Walking back home across the Parramatta River today I was struck forcibly by the presence of Spring. As we approach the equinox I'm turning Songbird's Friday Five on its head and celebrating the southern season:
As this vivid season begins, tell us five favorite things about spring:
1) A fragrance - jasmine
2) A color - bright green
3) An item of clothing - white linen jacket
4) An activity - walking with joy (not specific to the season but definitely part of it)
5) A special day - today. September 19th. Anniversary of women's suffrage in NZ. And newly discovered as International Talk Like a Pirate day. And this very day has been a delight in many ways.
Showing posts with label Trivial facts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Trivial facts. Show all posts
Friday, September 19, 2008
Friday, July 25, 2008
Can't do without ...
Singing Owl has posted a quick Friday Five as she sets off for a chaplains convention. She says:
We will be at a chaplain's convention when you all are answering the Friday Five Questions. I'll look forward to reading your answers next week when I get home. At the moment we are trying to get the car loaded so we can hit the road, so this will be a simple F.F. This running around madly in order to leave has me wondering: what are the five things you simply must have when you are away from home? And why? Any history or goofy things, or stories?
I'm ready for bed and will be packing for a trip to Canberra tomorrow morning so this will be a quick and practical list. I hope the why is self-evident:
- Toothbrush and toothpaste
- Plenty of clean undies
- Walking shoes and socks
- Map book
- Mobile phone
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Cultural complexities
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples make up a high proportion of the Northern Territory population and are very visible in the community. On my morning walk along the esplanade on Sunday I met the artist above, who invited me to see her work at the Mindil Beach Sunset market that evening. Later in the week we met artists selling their work directly to the public at Wangi Falls. They spoke with significant feeling about the way they are treated by galleries, who pay the artist $100 for a work then marketed to tourists for several thousand dollars. Many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists are allegedly signed up to a gallery and are unable to sell their work independently. At the Sunset market the music was playing and some members of the audience dancing in a display of culture of a different kind.
Our outing on Tuesday of last week started with a drive almost to the edge of Litchfield National Park, and a visit to the tin mine. Fully operational for only a few years, and wreaking serious health damage to those who spent their days breathing in silicon in while mining the underground seams of tin, this mine also seemed to operate as a multi-cultural workplace with both colonists and traditional owners of the land working in collegial, and in several cases conjugal, partnerships. The mine site was well laid out, with a short walking track and well-written interpretive signs giving a good impression of the lifestyle of those early miners and their families.
Our luxurious historic retreat in Batchelor was just along the road from the Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education . The hospitable library staff allowed me to use their internet connection to liaise with colleagues back in Sydney regarding public health education matters. Graduates from the Institute are working in many places in Australia, including many in their communities of origin. Exciting to see such a worthwhile enterprise doing well. In a further twist of history and culture, the guest house was the home of the manager for the uranium mine in the 1950s. The material mainly sold to the US of course.
On Wednesday we visited Adelaide River and learnt more about the relentless bombing experienced in the whole top end of Australia during World War 2. The War Commission Cemetery was sobering, as such sites always are. We walked to dinner that evening at the Butterfly Farm - literally capturing something of the beautiful fauna of the region and run by an Englishman.
WE concluded our trip to the top end with further exploration in Darwin on the Thursday. We concluded our trip with a visit to the excellent Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory where we saw not only the current exhibition, but the outstanding collections of Aboriginal Art with excellent explanatory captions. Such art was originally very sacred and could only be viewed by specific people or groups of people. Much thought and effort has gone into adapting styles of work to make them available to a wider audience. For this I am glad, as the art is awe-inspiring.
All in all an eclectic interwoven set of experiences of history and culture within a relatively limited geographical area. And now I see there is a job advertised in Katherine - further south and allegedly with the lowest petrol prices in the Territory (according to my bus driver cousin who should know!) I am tempted by the climate and the opportunity to make a real difference in addressing the health disparities of the traditional owners and occupiers of this country. But a 5 hour plane commute from Sydney is not really very friendly to the planet. I do have some other opportunities closer to home that I will explore first.
And to conclude: a random trivial fact. Left-handed people are over-represented among USA Presidents, and both the current contenders are left handed. Trivial? YES. Useful? NO. Interesting? MAYBE
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Celebrating parents
Well this post is light-hearted (at least to start with) and clearly in the trivial facts category. I was intrigued to note in Sally's glimpse of paradise that Fathers' Day was celebrated in the UK last weekend. And then in Ravelry this evening I read lusciousluka who said:
Fathers are acknowledged and celebrated around the world throughout the year. The majority of countries celebrate on the third Sunday of June (or June 15th this year), with our friends down under throwing parties on the first Sunday in September. For a complete list of Father’s Day dates around the world, check out this list on Wikipedia.
SO a quick trip to Wikipedia seemed in order and I was amazed to find out that around the world there are 21 different Fathers' Days, with the first Sunday in September being an entirely Australasian custom. AND there are 32 different Mothers' Days often with explicit links to Holy Days and seasonal festivals. In many Arab countries the vernal equinox marks Mothers' Day, which is also the Persian New Year. Australia and New Zealand are in the most popular group; 64 countries celebrate Mothers on the second Sunday in May. France can never experience the juxtaposition that we did this year, as Mothers' Day shifts (from last Sunday in May to first Sunday in June) if it would coincide with Pentecost.
What a bunch of trivial facts. You will have noticed that I am a pedant with the punctuation as well - against Wikipedia's advice that: Although normal English punctuation guidelines indicate that the holiday should be spelled "Fathers' Day" / Mothers' Day (as it is a plural possessive), common usage dictates that the ostensibly singular possessive "Father's Day" is the preferred spelling.
But - here is the reflective bit - I was surprised at my surprise about UK Fathers' Day. Despite the fact that 14 years ago we were in California for four weeks in June, and my beloved had a year with two Fathers' Days. On that trip the kiddies were really kiddies (1,4,6) and I remember that after a few days of the brilliant Californian summer one of them asked if it would be Christmas soon. There is obviously something quite deep-seated which links our celebrations to the physical season. I realise Fathers' Day is like this for me - September 'feels like' Fathers' Day. Even though I have never been that attached to the custom, its observation is rooted deep in my experience.
In his notebook on Monday HM commented :
Yesterday was "Father's Day" in the US. Later this month will be the tenth anniversary of my Father's death. ...
I am not completely certain as to why, but in this last week going into two, my father has reappeared quite strongly in my daily consciousness...
And then I woke up yesterday morning, and I realized that it was father's day. I had not been paying attention, and really did not think--consciously anyway--of the day until its arrival. But the fact of the resurgence of my father in my recent consciousness being concurrent with the arrival of father's day was not lost on me....
I wonder if these occasions somehow affect us more when our parents are no longer with us. At that deeper level. For me this year Mothers' Day was less than two months after my mother's death. I spent a good day, with a walk along the Parramatta river to hold together the many different and juxtaposing facets that emerged. HM has caused me to think about how it might be in 10 years time. It will be interesting to map the journey over time. Prospectively for Mum and retrospectively for my Dad.
AND for me that Wikipedia list gives plenty of opportunity to manipulate my location so that I get to celebrate multiple Mother's Days in a single year.
Maybe :-)
Fathers are acknowledged and celebrated around the world throughout the year. The majority of countries celebrate on the third Sunday of June (or June 15th this year), with our friends down under throwing parties on the first Sunday in September. For a complete list of Father’s Day dates around the world, check out this list on Wikipedia.
SO a quick trip to Wikipedia seemed in order and I was amazed to find out that around the world there are 21 different Fathers' Days, with the first Sunday in September being an entirely Australasian custom. AND there are 32 different Mothers' Days often with explicit links to Holy Days and seasonal festivals. In many Arab countries the vernal equinox marks Mothers' Day, which is also the Persian New Year. Australia and New Zealand are in the most popular group; 64 countries celebrate Mothers on the second Sunday in May. France can never experience the juxtaposition that we did this year, as Mothers' Day shifts (from last Sunday in May to first Sunday in June) if it would coincide with Pentecost.
What a bunch of trivial facts. You will have noticed that I am a pedant with the punctuation as well - against Wikipedia's advice that: Although normal English punctuation guidelines indicate that the holiday should be spelled "Fathers' Day" / Mothers' Day (as it is a plural possessive), common usage dictates that the ostensibly singular possessive "Father's Day" is the preferred spelling.
But - here is the reflective bit - I was surprised at my surprise about UK Fathers' Day. Despite the fact that 14 years ago we were in California for four weeks in June, and my beloved had a year with two Fathers' Days. On that trip the kiddies were really kiddies (1,4,6) and I remember that after a few days of the brilliant Californian summer one of them asked if it would be Christmas soon. There is obviously something quite deep-seated which links our celebrations to the physical season. I realise Fathers' Day is like this for me - September 'feels like' Fathers' Day. Even though I have never been that attached to the custom, its observation is rooted deep in my experience.
In his notebook on Monday HM commented :
Yesterday was "Father's Day" in the US. Later this month will be the tenth anniversary of my Father's death. ...
I am not completely certain as to why, but in this last week going into two, my father has reappeared quite strongly in my daily consciousness...
And then I woke up yesterday morning, and I realized that it was father's day. I had not been paying attention, and really did not think--consciously anyway--of the day until its arrival. But the fact of the resurgence of my father in my recent consciousness being concurrent with the arrival of father's day was not lost on me....
I wonder if these occasions somehow affect us more when our parents are no longer with us. At that deeper level. For me this year Mothers' Day was less than two months after my mother's death. I spent a good day, with a walk along the Parramatta river to hold together the many different and juxtaposing facets that emerged. HM has caused me to think about how it might be in 10 years time. It will be interesting to map the journey over time. Prospectively for Mum and retrospectively for my Dad.
AND for me that Wikipedia list gives plenty of opportunity to manipulate my location so that I get to celebrate multiple Mother's Days in a single year.
Maybe :-)
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Interesting juxtapositions
Mothers' Day and Pentecost coincide this year. According to my friend Jenny this last happened in 1913 and will not happen again until the year 2228. It also happened in 1818 and will happen again in 2285 (when Easter was/will be even a day earlier than this year). So what a momentous occasion!!?? (one thing you will find about me is that I do love these kind of trivial facts and they will appear on my blog from time to time).
This super-early Easter season has brought other 'co-incidences' that are particularly relevant down-under. Ash Wednesday fell on Waitangi Day - the day when the people of Aotearoa New Zealand remember Te Tiriti or the Treaty signed between Maori and Queen Victoria in 1840. And less than a week later the Prime Minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd, made a formal apology to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples of this country for actions of the government that tore families apart and deeply wounded communities. The sorry speech was watched by millions nationwide, many workplaces made provision for employees to watch the broadcast, and this Kiwi living in Australia found it extremely moving to see the generous acceptance of the initiative by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander elders and especially by those most affected by past government intervention.
It seemed so appropriate in the season of Lent, when Christians intentionally focus on Jesus' journey to Jerusalem, that the two nations I identify with marked significant milestones in nationhood and in relationship with indigenous people. Colonisation causes such ongoing pain - and as part of the Anglo tradition I sometimes find it hard to know how to be part of the change that is necessary. I can rejoice though in these miniscule steps to repentance - turning around and challenging the often entrenched presumption of privilege. And I am engaged in developing a professional education activity which may help myself and colleagues to hone our skills in critiquing policy from an indigenous perspective.
And circling back to the start - Mothers' Day and Pentecost. The blog from Sally (on her journey) on exclusivism and Mothering Sunday has helped me enter this 'once-in-a-lifetime' liturgical/social coincidence with eyes open to see things differently. And there have been glimpses of that wonderful Spirit of Godde at work in my world. First at Mothers' Day Mass at my daughter's school. The music was excellent and the students' prayers and reflections demonstrated an inclusive valuing of women in their lives, mothers, and aunties, teachers, grandmothers and sisters and friends. Then in our Uniting Church this morning the liturgist prayed for all who struggle with parenthood, for those for whom this day is painful, and for families missing a loved mother or grandmother.
For me this is the first year without a mother to telephone and it has been a day of juxtapositions. Delighting in the attention from my three wonderful children - all living at home at the moment - and in breakfast out with my husband early in the day. Yet missing my own Mum who died on March 17. Then phoning my sister who is enjoying her first Mothers' Day as a grandmother, and hearing what a special day my niece is having with her precious seven-week-old son. Walking along the Parramatta foreshore gave an opportunity to somehow hold all these experiences and feelings and thoughts together and to treasure them deep within my heart.
Indeed - a day and a season of juxtapositions.
This super-early Easter season has brought other 'co-incidences' that are particularly relevant down-under. Ash Wednesday fell on Waitangi Day - the day when the people of Aotearoa New Zealand remember Te Tiriti or the Treaty signed between Maori and Queen Victoria in 1840. And less than a week later the Prime Minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd, made a formal apology to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples of this country for actions of the government that tore families apart and deeply wounded communities. The sorry speech was watched by millions nationwide, many workplaces made provision for employees to watch the broadcast, and this Kiwi living in Australia found it extremely moving to see the generous acceptance of the initiative by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander elders and especially by those most affected by past government intervention.
It seemed so appropriate in the season of Lent, when Christians intentionally focus on Jesus' journey to Jerusalem, that the two nations I identify with marked significant milestones in nationhood and in relationship with indigenous people. Colonisation causes such ongoing pain - and as part of the Anglo tradition I sometimes find it hard to know how to be part of the change that is necessary. I can rejoice though in these miniscule steps to repentance - turning around and challenging the often entrenched presumption of privilege. And I am engaged in developing a professional education activity which may help myself and colleagues to hone our skills in critiquing policy from an indigenous perspective.
And circling back to the start - Mothers' Day and Pentecost. The blog from Sally (on her journey) on exclusivism and Mothering Sunday has helped me enter this 'once-in-a-lifetime' liturgical/social coincidence with eyes open to see things differently. And there have been glimpses of that wonderful Spirit of Godde at work in my world. First at Mothers' Day Mass at my daughter's school. The music was excellent and the students' prayers and reflections demonstrated an inclusive valuing of women in their lives, mothers, and aunties, teachers, grandmothers and sisters and friends. Then in our Uniting Church this morning the liturgist prayed for all who struggle with parenthood, for those for whom this day is painful, and for families missing a loved mother or grandmother.
For me this is the first year without a mother to telephone and it has been a day of juxtapositions. Delighting in the attention from my three wonderful children - all living at home at the moment - and in breakfast out with my husband early in the day. Yet missing my own Mum who died on March 17. Then phoning my sister who is enjoying her first Mothers' Day as a grandmother, and hearing what a special day my niece is having with her precious seven-week-old son. Walking along the Parramatta foreshore gave an opportunity to somehow hold all these experiences and feelings and thoughts together and to treasure them deep within my heart.
Indeed - a day and a season of juxtapositions.
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