Kate Humble is an interesting girl! Recently I watched her
abseiling down the inside of an active volcano toward the bubbling molten lava
lake on the island of Tanna in the southern Pacific. That is a very scary thing
to do.
Two things struck me about this dramatic event that had been
brilliantly filmed by the BBC. The first was Kate’s obvious anxiety. Someone
told me years ago that if we weren’t living on the edge then we were taking up
too much space. I’m not sure about that but Kate was certainly on the edge and
you could almost taste the fear in her voice as she slid down a rope to a
narrow ledge above the hostile lava lake. That has to be one of the scariest
places in the world.
The second thing that struck me was the molten lava lake
itself. How easily do we forget that this world of ours is a ball of fire
covered with a thin crust? Occasionally we get a glimpse of that destructive
power when volcanoes suddenly spew molten material high into the sky. Do you
remember back in 2011 when aircraft were grounded as a dust cloud drifted
across Europe after the eruption of an Icelandic volcano? Kate’s slide toward
that molten lava lake is striking evidence of how delicate it all is. That
boiling cauldron spews noxious gas high into the atmosphere on a daily basis.
Whether you are a creationist or an evolutionist you have to
be very aware of how fragile our existence is. Whilst we worry about daily
things that trouble us it is good to be grateful for whatever we have and to
hang on to this life with both hands.
It occurred to me that our mayor might well be hanging on to
things with both hands just now when I listened to him speak at the Torbay
Business Forum breakfast a few days ago.
The attentive business community listened to him talk about the good
things that have happened in Torbay whist he has had the reigns. Of course many
good things have happened and we must celebrate that. At the same time there
have been draconian cuts in public spending. So many services have been forced
to the very edge financially and others simply sank without trace.
So many of those cuts hit people with the least power first
and it seems to me that the gap between those that have and those that have not
is getting horribly wider by the day. Many families face increasing hardship as
things like energy prices climb ever higher.
The increase in the number of food banks must have many people
scratching their heads. It worries me and I hope that it worries you too.
One of the outcomes from this troubled time is the increase
in homelessness. As I walked the icy roads just before six this morning with my
dog I thought how hard the night will have been for those sleeping rough. That
penetrating cold made me shiver and be thankful that I wasn’t clutching a damp
blanket under a bush.
Later in the morning I joined a group of people attending a
training session at Saint Paul’s church in Paignton. We had gathered to listen
to Rachel Makin from Housing Justice speak about running night shelters. You
may like to know that under the direction of THE HAVEN (http://www.haven-torbay.org.uk )
seven church halls will become overnight shelters for the homeless during
February.
Being lonely and homeless has to be a scary place and whilst
I might have been impressed with Kate Humble’s bravery it seems to me that
members of our community have to face those demons of fear on a nightly basis.
Homelessness, in our fragile world, is something we must
face and act upon. Our prime minister says that we are all in this together but
sadly the evidence seems not to support that. Rachel Makin made an interesting
point when she said that with overseas aid we attempt to offer people access to
water and sanitation. That, she says, is something that our homeless often cannot
access.
As a community we need to pull together in the hope of
building a future that includes everyone. What we do should be for the good of
all and hopefully offering hospitality to the homeless is a start. I will be
staffing one of the night shelters during February and am a little worried
about to be quite honest. One thing I will do is what I tell others to do and
that is to keep the smile, hard though that might be. Please remember that when
it comes to being homeless; there but for the grace of your god go you.
Keep the smile!
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