I've been out in the garden on this perfect day when we think of the awful events in Bali. As I tended the cherry, almond, plum and nectarine trees and the currant and blueberry bushes and the raspberries it struck me yet again how much we have here in Australia. I'm just an ordinary suburban widow with a small house and a state education yet I live an existence that lacks for none of the sustaining essentials that individuals need to build their lives upon. Most individuals in the west can claim the same.
How hard to imagine then not being able to be sure you have enough food for the next day, that you can't be sure a tank isn't going to bulldoze your home or maybe that you haven't got a place you can call home or that you could be blown up by a bomb at any moment.
We in the west have so much to be thankful for but much of what we have is at the expense of others in less fortunate countries. I know that many will be thinking today of vengeance, of closing doors of pulling down the blinds but on this day I think we should also be looking outwards. A little generosity of spirit and substance is required. If the West were prepared to share some of its bounty around a little more generously, if we as Australians could just for once, stand in the other person's shoes and put our fears and prejudices behind us and look at our neighbours as just people like us with the same sorts of needs and fears we could avoid this onrush to disaster.
Oh well, I'm ready to be called a bleeding heart yet again....
