Who can wait quietly while the mud settles?
Tao Te Ching thought of the moment: Chapter 15 …. “Who can wait quietly while the mud settles? ” (I read this in an artist's blog. Thanks.)
The Australian census is to be filled out tomorrow evening, but I've started checking out the questions today even though I'll do it on-line Wednesday morning just in case I have visitors sleeping here overnight!
What boring questions, and so many are about employment and wages, oriented to the fixation of economics. Some on language in the home - English only or another language, and on religion there's no category for a 'seeker' who explores every which way but loose!
There should be questions such as
'Are you happy?'
'Who is your neighbour?' (Not literally though!)
'Are you satisfied about the current way Australia is going?'
and of course
'Who can wait quietly while the mud settles?'
Mungo National Park
What is the connection between these photos (from a RACV magazine – Australian Picture Library) and the Census?
Well, I think they put things into perspective. Where is beauty to be found? Where is Australian history to be found? Men and women lived in this area, north of Mildura, over 40,000 years ago. In 1968 a woman’s skeleton was found here that can be carbon dated as from about 40,000 years ago, and in 1974 a skeleton was found of a six-foot male, of similar age. They pre-date modern human behaviour in Europe by 10,000 years. Mungo man had been given a ritual burial and sprinkled with ochre and Mungo woman had been cremated. It is probable that tribes lived in this area who feasted on fish and rich vegetation. There are stories of a flightless bird four times the size of an emu and giant kangaroos.
This makes our little census and its puny questions seem rather ordinary!
On the other hand, a census assumes that each and every person in Australia is of consequence!
W.
The Australian census is to be filled out tomorrow evening, but I've started checking out the questions today even though I'll do it on-line Wednesday morning just in case I have visitors sleeping here overnight!
What boring questions, and so many are about employment and wages, oriented to the fixation of economics. Some on language in the home - English only or another language, and on religion there's no category for a 'seeker' who explores every which way but loose!
There should be questions such as
'Are you happy?'
'Who is your neighbour?' (Not literally though!)
'Are you satisfied about the current way Australia is going?'
and of course
'Who can wait quietly while the mud settles?'
Mungo National Park
What is the connection between these photos (from a RACV magazine – Australian Picture Library) and the Census?
Well, I think they put things into perspective. Where is beauty to be found? Where is Australian history to be found? Men and women lived in this area, north of Mildura, over 40,000 years ago. In 1968 a woman’s skeleton was found here that can be carbon dated as from about 40,000 years ago, and in 1974 a skeleton was found of a six-foot male, of similar age. They pre-date modern human behaviour in Europe by 10,000 years. Mungo man had been given a ritual burial and sprinkled with ochre and Mungo woman had been cremated. It is probable that tribes lived in this area who feasted on fish and rich vegetation. There are stories of a flightless bird four times the size of an emu and giant kangaroos.
This makes our little census and its puny questions seem rather ordinary!
On the other hand, a census assumes that each and every person in Australia is of consequence!
W.
posted by Peceli and Wendy's Blog at 4:46 PM
2 Comments:
Religion: Seeker
I LIKE it!!!!
How about "Dreamer"?
Aboriginal culture never ceases to amaze me, not only for its richness, but for both its age and the fact that it survived without all the bloodletting found pretty much everywhere else in the world.
And they took (and are once again threatening to take) Aboriginal children from their families in order to "educate" them?
Moody,
I guess you are back at home now. I hope the students enjoyed their visit to Brisbane. So, you have heard the stories of the 'stolen generation'. There's a film, 'The Rabbit Proof Fence' about girls taken from their mothers. I think the intention of the outback church people was to 'help', but of course it was not the way to go.
Even today, there is an element of confusion and even racism in regard to attitudes between older and newer Australians, but there are many good things happening as well.
W.
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