I've been watching the SE Asian Tragedy on the news this evening - and quite frankly, I am lost for words.
I guess tragedy can lead to misery and hopelessness, or alternatively, by the way that as people, as families and as countries respond. Tragedies can also become defining moments which lead to greatness - bringing out the very best in mankind.
And thank God for organisations such as World Vision, Unicef, Red Cross and Oxfam in times like these.
Its seems that even tough guys can have a sound philosophy on Parenting.
From Mens Health: Michael Madsen's done his share of hard living. But even more shocking: At 45, he's the author of two books of poetry and father of five boys, ages 6 to 16. That's a lot of testosterone under one roof (and, says Madsen, "a lot of pee on the toilet seats*"). As he creates another blood-soaked villain in Kill Bill Vol. II, we asked Madsen how he tutors his boys about the delicate balance between tender and tough.
"My mother gave me culture. She encouraged me to be a sculptor and to read. And from my dad I got, "Ya gotta be the toughest son of a gun on the street." So I had this bizarre duality. I encourage my boys to do stuff in the arts, but I'm also a big advocate of not taking any sh--. I have a heavy bag [at my house in ontana], and every morning the boys go three 3-minute rounds on the heavy bag with the gloves".
MADSEN'S MANTRAS
1. Kids are a great excuse for you to stop acting like one yourself.
2. Encourage your kids' artistic side. Toughen up everything else.
3. Your children don't have to fear you to respect you.
4. Is it really selling out if it feeds your family?
*Something my own mother used to complain about with 4 guys in the house.
"Christmas happens but once a year - But lives in my heart forever".
-Charles Dickens
(Quote left anonomously on my Office whiteboard at work on Christams Eve)
On arriving home from school my 6 year old son exclaimed:
“Mum, out of everyone in my class...our house is the only one where Santa drinks beer…he drinks milk when he comes to everyone else’s!”
Please don’t think that I am weird. But some strange stuff is happening.
My wife and I were invited to a long-time friends house for dinner tonight. One of my mates from work/uni and one of my groomsmen. In fact I was sharing a house with him when I first became a committed Christian in my 20’s – but that’s another story.
After a couple of glasses of wine at dinner, I could tell that he and his wife wanted to talk. They confided in us that they have for some time being having trouble in their house. Hearing audible voices, cold rooms and electrical equipment suddenly coming on at anytime during the night. Their children are having nightmares and refusing to enter certain rooms etc.
They have also enlisted some spiritual professionals. A group known as the “Golden Dawn”. A simple web search reveals that this is a mystical/occult based group that is involved in Magick and things. (Obviously, sometjing that concerns me).
It is all odd. Apart from my nominal prayer life, some reassurances to my friends that I believe in the spiritual dimension and some advice that “Jesus is bigger than all of this” I have got absolutely no idea of where to begin to help them.
Sometimes I feel I have become a bit like an intellectual Christian, where there remains a huge gap between the theory and the practice.
But at the very least, the conversation led to spiritual reality, "Eternity" and the Lords Prayer,
U2's new album - "How to dismantle an atomic bomb" has been getting high rotation in our car of late. With a plethora of great songs the standouts for me are "Yahweh" and "Sometimes you can't make it on your own".
But one compelling line from "Miracle Drug" never fails to deliver a 'knock-out' blow:
"Freedom has a scent;
Like the top of a new born baby's head"
-Miracle Drug, U2, 2004
Life Thoughts From Underneath A Jetty
