Mountain Matters

Mount Ararat, Mount Sinai, and the Mount of Olives… all the names of mountains I grew up with from my Catholic catechism.

Last Sunday’s homily at the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Johor Bahru took as its theme the symbolism of the mountain as a place of withdrawal and prayer, as a prelude to resolution, enlightenment and action, as well as a source of mental, psychological and spiritual strength. The Gospel reading was the Transfiguration Story from the Book of Luke.

The mountain.  Sacred in many cultures. Also a place of death. How many bodies lie dead on the slopes of Mount Everest, or Holy Sagarmartha, as the Tibetans refer to it. Many devout Buddhist Tibetans consider trekking and climbing upon and over this mountain to be an affront to the gods, and possibly one reason for some and many deaths. The business of ascending Mount Everest these days has certainly become unsavoury at times, as big bucks are paid by rich individuals to ascend with ever-obliging Sherpa porters and guide teams. The pressure to ascend during small windows of good weather conditions adds to the stress that is placed on teams and individuals and the weight of loss if a climber is unable to summit with increasingly diminishing resources and supplies. 

But I digress.

I liked the theme of the homily that we all need to find time to reflect and pray on and in our own spiritual and symbolic mountains, our own places of quiet, closer to heaven, to the gods, to God, to our Meaning. How busy we have become with our working lives, our families, our technologies that were supposed to make life easier and even our leisure hours become filled with pursuits to keep us ever busy. We forget to pray and to think and to reflect – arguably some of our most basic, archetypal behaviours.

Weekly Matters

This week started with the onset of Chinese New Year, with the Year of the Snake having now begun. Never been much keen on the snake. Perhaps it is my Genesis upbringing and the memory of the serpent’s temptation at the biblical dawn of our race. Or the memory of stories of villagers in the district of Parsa in Nepal, of their loved ones dying beneath a tree from venomous snake bite, and the acceptance that emergency treatment is too far away for a life to be saved…

On the Eve of Chinese New Year, we enjoyed great Chinese dumplings, or jiaozi, at the house of C.K. Lee (see my Facebook page for homely photographs of the event). They tasted a bit like Nepalese momos, accept that the chutney, achar  sauce had quite a different taste. Our hosts explained that they would eat plate fulls of these until midnight. Somewhat incongruously, even though I knew our friends to be Christians, Lee presented me with a biblical treatise to read as we said our goodbyes, a book that examined the genealogies in the book of Genesis and calculated precisely when Adam was born and lived. He explained that he had been given the book by his local pastor and was very effusive in recommending it to me, to read and to keep. I took the book thankfully, wondering if I would ever read it. I have dipped into it since, but have to conclude that I now often find such ‘theological fundamental’ works difficult to read for their unflinching acceptance that all that is written in the Bible is (historical) truth.

Then mid-week we celebrated the beginning of Lent, Ash Wednesday, at my local Catholic Church, and an uplifting homily from our enthusiastic  priest from Melaka, who was upbeat about the joys of chastity, fasting, alms giving and other penances for this period of 40 days. I still can’t quite get used to his rousing sermons that are punctuated with emphatic Amens, to which we are bound to reply Amen too. I often don’t feel I can respond as I am called to do with a genuine heart, and feel a pang of guilt at my weak faith and my lack of evangelistic and Christian fervour. As a child I was quite attentive to giving up something for Lent; and my son has resolved to abstain from chocolate this year. Good for him. Perhaps I am achieving something as a Catholic parent after all! I intend to ‘give up’ alcohol for this 40 days, and will do my best to be more disciplined about chocolate and coffee intake – not quite saying that I will definitely give them up. I lack faith in my own capacity for such self-discipline these days!

And then it was Valentine ’s Day. A card  and a present for my beloved wife, who is really not that bothered, but a ritual which I cling to not least for our children, and especially for my son, who will one day operate in a global and probably a more western culture, and will have a girlfriend or two to please. I feel he must learn something of this modern culture so that he can at least ‘know the right thing to do’ if called upon. I also like my wife to know that I am still a romantic at heart, even if she is not, and even if I am nearing fifty and she is not!

Flying Matters

The absurdity of flying.

38,000 feet above sea level… eating miniature Christmas dinners and Chilean wine, served in doll size, giant wine bottles.

Paper liners for the toilet seats; individual and individualized personal TV screens on the back of the passenger-in-front’s seat; throw-away headphones; throw-away food and utensils; listening to “Armenia City in the Sky”.

Turbulence.

The elements could cause a catastrophic and explosive loss of life. Human error could cause the same.

Are we pushing the boundaries too much, expending great quantities of carbon in the process, and not just the fuel consumption midair, but the complex chain of manufacture making the flying machine airborne…

Smiles and professional etiquette from the airline stewards and stewardesses.

Queues outside the toilets. Toilet engaged sign on, toilet vacant sign on. Seat belt switch sign on, seat belt switch sign off.

Boiled sweets.

Sorry, all the chicken is finished, Madam. Would you care for fish?  Is that tea or coffee, Sir? With milk?

Turbulence.

 

Christmas Matters

Goodness me. The Christmas tree has finally been erected in our ancestral home in Royston, after days, even weeks of gentle reminders (face to face) and moans (out of ear shot) to my father, now a 72 year old man. Timely. The children and I had returned from watching the film “Nativity2 – Danger in the Manger”, which had perfectly put us in the mood for a bit of Christmas cheer and frivolity. Christmas is a time for children so it warmed the heart to return in the night, when it was cold, to be greeted by a house of colourful tree lights and a green twinkling (albeit artificial) tree in the corner of our cozy, open fired living room.

Our second morning in the UK saw us wake up to a sea of snow all around the area, as – unaware of any forecasts – white magic had enveloped our neighbourhood overnight. By 8am we are all in the garden making a snowman, throwing a few snowballs at each other and clicking the camera. Perfect moment for a family that has not spent Christmas together in the UK ever – the children’s first experience of snow in England. I had woken in the earlier hours and taken a few eerie pre-dawn photographs, trying to capturing the Narniasque atmosphere. It has been worth coming back to England just for this!

It has been good to see family – a gathering on Saturday 15^th December saw us all assemble in a Hitchin Public House for our traditional fare, and to exchange the first of the Christmas presents.   A traditional Christmas dinner at “Dad’s” is planned for Christmas Day – again a first for our children. Socio economic factors have always meant that we have felt our Christmas way of doing things has never mirrored the ‘perfect’ representation we see in the British media and pre-Christmas advertisement waves. As children growing up in east and north east London it never bothered us until we became more self-conscious as teenagers. I hope my own children are equally untouched and untroubled by this awareness.

Anniversary Matters

17 years married to the day. It all began in Nepal in 1994, when I met Manisha in the Nepal-India border town of Birgung. I was first introduced to her father, Mahendra, and gradually came to know the family. After a trek into the Langtang Himalaya together, Manisha and I decided to tie the knot, and the official court marriage ceremony was completed on 1^st December 1995. Due to visa red tape, I returned to the UK shortly after that, alone; and it was not until I had secured a job and was seen to be earning a UK salary once more, that I was able to ‘sponsor’ Manisha and bring her back to England as my wife.

How naïve I was then, were we both.

17 years on and now with 2 beautiful children – Chris (11 and Rebecca (5)…

Dinner for two yesterday at Nandos restaurant, followed by a film – Life of Pi. The film was interesting, especially the first half, set in India. The second half of the film following Pi’s shipwreck adventure, dragged a little, but the magical imaginary visuals were lovely to watch in 3D. Thanks to Annie, Manisha’s sister, for baby-sitting Chris and Rebecca.

Off to Changi airport later this afternoon, for our onward flight to the UK via Qatar. Winter vacation.

Strange noises that go bump in the … morning

I awoke with a start. The alarm had sounded at 6.30am; or rather my ‘must-remember-to-go-running’ reminder had buzzed me awake at this hour on the cusp of dawn.

My first thought was that a hanging had collapsed onto the floor inside my apartment, or a cupboard had fallen off its hinges. I slipped out of bed drearily, opened a few curtains and windows and gingerly crept in and out my suite of rooms, looking anxiously for the cause of the clamour, sleepy eyes searching in dreaded  anticipation of seeing a broken appendage on the floor. 

Nothing. 

As I opened the windows in my daughter's bedroom, instantly I knew the source of the clatter that had stirred me. A car lay crashed into a metal post and electrical box, the driver’s door open, but no other vehicle  in the vicinity. It appeared that the driver had lost control, maybe in trying to swerve to avoid another motor car, or had simply misjudged the wheel turn. Oddly, only a couple of security guards from our apartment block stood around, the identity or whereabouts of the driver unclear. 

Later, after I had finally donned my running gear and made my way downstairs and jogged past the   scene of the incident, I was no further enlightened. No driver, no other car. Later still – perhaps about an hour after the accident - I saw the car being towed away by a truck…

I prayed that any persons 'involved' were alright; and I thought of the Tamil lady who had died from a vehicle collision only last week…

Continuing my reading of Claxton’s Hare Brain Tortoise Mind, I share with you a favourite passage from this morning’s quiet time:

“In some moods it is possible to gain glimpses of what seems to be knowledge or truth of a sort – of a rather deep sort, perhaps – which is not an answer to a consciously held question; and which cannot be articulated clearly, literally, without losing precisely that quality which seems to  make it most valuable. There is a kind of knowing which is essentially indirect, sideways, allusive and symbolic; which hints and evokes and moves in ways that resist explication.“ p.173.

What matters?

The Tamil lady passed away on Friday morning, 9^th November 2012, in Sultanah Amirah Hospital in Johor Bahru. She had been hit by a motor cyclist while crossing a busy road the day before, on Thursday morning, a stone’s throw away from our organisation’s local office. At the time of the accident a group of colleagues and I had walked briskly to the scene of the road side accident. Another colleague had in fact partially observed the accident from the office window; several of us had heard the sound of the impact of the motorcycle on the lady’s body, that unforgettable thud noise. Later it was reported how the body had been thrown some distance due to the impact, had been almost bounced along like a rubber doll.

She was bleeding badly when we arrived road side. It was unclear from where the blood was coming. Possibly the side of her face, but there was blood oozing from her mouth and nose as well. She appeared to be breathing, and occasionally breathed more awkwardly as if feeling the pain more acutely. An arm was broken, and I later learned from her relatives at the hospital that in fact she had also broken her hip bone and her leg. Her condition roadside was critical. I lay beside her stroking her shoulder, checking on her breathing, occasionally offering comforting words, a part of me terrified that I might have to give her mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. We had placed her in the recovery position, but with all those broken bones, perhaps in retrospect, such movement had only made the trauma all the more worse. What else could we have done? An ambulance had been called, but seemed to be taking an interminably long time to get there. There was in fact a much closer private hospital nearby, but this lady would be a government hospital patient, and would have to wait for her transport to the hospital in a more distant part of town.

When the ambulance finally arrived, maybe half an hour or more after the collision, the staff seemed hesitant about the scene before them. They were slow in their application of a neck and arm support and clumsy it seemed in positioning the limp body on the mobile stretcher, a body which was then shunted into the back of the ambulance vehicle in a rough sliding motion. There seemed an absence of compassion at the scene, these ‘medical’ men, nay boys, just doing their job, picking up the body and transporting it to the hospital. I wondered what level of training they might have had. It appeared quite minimal.

I was troubled that I had been weak and ineffective at the roadside, and I felt ashamed that in my mind at least I was hesitant and nervous at the prospect of having to do something more demonstrable to try to save this lady’s life. Every time the lady appeared to stop breathing I was afraid that this was going to be my moment to give mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, and I was not at all sure if I was able or up to the task, even though eighteen months previous I had undertaken an Emergency First Response (EFR) course. I scolded myself for my shallow recall of what needed to be done in this situation.

That night at home I watched again my EFR videos and hoped that I might be a little better prepared if there was a next time and I found myself in such an emergency situation.

The following day at work we reflected on the inadequacy – at least by western standards - of the emergency response services here in Malaysia. ‘Life seems quite cheap’ was a comment banded around. Why had the woman tried to cross such a busy road? Why had she not walked a little further along and used the over pass? Why was she running? Why and how had the motor cyclist not seen her? Had he been travelling too fast? To his credit - poor man in a state of shock - he had accompanied the Tamil lady to the hospital in the ambulance. I wonder what will happen to him now, now that the Tamil lady has died from her injuries brought on by him, or at least his motorcycle. Is he to blame? Will it be a charge of manslaughter against him? What a tragedy. What a waste of a life.

What really matters?

God rest her soul, rest in peace, battered woman. I pray your family grieve well and learn from your accident and death, if at all possible.