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arkallen

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05/2009
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Wodonga
Proper snow began falling in the mountains well before we reached home. Within hours of our departure the paltry dozen snowflakes we saw fall must have become twelve million, and then twelve billion; and most of this week’s evening news bulletins have closed with tantalizing footage of great snowdrifts banked up against the very buildings we stayed in, and snowmen, and snowballs, and children bundled tightly in scarves, gloves and hats. While those children frolicked, my inner child sulked in a protracted fit of surly ingratitude. A silent seethe of implacable immaturity!

It just wasn’t fair.
Not fair at all! The snow forecast had been promising, the anticipation prolonged, the possibility unique: the last weekend before the ‘official’ snow season; a final opportunity before the price of accommodation above the snow-line matches its altitude. I want to rant against the heavens for their thoughtless timing, my grievance contaminated by unnecessary fears of the future. “Don’t you know”, I might shout to heaven and its owner, “that we might not come this way again?” (…although I know we will!).

But what really bugs me is the patent fact that my infantile bout of the ‘not-fairs’ is so trifling! We had, let it be said, the most wonderful weekend together, finding at least twelve million settled snowflakes in shallow drifts and dustings across the high-country. It was great fun, a sheer delight, true re-creation. So what, I hear you ask, is all the fuss about? I agree, my pout is indefensible.

Just a few weeks back I wrote of the “the Master of Infinity dabbling in the instant”. I tried to describe the strange conundrum in which the likelihood of a miracle seems inversely proportional to the size of the crisis. Perhaps it is a corollary that the more trivial the injustice the louder we protest. I would have thought, for example, that I had one or two more pressing issues about which to bleat “Not fair!”

Unfairness, climactic or otherwise, is found in our world almost anywhere you look. In recent times the weather bereaved hundreds of thousands of homeless Pakistani families in a deluge that flooded their homeland. A bizarre temperature spike swept Russia with daily temperatures of 49 and 50 degrees adding 500 per day to the normal rate of mortality. Ferocious cyclones have pummeled the United States; a tsunami trashed the coast of Japan. And that’s just the weather.

I saw a poignant, complex picture of unfairness in a tiny, middle-aged woman who labored exhaustedly past me with a built up shoe and elbow crutches. She eyed my power chair with a wistful longing, looked up into my eyes briefly and said with a wry smile, "If only!"

Of course life’s not fair.
Almost nothing really is. If fairness is reckoned as the deserving being rewarded and the rogue deprived; then I’ve scarcely seen it. I know that I was born, like every child, with a pure sense of fairness. Well, perhaps ‘pure’ is the wrong word! A finely tuned sense of fairness, especially when it concerned my slice of cake! Sadly enough, it’s imperative that we leave behind that innocent worldview. But I hope I never, ever, loose the innocence of hope – and not just “I hope it snows next time”. There is hope for every sorrow and every broken bone. There is hope that wrongs will be made right. There is hope for this world, and especially for the next. There is hope that springs from unexpected places, and there is hope for tomorrow!
 
arkallen, Fairness does seem to come into play, now doesn't it? It all became clearer, notice I said clearer, not crystal,
but clearer, when I thought of it in terms of fair.
If I received what I really desearved, by that I mean to be treated fairly, I would not be writing this response. :)
So, since I can't have fairness, just when I want it, I must accept the mystery of "Why do bad things happen to
good people." I also get a bit confused when I see "Good things happening to bad people."
Of course, the definition of bad and good, moral and immoral do come into play, however, I am
thankful that I don't get what is fair....

blessings,

Jim
 
Of course, the definition of bad and good, moral and immoral do come into play, however, I am
thankful that I don't get what is fair....

blessings,

Jim

So true. It might sound smug or something, I fear it does, but I find myself more occupied witht the apparent injustice of how good life is rather than how bad life is these days. Complex thoughts aren't they Jim?
 
Roderick.

With a depraved nature it is easy to see what you are talking about. I know those feelings. God has a way of getting our
attention. We will either get bitter, or better. Sounds so simplistic, doesn't it? Wisdom comes with age, and sometimes
age just shows up by itself. :)

I think that one of the reason we are given a free will, is so the impact of choosing God by faith rises to a higher meaning.
As a son to an earthly father, I have experience those same feelings. My father was what I call strict. He did things
that made me think he never wanted to have fun. To the day he died, I suppose I still didn't understand exactly
where he was coming from. He loved me very much, but we didn't have a frequent relationship other than the
periodic phone calls.

I settled for that, I guess he did also. Time is like money, you can spend it anyway you want, but you can only
spend it once. I find the things I read in the Bible have with stood the test of time. All the foolishness of
amusement and entertainment are like a vapor, they do lose there shine.

In this day and age we tend to know the price of most things, and yet don't really know the value.

Take care and have a great day.

Jim
 
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