The bad news must be faced before the good news can be found

Finding hope means facing the really unpleasant consequences  of the cul desacs many take

The bad news is not that we as human beings are alone in the world ( which in some way we are ) but that we strive desperately to find fellowship with the places and people we share our lives with.  We make idols of marriage family  sex and economic sense for starters.
I don't know  of any human who has an answer but I has lived an answer given to me

At this very moment in Australia the ideal of Marriage is back on the agenda after being rejected by progressives as unworkable feature of the Dinosaurs's age only a few decades earlier.
I don't believe those who want the blessing of marriage will be any happier for the same reasons the people in these films find completeness in these very incomplete ambitions.

I am not going to here list the myriad of mind games that go into so called logic on this subject .

Instead , if you haven't faced the first sentence above,  its time you watched "
DOCUMENTARIES  on what happens when you chase the good in relationships but without understanding the limited way they will meet your need .

A few offerings   Not easy watching but realistic about real life. Let me know of more .

1. Chasing Amy   about a young woman and man who seek the perfect partner but find themselves stuck because there is no such thing.  
2. Anesthesia 2014  about the unanswered loneliness , purposelessness and lies which lie behind so much human ambition. 

Father Brown - model of many paradigms

Great that these fantastic stories are making prime time viewing in Australia this year
Model of the modern detective drama,  this brilliant original work is more than skin deep in its associations . Like all good art,  it says something about things on the edge of reason ; the elements of beauty and both good and evil in tension ;  Why innocent people die and why good people do bad things .
How then does he marry the hard with the fun and beauty of people you meet in those stories? Father IMO does it , as we all should do,  by seeking the truth above all else .
As Chesterton knew so well , you should never let a lot of words get in the road of the point  Life can be fun and serious at the same time  ,but don't whatever you do bore people with lumbering logomachy .
What makes his stories work ?
You may think you would need to risk  a bit of boring unreality to talk  fun and serious together , Strangely as he knew so well,  you need a bit of fantasy to watch or read his stories  . Gilbert was a great fan of fantasy ( see chapter 4 of his Orthodoxy ) but he wrote drama and story mostly to show that real life can have the joy of fantasy in it .
His point is that you can't see much if you don't investigate .  Fantasy does at least two things mere rhetoric can't
--draws you in to what can appear to be dull and obvious on the surface .
--short circuits mere argument
-- presents the complex in a simple picture format
---can unhook us from the heavy chains of reason alone
--can demonstarte truths in a succinct way  ( think of the picture of the Emperors New Clothes )We don't know
Chesteraon wants everyone to be their own detective.

Take the average story

Father takes all the story to find all the relevant facts for him to challenge the audience with . The church and other people ( even highly qualified ) beside him are - to be frank , a bit too quick to judge .  . Fiction and art are great for dealing with big topics- the missing bits too. 

Lessons even for science 

To make his point about not being stuck in a rut with mere reason Chesterton like Eisentein  talked bout equations we can know and things we can only fanaticize about ,

Fantasy is alright up to a point  but we need real boundaries to our beliefs .. lucky for us they both siad somthing similiar for example about the cretaor . we  have only 2 choices about God . either our view of god is that he smaller tan us or He is infact bigger  
What about a real life problem then like the internet ?
All scientists know that little is achieved without hard and pointed ( throw half the facts out ) research . You can get lots of the facts off the 
Back on prime TV ( ABCTV ) these stories of GKChesterton have provided the frame for yet another revival of interest in his words .Not before time . While you will struggle to find one of his books in your local library ( in Austalai where i have tried) his works are regularly republished .
So what do we make of this anachronistic and predictable priest and and his ongoing attraction .
 FB takes all the story to find all the relevant facts for him to challenge the audience with . The church and other people ( even highly qualified ) beside him are - to be frank , a bit too quick to judge . Gilbert came to faith by digging deep . Fiction and art are great for dealing with big topics- the missing bits too. Some Christians today are quite good at punching through with a story and the hope that is needed to keep us acting in a positive way in our own patch..http://churchofthemasses.blogspot.com All scientists know that little is achieved without hard and pointed ( throw half the facts out ) research . You can get lots of the facts off the 





His plays are so popular that the latest editions have temodern writers plagerizing the frame but changing the content - not soemthing they would get away with in the host of centuries when literature like authorship was respected . If we can't suport authors in principle don't expect APRA to suppot your performance rights in the futue . The implications for those who used to make their living out of the Arts is celar

CROMWELL 1970

We can all be highly cynical about politics and polys - but we shouldn't always be - there are a few real heroes .

What makes the story of CROMWELL ( 1970) so great is that his character , action and legacy shine through all the heaps of garbage that's said about him .(Product of the reformation 1640's )
We owe him deeply for showing us that good things are worth fighting for ( father of modern democracy; proxy substitute for the head cut off King of England to his left 
for 5 years ) and that YOU may have to walk the road alone ( as he often did)     Go people !

The Hobbit -- Home and wilderness

"Its a religious film"  someone said to the person in front of me as we lined up for tickets yesterday .She was worried the person would be " threatened" by such a thing- how pathetic  The things people are scared of- all the wrong things.
Its the absolute best film of 2014 .
Sure you can live in your castle, even play merry meadows in the Shire, but if you want to be truly human as Tolkien reminds us , you have to venture beyond ; not just be a sheep,  but draw swords.
Christianity is not for wimps, though some make it so . and  ,,,, to be fair  it seems so on the surface.

Point is,, if you want to go deeper than the superficial - which you do if you are a scientist  or want to discover things - you don't fall for the slipping and sliding

Hobbits don't suggest strength and survival , but they can be strong in the right way

 As a space scientist ( the earth sort) working through the two gardens concept of Genesis, its great to see Tolkien reminding us, as Jesus and that old Book does ,that whatever happens  we have a place  Just where and how big and what we do there is our special calling as Os Guinness has recently published in his book " The Call"

I have just finished preparing a paper for a science conference in March about the challenge of the wilderness.  Wilderness is seen to be some kind of ideal in the world of today , but like most things its a superficial and incomplete view . Wilderness regions  are just part of the picture of what can be. Yes it can represent the higher trophic levels,  but its still a home for many - a community with mostly symbiotic not competitive associations , A sort of home too for things other than what it might naturally be home to too. A home with possibilities .The leaf appears in the Otways after surviving for eons on the very edge of Australia without any companions and a decent sized gene pool.  What is it?


I love how man works again with his new friends in the film - the animals  the Goats

Some incredible people live in the Outback

BACK OF BEYOND   Made in 1954 this series about Tom Kruse and filmed by John Heyer has been translated into 12 languages . A tribute to all involved . Funded by Shell Company  



See some others of the era like SMILEY

http://www.abc.net.au/landline/content/2014/s4129598.htm#.VHA9t7hxx-Y.facebook

The UP side of Anger

Fairytale marriages are just that .This no holes barred comedy is really good value because it doesn't preach, it just reminds us of how to deal with the dragons in our lives and learn to love again and more deeply.
Teenage Daughter feeling left out, unloved and frustrated with her mothers high expectations and mums own personal limits in full view of everyone  - who wouldn't feel frustrated !!!!!
after honestly putting this to her mum  " you used to be so sweet " ( and successful)  she says "you don't seem to love me " ( this girl tries really hard and mum is " never happy " with her efforts ( bit like sin is to God  )
Implication " am I hopeless?" Cause i am sure feeling it right now

No she says " your just like a lot of people in my life at the moment .You need to listen MORE CLOSELY to what I say !
Point taken
Don't let the determinists and faith deniers kill your appreciation of the need to deal with anger and the demons within.  Strong women and strong men are those who use nature as a base , not as a bottom line, or worse an excuse. The DJ

Talk about an embarassing parent - a bloody mary driven tirade at a restuarant .
Take your teenagers along for the ride !!!!

YES YES Prime Minister

 Ya GOTTA see YES PRIME MINISTER because you might never see it on the ABC. 25 years after Anthony Jay ( who witnessed the events) and Jonathon Lyn wrote the first series , these blokes have done it all again . Heartwrenchingly funny and brilliantly honest --all with a touch of Faulty Towers ( in the Prime Minister at some of his most harrowing moments) . A masterstoke because it tells the truth, tests belief and bares all about the extreme poverty and wastefulness of reactionary politics.
You may not like it, but it portrays patterned predictability that is unworthy of thinking people and our own public broadcasters and "public servants ". Only the PM and Bernard come out heroes in a play that should rock the nation - a morality play for our day . See what they are saying about it in the blue room 

A royal performance for the queens of the kingdom

Show this to a mother near you