Have you ever needed someone to speak up for you? It could have been informally in a social setting or even in a family. Perhaps you’e needed it in a formal setting of a work tribunal or law court?
Unless an advocate will be listened to and cares enough to intervene on your behalf for a better outcome he or she is of little value to you.
From an early age, we are taught to take care of our bodies and to look after the things that we may acquire. Some do, some don’t. There are many reasons that may prompt a person towards taking reasonable care or being over-indulgent or indeed to show neglect. It has been said that some idea of a person’s character can be ascertained from their toe nails! These hidden parts may not expect to be on public display very often so it may be possible that they reveal something about a person who either tends them carefully or neglects them. How someone treats their toes may indicate how that person treats some other things. Take this wooden gate – if this is not soon treated, rot will set in which will seal the gate’s fate. Proper treatment of the wood is essential for its ongoing purpose. What would your toes or your gate reveal?!
When does life begin and when does it end? What is life? The answers to these fundamental questions present problems to ethicists, moralists, scientists, politicians and even Christians. Is the life of someone with a learning disability of any less value than a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize? Should someone in a coma have their life-support machine left turned on when there are few signs of life? Why do the majority of human beings cling to life but some want to abandon it? Is it still ‘life’ for a homeless person? An amputee? A person with a terminal illness? An elderly resident in a care home with dementia? The questions here get to the attitudes, values and beliefs that are at the core of your being. Have your thoughts shifted on abortion and euthanasia or do you have clear views on what is still ‘life’? A bowl of fruit such as this contains few answers but such ‘still life’ has inspired countless artists.
What do you see in this picture? How might you associate it with the title? Which way are you already thinking? Your answers to those three questions could be revealing your inner thoughts, perceptions and prejudices! Some things lurk in the alleyways of our minds that we wish did not so we keep them locked up as we do not want others to know they live in our ‘zoo’! We tend to make assessments based on limited information and on inner biases rather too quickly. If you look again, you will be able to see five water fowl that resemble adolescent ducklings but are in fact cygnets preening themselves, not fully aware that they are in process of becoming beautiful swans. Hans Christian Andersen wrote ‘The Ugly Duckling’ in 1843 – what do you remember about it?
As you look at this picture, what do you see? Who do you see and why? Unconsciously, we automatically categorise and evaluate what we see. It’s partly a faculty the brain employs to simplify life as it has to process thousands of images a day but … it’s also due to our own conditioning which has led to many filters and prejudices that shape our human interactions for good or bad. When you were last in a public place, inevitably you would have looked at people making conscious and unconscious assessments to pigeonhole people according to gender, wealth, skills, desirability, ethnicity and so on. Even Christians do it! Classification may apply to types of vegetable and animals, but should ‘class’ be applied to human beings?
