Buddhist Christmas Party

One friend described it as an Oxymoron - a Buddhist Chistmas party.  Maybe - but going for the 3rd time in a row - and I was just as touched again by it.  And it was a  real Christmas party - Open to anyone (and free - without even a donation box or offering in sight); presents from Santa to all; a nativity scene (as well as the odd Buddha); a wide range of free Asian food - nicely cooked and presented and plenty of it.  First course and sweets!  And entertainment - secular choirs singing Christmas carols - including Silent night ; traditional and modern dance; Bahai children singing; lucky door prizes - and finishing with a Prayer for World Peace.

The banners around the venue proclaimed things like: "We are all one family"; "Have true serenity"; "Have concern for all"; "Peace starts with ourselves" - none of which you can really disagree with.  Or at least I can't.  There was a recognition that as people - across races, nationalities, religions - we are closer than we are different.  And I found that rather nice.

Its not that I want to run off and become a Buddhist - and I know there will be strange and irrational beliefs and some inconsistencies in their teaching as with other religions - but I can't help but feel warmed by the sense of inclusive community and acceptance.  It saddens me that there are so many barriers preventing that same sense of family in the Christian faith of my background.  I think Jesus would have enjoyed the Buddhist Christmas party - or at least the Jesus who sometimes escapes the iron strictures that Churches build around him!

Help yourself to "The Help"

In between reading the "deeper philosphical books" I try to vary my reading - and often have 2 to 3 books on the go.  So before finishing my "morality" book, I read "The help".  It is a book about the black maids of middle class white women in the American south around the late 50s and early 60s.  It views these lives through two of the maids themselves and daughter of one of the employing women.  The book was written very well - got you in and kept you there - as it described the process of writing a book about..... the lives of the maids!  A book about the writing of the book.

So what was it about?   On the surface it was about class structure and racism - and entrenched attitudes.  The author seemed to be saying how thin the line actually was between the two groups - maids and mistresses - compared to the societally constructed "reality".

To some extent we see the same between say migrant moslem women and western 'Christian' middle class Eurpean decendants in Australia.  There is a political, religious and socially constructed  divide - accentuated by the hijab or burkha - but maybe only a very thin line of difference in reality.  How do we see past the way society conditions us to think of others?

"Born again" Christians construct a difference between themselves and others: saved/unsaved; found/lost; in the kingdom of God_light/Kingdom of satan_darkness; saved/unsaved; forgiven/unforgiven; going to heaven/going to hell etc.  It is very threatening to many to consider that only a very thin line (if at all) separates them/believers from unbelievers.  The constructed gulf becomes wide - emphasing what they have in Christ versus what they (and the unbelievers) would not have if they were not in Christ. [And this is similar in other religions]. It fractures the human family. Breaks the natural empathy and love that should/could flow bewteen people.

The boat people - again a political and socially constructed distinction.

So the book "the help" has a message that can help us - not to repeat the dehumanising class/ethnic/ faith distinctions that are built up and which many of us accept and embrace because it becomes a "norm" rather than something to be challenged.