One Man's Web

Empire destroys the little children.

A Pentecost reflection on Mark 6:7-29 and the feeding which follows.

In order to live the good life, Herod destroys the child he adores. He has help, of course; the little girl doesn't know what to ask for, and going to her mother, she is inducted into the rivalries and violence of the adults.

Herod understood John had something he wanted but, outmanoeuvred by Herodias, also understood that he could not keep the good life and heed John. In Mark’s, telling of the story, this is the moment of Herod's final corruption. The result is that the feast of the year, the peak of the good life, is a failure. It is a degustation of death. It lays out, course by course, the destruction of human beings, and at the end, John is murdered... Read on >>>>

My Tuesday work space was taken over by a donation of groceries and vegetables for the student centre. I considered setting myself up in the public space when I discovered this, where all four laptops I had to work on would be nicely available for a snatch and grab, and me constantly distracted by everyone coming in and out. Not happening. I trolleyed the donations down to the kitchen and set myself up as usual. It was an excellent decision: All backups done and tested; last ditch recovery files uploaded to the cloud; machines upgraded, website software upgraded, video done. And two important meetings, short and to the point. I can still do this stuff.... Read on >>>>

… much of their social functioning is achieved through conscious effort, learned scripts, and ongoing monitoring of verbal and nonverbal behaviour rather than intuitive social understanding… Andrea’s social interaction is cognitively mediated… They reported that social interactions are effortful and mentally exhausting, explaining that they have a social "time limit" and will often withdraw once this has been reached... (My diagnostic report.)  What does that even mean? I had no idea about learned scripts and cognitively mediated interactions. I was just doing what I'd always done, and what I thought everybody had to do to get by!  Read on >>>>

I love our local shopping centre. It's smaller than many, and heavily Italian. It's a rare shopping day I don't hear Italian being spoken in the fruiterer's and the supermarket. The size and the ethnicity seems to make it all a much quieter and more intimate environment. Tony and Mark's has a radio playing, but not too loudly, and the aisles are the right width and height to feel comfortable, and the lighting is... gentle. And they don't shift stuff around—bliss! People chat with friends while shopping. Westpac was down yesterday, at all levels, creating havoc. A young couple with two toddlers was trying to pay the bill, and his phone would not connect to the bank, and neither would hers. Another customer stepped up and offered to pay their bill... Read on >>>>