support Hetty because she is a scary extremist.  The photograph that I have seen shows a 13 year old girl.  She has what appears to be the start of breasts, (these have been blacked out in the photo that I saw), the lighting and position of her hands prevent any view of her genitals.  It was an artistic photograph and beautifully composed and to my eyes it was not sexually explicit.  I’m not sexually attracted to children and the photograph didn’t make me start to think of 13 year old girls in a sexual way. 

I’ve seen photographs of Daniel Radcliffe, posed naked with a horse.  It was a beautiful photo, Radcliffe is a very good looking young man.  I’m not attracted to men, it didn’t make me gay.  Pictures can’t do that.

It is never helpful in any debate for extreme views to overwhelm the discussion.  Almost every person in our community wants to protect children from all forms of abuse, but’s let’s be quite clear there is a big difference between nudity and pornography.  If we scare our children into thinking that nudity is shameful and dirty what will happen when they get older?

Our beloved Prime Minister wants public servants to work harder.  Lots of people in the community believe that the public service are lazy, you’ve possibly heard the old joke?
Two public servants were waiting for a lift when they spotted a snail. One of the P.Ss violently stamped on the snail and crushed it.“Why did you do that?” asked the second P.S. “That thing has been following me around all day!” said the first.

I voted for Kevin Rudd. I live in his electorate so I’m someone who can actually say that I personally voted for him. He always seemed an intelligent man, standing for the time honored labor traditions of a fair go for workers.  He’s also a Christian, I believe.
There are a number of things about Mr. Rudd’s statement that make me sad and surprised that he made it.

It’s dumb to insult people that you should be trying to inspire and lead to greater productivity.
It’s hypocritical to campaign on a platform of standing up for working families and then expect the workers in the families to be at work for long hours.

It’s a cheap political shot, that panders to the uninformed in the community who think the public sector really is inefficient and lazy. Rudd knows that that stereotype is wrong he was a public servant.
I have voted labor all my life and been a member of a trade union for my entire working life. I heard horror stories about Rudd’s treatment of the Queensland Public Service before the election and was a little concerned.
This statement was a bad mistake. Let’s hope that it was a mistake in communication and not a true reflection of Rudd’s personality and plans.

You know how some famous people that you admire, you think gee they seem nice.  I’d love to have you around for dinner.  John Safran is not one of those people.  I’ve been a fan since his days in “Race around the World”.  I’m a fan in that I admire his work and his intellect and find him entertaining.  I can’t work him out.  Is he really an arsehole or just a scared little boy. 

This dicotomy is much of the appeal of Sunday Night Safran, a weekly two hour radio show on Triple J that John Safran hosts along with catholic priest and social activist, Father Bob Maguire.  No one could accuse Safran of doing things the same as everyone else.  It is a stroke of genius to have a 73 year old priest as co-host.  There is a unique rapport between the two, despite the cleric having 40 years on Safran.

The program explores really interesting issues in religion and touches on politics.  I love all these segments but mostly I love the “chat” between the two hosts.  Safran will often try to bait or tease Bob.  If Bob wasn’t so mature, wise and life experienced this could easily backfire, but somehow it never seems to.   I can’t really work out if they love each other or hate each other.

I do know that I love this show.

Sunday Night Safran
Sunday 9pm - 11pm Triple J

I have tried this last week to really do a good job at work.  I put in the effort and got some answers to a couple of things that have been on the too hard basket.  I also did some things that I personally find very hard.  I told someone that I couldn’t deliver something and I asked my boss for feedback on my performance.  All in all it went pretty well.

There is just one incident I would like to rant on.  I’m doing a job for one particular person.  It involves testing and preparing for the implementation of a change.  I have been held up by not being able to get some answers from other parties.  My boss has also asked for these answers.  None forthcoming as yet.   On Friday I was told by this person that she really doesn’t want to wait.

Well I’m sure she doesn’t.  What does she think, I’m doing this for fun?  This woman is, externally, a very attractive person.  All the bits in the right places, almost model attractive.  Her attitude and lack of intelligence make her repulsive as far as I’m concerned.

I shall do my best to get this job done, but a real part of me wants to tell this bitch to get #$%^!

This is the problem with this department.  No one says - “good job”, but plenty of people are ready to say “you haven’t done this.”