Transfish

I enjoy documentary programmes about wildlife and creation.  At the moment we have the new series with David Attenborough called Blue Planet 2.  We have seen 2 episodes so far and am looking forward the the third and last episode on Sunday.  In the first episode, there was amazing footage of an Asian Sheepshead Wrasse.  This particular filming was done off the coast of Northern Japan.  It first showed a male and female together.  The female is the smaller fish in the photo.  The male also has a large protrusion on the forehead.  The female was trying to get the male interested in her but when nothing happened in spite of all her efforts, she swam off and secluded herself in a hole in the coral reef.




Things started to happen with her - enzymes and hormones were released inside her body as she was changing both inside and in appearance.  The protrusion on her head became larger and when she eventually emerged from her isolation she had changed from a female fish into a male fish.  Creation has its own transgender creature!  

The account can be read on http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/blue-planet-2-transexual-fish-david-attenborough-a8026911.html
The female then went back and challenged the male and eventually took over his territory as a fully-grown alpha male.
Another strange occurrence in nature is the fact that it is the male seahorse that carries and gives birth to the young.  

For those who believe that God is the Creator of all things, then we must accept that the particular gender of creation does not seem to be important to him.  In fact in the Bible we read many, many times about eunuchs.  In Isaiah 56:4-5 God says that he accepts their worship and has a place for them within the temple.  When referring to eunuchs in Matthew 19:12, Jesus says that some are born that way and some are made that way.  'Born that way' would be what we now call Gays and 'made that way' surely refers to transgender people.  Paul teaches us that before God there is neither male nor female but we are all one before him.

So, I can't help wondering why some religious people get so obsessed with gender identity when according to creation, many parts of the Bible and the teachings of Jesus it would seem that to God it is not that important.  How we live and express our love to God is more important it would seem.  Maybe it's time to follow the teachings of Jesus and be a bit more inclusive instead of judgmental. 

Get A Life!

I saw this photo the other day.  Apparently it has now gone viral.  It is obviously a crowd of people waiting to see their favourite celebrities.  When you look more closely at the picture you see that everyone is ready with their camera, iphone or tablet to get the occasion for posterity so they can look at it later at length.  Everyone, that is, except a small, white-haired lady right at the front.  Maybe she doesn't own any such device.  But on the other hand she doesn't have to be concerned with getting the right angle or if someone sticks their head right in front of her just as she is taking the longed-for photo.  She is just happy to be there and is soaking up the atmosphere and I guess not missing a thing.  Her total concentration is on the event of the moment and she is enjoying whatever is happening right now without being distracted by searching for the optimum position and getting ready to click, making sure to click the right button at the exact moment.  She is engrossed in the moment and enjoying it to the full.

At the beginning of the week (for those who aren't on my friends list on Facebook so don't already know) I underwent an operation to remove a cataract from my right eye.  People I spoke to who have had it done all told me that it was nothing to worry about and that I wouldn't feel a thing.  It would all be over in no time at all.  Everyone tried to console me and I tried to take it all on board but if I'm honest I was still a little apprehensive.  

Learning about something, whether from books, professionals or friends and actually experiencing what they are describing can be two entirely different things.  It's the difference between saying, 'People told me about it' and 'Now I know what it's like'.  

Ask any young mother who has just given birth for the first time or a sports fan who watches a game on television while other fans go to the venue and watch it in person.  You can't really absorb the atmosphere and the feeling of being carried along by other fans who also want to cheer on their team.  The singing, the cheering, the banter.  They will tell you that there is no comparison between watching it on a screen and watching it for real.  The experience far outweighs seeing it second hand.

Also at the beginning of the week we had the rare occurrence of the supermoon and lunar eclipse that could be seen around the world.  Many people stayed up to watch it.  Others who had work or other commitments really needed their sleep so opted to watch pictures shown on the news the next morning.  Although I am retired and don't need to go to work, I still slept through the night and missed actually seeing the event as it unfolded.  The pictures I saw were indeed quite spectacular and it's an event that won't happen again until I'm well into my 90s, if I'm still with life that is. I'm sure though that for those who did see it, they would look at pictures and just know that you can't capture the same feelings of awe and wonder at the workings of the heavens.  You have to be in it to feel it.

 You can have a great deal of knowledge about a subject or event but that doesn't compare with the actual experience.  We can look at photos or pictures, read articles or books but the experience allows us to identify with the occasion and the people involved.  It involves emotions and conjures up feelings of wonder and pleasure.  We never know what the future will bring or how long we have in this life so it's a shame if we spend too much time just having second hand knowledge rather than living the occasion with all that that entails.  It's rather sad that so many people spend so much time learning about something that they never get to really enjoy experiencing it.  Embrace the moment to the full.  Immerse yourself in the experience.  Go for it, even though you may be a little apprehensive.  In the nicest possible way I want to say 'Get a life!'    

What a Life!

Ben Fogle in Laos

I am currently enjoying the miniseries on television with Ben Fogle - New Lives in the Wild (Mondays channel 5  at 9 pm - UK)  He visits people who have opted out of the rat race and spends a week with them discovering just why they do what they do and have decided to live where they live.  The first one in the current series was about a 31 year old former financier from London who one day decided that there was more to life than work and the financial world he lived in.  He was searching for a place where he could be happy.  He bought a one-way ticket and set out for Asia.  He eventually settled in a hand made bamboo hut on a hidden jungle island on the Mekong river, Laos.  He lives like all the other people there and is accepted as one of them. 


Another 61 year old woman from Europe has lived alone for the past 8 years (since her husband died) in a part of the remote outback in Australia caring for the wildlife surrounding her home and a herd of wild horses who come to her when she calls them.  She also was looking for something more than what money can buy.

I saw somewhere this week the words - Making a Living or Making a Life.  Sometimes they are the same thing but more often than not there is a big gap between the two phrases.  Of course we need to work in order to have the things that we need.  Most people work at ordinary jobs so they can enjoy a form of reasonable life.  There our times when our lives seem to be governed by money - paying for this or that essential. (or what we in 21st century Britain accept as essential for life).  Do I buy because I need something or because it's the latest in thing, a 'must have' in order to have some sort of acceptance in society (if that is important to us)?


The thing is that in time most people come to realise that all the stuff that money buys us may make us comfortable but often there is still a space deep down, yearning for real happiness.  The things money can buy are of this world and this life and  have to stay here when we leave this life.  We cannot take them with us.  We have to leave them behind.  So why do we do it?  Why do we work ourselves to the bone so we can have more money to buy more stuff?  If that is your dream and it really makes you happy, fair enough.  But as the Beatles used to sing, 'Can't buy me love'.  You can buy diamond rings or flashy cars or dine out to impress but they don't guarantee love.  You can't buy peace.  You can't buy a happy homelife.  You can't buy acceptance or understanding.  I'm sure you could add more to the list.  So what do we do?  We need to make a living  to a certain extent but do we need to do it at the expense of making a life with things that money can't buy?  




I am reminded of something Banksy shared on Twitter (picture right)


I think that's a good note to end on and leave us thinking about our lives and what are the important things for us.    

Living It

I have to admit that when I was at school (many, many moons ago!) I was more of a Maths person.  I loved Algebra.  To me it seemed more like a game, solving a puzzle.  What I never really liked was the science subjects. (Sorry to all you scientists out there.)  We had to take at least one science subject so I decided on Biology.  I always found reading the scientific books very hard going, especially when they used Latin terminology.  But I did enjoy the practical lessons.  After carrying out some experiment, the dull, boring books somehow came to life.  On doing the experiments and discovering the results, the written word began to make some sense.  Even now I love watching nature documentaries and seeing things that you can only imagine when you read about them.

The written word, although necessary and good for reference is only part of the whole picture.  So many people refer to sacred texts as though they are the be all and end all of religious thought.  We call the Bible the Word of God.  Many take that to mean that there was no word from God before the Bible or has been since.  For them the written word in the Bible is the sum total of what God is and what his truth means almost to the point of worshipping the written word.  But God's first words were of creation - and God said ... ....  Throughout the Bible we have stories of God's word.  He gave the commandments, written words, rules of dos and don'ts as a guide.  He spoke through prophets in order to bring his words alive.  Often the prophets would actually live out their prophecies so people could see what they meant.  And then of course, Jesus came to show us what God is like - the (written) word made flesh.  We can read something and not really grasp the full meaning until we actually see it lived out.

I like to think of nature as the first Bible - the spoken word of God as opposed to the written word.  Our faith should not be just about the written word, theology, the things that we believe.  It's not about reciting creeds, dogmas and belief systems.  The written word should always point to the living word.  We are each a living example of our faith.  The Celtic British monk Pelagius (c 354 - 418) once said, 

'It is not what you believe that matters, it is how you respond with your heart and your actions.  It is not believing in Christ that matters, it is becoming like him.'  

Red Admiral butterfly

We learn from nature, the living word of God how all of creation is interdependent.  One species does not exist to the exclusion of all others.  Even within a species there is diversity.  A white cabbage butterfly is not 'wrong' because it is not coloured like a red admiral butterfly.  We smile at that ridiculous thought.  Yet we look at others who look, think and act a bit differently from us and presume that they must be wrong.  No!  They're just different.  Jesus (the written word made into the living word) shows that God's love is all-embracing.  As Richard Rohr in one of his meditations this week says,

Unfortunately we moved all-knowing of God largely into the realm of argumentative words, which extremely narrowed the field of knowing and actually experiencing.

I wish we could take on board God's living word and learn from it more and not be so dogmatic about our personal and particular interpretation of the written word so that our experience of him becomes deeper and more meaningful - his living word becoming flesh in and through us.