Just a small thing. I write about a lot of diffent things. I want to write about everything. But I do worry about switching off my readers. PS: I think I'm Buddhist, Christian, Taoist, Skeptical and basically a very bad example of a Sufi. I think I'm a kind of whirling Dervish within my mind. I have flights of fancy, and I let them carry me away. So this post is about Facebook censorship, free speech, my favorite movie, St Francis of Assisi, love, just what I think. Its for some people in Japan and Australia, and everywhere, really. Well, here goes...
Hey guys, this is Garantseraph11, back with a bit more of my life. I want to tell you a couple of funny stories about what's been going on. First, I might tell you a bit about hanami in Japan. I wrote that down somewhere.
I haven't had as many hanami parties as a lot of foreigners in Japan. For those of you who don't know, a hanami party is a picnic that Japanese people have in late March and early April. For this is the time the sakura bloom. For about two weeks a year, some Japanese trees bloom with pink, red or white flowers. These are called hanami. For me, and within traditional Japanese culture, the very brevity of the life of the cherry blossom (the English name given to sakura), represents life, death, birth, rebirth, prebirth, after life, after death. The life of the Sakura is a universal representation of all existence. I think. These are big themes, I know, but consider the cherry blossom tree. It sits still, for 50 weeks a yearflowers bloom for two weeks and then fall to the ground and pass away into something else. Such is life.
So, as I was saying, I haven't experienced many of the hanami parties. Hanami parties are full, filled with life, everyone comes out to bear witness to this remarkable flower, to pay their respects before it passes away. We gather around the base of the cherry blossom tree, and bend a down a little, touch the earth, maybe bow down and pick up a single flower and put it in our hair. (Just kidding with that last bit. We don't do that but we could. We do a smaller version of that already.) It's like being a flower child for a fortnight. It's one reason why, at essence, Japanese culture is peace loving and free. Of course there are some branches of the tree that need to be reformed or reshaped. Bur that's true of any culture.
St Francis is the new pope. A lot of people don't like Catholicism, but do you want to kiss a leper, because St Francis would. Do you know why he would? Because he was crazy, mad, adventurous and free. Moreover, he was filled with love. What could be worse than to be deprived of human contact, to be deprived of touch. If someone wants to know why Christianity is good in its purest forms, that's one reason. It understands the human need for touch, inclusiona nnd forgiveness. A friend recently posted on my wall. I had shown a photo of Father James Martin, and others who are involved in social welfare programs. The photo looked lit up a little blue. So I thought, great, I can advocate for my Catholic friends and Autism awareness with this post. I might share that photo and write "Do these Catholics look a little blue." My friend wrote back and posted on my wall, all I can see are child moletsters. This is a deeply offensive comment. I believe its a form of hate speech. Free speech is a really big issue right now. Recently a friend shared with me through "We are Humanity" the knowledge that a group had a post which was unpublished. Some people would say, "Well, that's not right. You should be able to publish anything." But, without seeing the post, how can we know. I think there will eventually be a few apologies passed around. But I want to use Facebook, so I respect Mark Zuckerberg's rights to use his website his way. These are big essays here. I can't right all of them myself. But as long as I am using his product, I can put a little pressure on. I don't want to though. I could threaten to leave Facebook, but what would be the point. Mr Zuckerberg probably wouldn't care. He would simply respect my rights as a user and say, "Fine, go and use someone else's product. I don't care." And he would be right to do so. That's just a little bit of what I think. But morevovr, I believe some forms of speech are dangerous. Some forms of speech are deadly. Some forms of speech shouldn't happen. The clearest one for me has two words............................................................are you thinking...............................................................................are you thinking....................................................................................................are you thinking.....................dot dot dot...
Mine is "Crucify him". I don't care what you believe. If you think there have been spoken, perhaps in your own tongue, such sentences, and disagree with them, just know that you don't believe in cmpletely free speech. You can make jokes about S11 and say everyone is a moron if they get offended, with a funny cartoon, but put it on your shirt and go and walk around New York. Thats what I wanted to say to my friend. If you would be brave enough to do so, you are free to say whatever you think... But you are free to say whtaever you think... Just know speech has consequences.
So I like Catholics, I like a lot of them, I like my Church with lots of people from many countries, I like the sense of hope, sharing and community that I feel there. I disagree completely with the cover up of abuse. I believe those people need to be tried under civil law. And I believe that they should be ex-communicated. Then they should receive counselling. I just believe in one law for everyone. Personally, I think some parts of any organisation are wrong. Some of the other things that are happening in the Catholic Church, and some things that remain on it's record, are wrong. I really don't like some bits of the pro life stuff, and stuff to do with AIDS in Africa. To be honest, it may stop me from joining. But I would love to be a monk, a Benedictine or Franciscan monk. There are lots of problems but it does not mean there hasn't been any good. (Metaphor for my writing? Please. Pretty please. Like me:)
My favorite film is about a white priest in Africa, in Rwanda, who stayed and sheltered the children and people of Rwanda, while the other white people left. That man said his heart so open, spread his arms so wide, and said, yes, you can stay here. I will wait with you for them to come, not knowing who was coming. Was it the guys with the machetes or was it the UN. No, the UN had left. All of the white people left except for a very few, most famously that Catholic priest. That's why I believe he is a saint. He became one because of his faith. He became one because Christianity is centred around the story of Christ. Whether ypou believe it or not, I don't care. Please show mr the science that will create that in the human heart. Then you can tell me what to and what not to believe. I believe in self-sacrifice. No t always. Not everywhere. There has historically been some pretty crazy martyrdoms, or it seems that way to me. His wasn't one of them I love that movie. It's called Shooting Dogs. Check it out. Hotel Rwanda is a fantastic moovie, its about a man who provided shelter. That man was a shelter, too. Two people I truky respect. One lived, one died. I don't know why. Why did the guy who had to be there live? Why did the guy who didn't have to be there die? I don't know, but I think it was a symbol of the faith. Peace, love, understanding, Grant.
PS: Remember Rule No8. To use this wouldn't be very Christian, would it? But feel free to leave comments. I will reply when I have time. Thanks for reading a bit of garant and I.
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