Thursday 14 January 2010
Distance: random thoughts
Thinking about Haiti. and people trafficking. two things I've been hearing about today. and no we can't turn a blind eye but it's still hard to believe that what we see on our TV screens is actually happening right now, this moment, not in some other time or age or dimension. Distance is a strange thing, sometimes it seems like it's its own being, deceptively twisting our emotions and dulling our feelings and allowing us to pretend. And while it seems to exploit us so we exploit it... use it for our own purposes, shrinking it or enlarging it depending on the desired result. To feel near to someone or as if we're on separate planets. Distance allows us to believe it's OK to keep on doing 'our thing', while they do 'theirs', condoning our shirked responsibilities. Or conversely, it permits us to stick our noses in business that was never ours. Distance... our salvation or condemnation?
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Distancing is often considered a survival tactic. If we empathised with all the suffering around us, we could not function, so we're told. We succeed by not feeling others' suffering. But then, is that success by God's standards? God's success is surely to weep with those who weep and to do whatever is necessary to comfort the broken hearted. Starting point: prayer. Beyond that, we listen for God's leading.
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