T is for Thuza

T is for Thuza

“She, like her fellow travelers, was throwing the dice for the last time, trying to reach Australia where they had heard stories of peaceful wide open spaces and a generous government. They had handed over their last coins, dumped their identity documents and begged with the smugglers agents for the privilege of being transported in miserable conditions on a dangerous voyage. In her case, her mother had arranged it all but with no money, and her pleas for mercy having fallen on deaf ears, she made an arrangement with one of them. It was all she had to give and he happily took it from her. She was seventeen years old. She was alone. Her name was Thuza.”

From chapter 1, Ashmore Grief.

In Ashmore Grief, Thuza represents the vulnerable, the lost and the hopeless. I live in paradise. I know nothing of war, famine or political or religious persecution. I was raised by two parents in a stable home, and all my life I have prospered in the fertile ground of freedom and affluence. I have had a wealth of amazing relationships and plethora of wonderful opportunities. I go where I want, when I want to, and I eat and drink what I want to. I have bucket loads of leisure time and my work is not arduous. I have never been struck by tragedy of any kind, and I have never been a victim of violence, nor been forced from my home. From time to time I get a bit lost, and I have experienced loneliness but I have never plunged into despair.

Maybe, you also have been blessed like me. Perhaps not, but if not, then you probably know someone who has suffered, or who is suffering. Why not me? Is that what you ask yourself? I do. Why have I escaped the evil which seems so prevalent in the world? I don’t know, but I’m thankful. I thank God for his grace and mercy.

H is for Hardhearted.

H is for Hardhearted

“‘No! No!No!’ protested Jenny. ‘All my girls have visa. Or Australian citizen.’

The stony faced officer repeated his assertion that Roses are Red, of which she was the manager, was being investigated for conducting a business involving sexual servitude, and of employing and exploiting non-citizens in breach of the visas, and in contravention of Australia’s immigration laws.’

‘What is servitude?’

‘Slavery.’

‘No slave! Girls like sex.’

‘Are you going to cooperate with our investigation or am I going to have to arrest you?’

‘No arrest. I do nothing wrong.’

Jenny and the officer held each other’s gaze as they engaged in a battle of wills.”

From chapter 14, Ashmore Grief

It is so easy to judge. We make assessments of people and situations all the time, often subconsciously: filtering them through the lenses of our preconceived ideas and our dearly beloved worldviews of which again most people are unaware. We have this urgent propensity to categorizeand to label. Even as we describe ourselves as open-minded and generous, we readily demonstrate bigotry and parsimony. We can be selectively narrow minded and stingy, and while we happily think of ourselves as good people, we may only require the wrong set of circumstances, to manifest darkness.

We kid ourselves if we think we are incapable of behaving the same way as the various objects of our scorn and disapproval. Life is very complicated but our solutions to the many problems which assail us testify of our naivety. We use band-aids to treat cancer. Honesty, mercy, generosity and self sacrifice surprise us. The soft and open hearted are seen as weaklings, so we cultivate hard heartedness.

Protection is the justification for hard heartedness, and fear underpins it. Those who are different from me, somehow pose a threat to me, so I must defend myself, my people and my territory. Ashmore Grief is the story of the fight to overcome coldness and prejudice. One of the most profound statements in the Bible is this: mercy triumphs over judgment.

What was your initial reaction to the above excerpt from Ashmore Grief?

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