A Traveller's Journal - Part Two

9 May 2018 – We went to the coastal town of Caloundra a couple of days ago to register again for Medicare cover, Australia’s answer to the British National Health Service. Medicare shares office space with Centrelink, the state organisation offering help with job finding, determining the value and entitlement of benefits, and paying benefits and pensions.

“Visitors”, referred to as ‘customers’ on the noticeboards, must queue at a check-in point to be identified and assigned to an assessor/consultant, all under the watchful eye of a shaven headed, jeans-clad and booted security man who is built roughly in line with the size of a barn door. At a guess, I would say he is probably employed by a private company rather than by the state of Queensland, but I could be wrong. It has been known.

The waiting area is under constant camera monitoring and as we sat, we could see ourselves on the voyeur-vision screen above our heads. The whole thing made me think in terms of an open prison.

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28 May 2018 – Forgive me for getting my sequence out of step. (Part three was published before this, Part Two) So much to think, see, read and write about; so little time. I had intended to pursue my thoughts about our human likeness to ants and then write about Natural Law; but not now; maybe later.

The other day I heard wild squawking from a bird in real pain or fear, coming from the other side of the back verandah. Investigation identified the lodger’s dog leaping on a chicken as if it was a toy. We separated them toot-sweet, of course, (dog by the scruff of the neck) and refrained from the real desire to place my shoe toe-cap up his bum at great speed for doing such a thing.

And then I stopped. The dog was just doing what (some) dogs do. While I thought about that, it brought to mind something I’d heard the late Jim Rohn say during his presentation about ’Qualities of Skilful Leadership’ and  ‘Mysteries of the Mind.’  It was so vivid that I thought it might be helpful to reproduce it here:

“An interesting story says that the day the Christian church was formed, a magnificent sermon was preached. It was a great presentation. In fact, it was one of the classic presentations of all time.

According to the story, this presentation was given to a multitude of people. When the sermon was finished, there were a variety of reactions from those onlookers. I (Jim Rohn) find that fascinating since they were all listening to the same sermon.

Some who heard this presentation were perplexed. I read the presentation, and it sounded pretty straightforward to me. Why would somebody be perplexed with a good, sincere, straightforward presentation? The best answer I’ve got is that they are chronically perplexed people. It doesn’t matter who’s preaching, these people are going to be perplexed.

Some who heard this presentation mocked and laughed. They made fun of the presentation. The presentation seemed pretty sincere to me. If you give a sincere, honest presentation, why would somebody mock and laugh? There’s an easy explanation: they are the mockers and the laughers. What else would you expect them to do?

Some that heard this magnificent presentation didn’t know what was going on. Those are the people who usually don’t know what’s going on.

Finally, some who heard the presentation chose to believe, and I think that’s who the speaker was looking for, the believers. Those believers numbered about three thousand. That is a pretty good first day! I’ve had some good first days, but I’ve never had a response like that.

With anything in life, some will believe, some will mock, some will laugh, some will be perplexed, and some won’t know what’s going on. And you just have to leave it at that. In this particular story, as far as we know, there weren’t classes after the presentation to try to de-perplex the perplexed. As far as we know, they left them perplexed. They left the mockers mocking. They left the laughers laughing. All they needed to build a church were the believers, and they knew that with each presentation, more believers would emerge from the masses.

That’s the perspective we all need to cultivate. We can’t win everyone’s dedication and belief at once. The Law of Averages tells us that. What we can do is work on ourselves, refine our philosophy, and trust that the believers will be there. We just need to find them.

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While we have been in Queensland these past few weeks we’ve met interesting people. We met Alan, Leonard, Kim and Karen; and then we met Ron. All are ardent supporters of Natural Law; the Rule of Law and (I believe) Common Law Trial by Jury; and the Supremacy of Magna Carta 1215 over all statute law.  All of them are ‘Australian’, which is different entirely from being a pink coloured Brit who happens to live in the sun a long, long, way from the white cliffs of Dover. Their ardour stretches back over decades, as does their sense of being ‘Australian’.  They were refreshing to be with.

Amongst other things, Ron is prolific with his essays (‘blogs’ in modern parlance) and I shall research some of his works after I’ve returned home. Alan is just as prolific and I’m leaving here with a sheaf of his work.

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 A reader with eyes to see and ears to hear will have picked up already on the connection between  Jim Rohn's observations and the chicken and dog story. Dogs do what they do and people do what they do, because of who and what they are. By extension then, politicians do what they do, and lawyers do what they do,  we all do what we do because of what we are, limited only by our own understanding.  

Centuries ago a wise man wrote: "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?"

If that's true, it seems to me to explain a great  many things. It's a bit chicken-and-egg stuff. Which comes first? Do liars become politicians because they are liars, or do politicians become liars because they are politicians? And does it matter it the heart is deceitful above all things?

When your sight is deficient you don't know what you cannot see; when your hearing is deficient you don't know what you cannot hear. And when you think you know everything - you just don't know what you don't know. Think about it.

There is another reason why we do what we do and that is because 'someone told me'. Yet every single one of us knows not to believe everything we hear or read. But how many of us think about it?  

Jim Rohn had a recommendation for that tendency, too. He recommended: "Be a student, not a follower." Surely, all of us know that the most powerful word in the vocabularly of a student is: WHY?  Followed by: "Who says so?" and "Who benefits most?"

More when you're older.

(Michael)

 

A Traveller's Journal - Part Three

21 May 2018 – Worry ye not. You haven’t missed Part Two. I’ve merely pondered on other subjects before I finished writing Part Two. So, here we go with Part Three.

Did you watch the pageant on voyeur-vision last Saturday? I did but if you chose not to view it, I put it to you that you allowed an historical event to pass you by and you missed it. Fancy! History in the making right before your very eyes, and you closed your eyes and missed it. How remarkably odd.

I looked in a dictionary for a definition of ‘pageant’. This is what I found:

noun

1. an elaborate public spectacle illustrative of the history of a place, institution, or the like, often given in dramatic form or as a procession of colourful floats.

2. a costumed procession, masque, allegorical tableau, or the like forming part of public or social festivities.

3. a show or exhibition, especially one consisting of a succession of participants or events: a beauty pageant.

4. something comparable to a procession in colourful variety, splendour, or grandeur: the pageant of Renaissance history.

5. a pretentious display or show that conceals a lack of real importance or meaning.

Hmmm. Makes ya think, don’t it?

I was quite taken by the preacher, The Most Reverend Bishop, Michael Curry. Some title, huh? According to the Daily Mail, Rev. Curry is the 27th presiding bishop and primate of the Episcopal Church. The Episcopal Church in America is part of the wider Anglican Communion. 

I liked what he had to say and I quite liked the way he said it. It was refreshingly different under the circumstances.  But as I listened and watched the faces of those within camera range and closest to the young couple, I couldn’t help but recall the words of a famous Tina Turner song: “What’s Love Got to Do With It?”   

The young couple must have chosen each other because by no stretch of the imagination could it have been an arranged marriage – which is often the way of marriage within royal families.

Clearly, it wasn’t a State occasion. If it had been, it is likely that politicians of the day, from near and far, would have been invited. With the notable exception of Sir John Major and his wife, politicians in attendance were as rare as gnat’s teeth. And Prince Charles would have been in military uniform - even at age 70.

Clearly, too, it was made into a ‘royal’ occasion by virtue of the fact that H.M. Queen plus the Household Cavalry were in procession and in attendance. But is Prince Harry now a Pioneer Sergeant? I think not.

No, this was theatre for the benefit of the masses and it was Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer doing what it does best – making a show.

But what else was going on? I looked at the glum features of H M Queen as her Episcopalian Bishop preached. At the Queen? The Head of the Church of England? How audacious. And the Archbishop of Canterbury, too?

 

What were they thinking? Your guess is as good as mine but I have the impression that they weren’t energised or motivated by what they heard. ‘Brassed off’ is a better description. We are not amused, as Queen Victoria allegedly said. And they were gathered in the presence of God, too.

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