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.
_ _ _ _ _
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.
_ _ _ _ _
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.
_ _ _ _ _
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)
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