Anne Robertson writes a devotion this week that shares her experience with her immediate neighbours. The problems she encounters are ones of noisy, bad behaved, incalcitrant folk who ride noisy off-road bikes past her quite lakefront home and disturb the peace. I don’t know what her neighbourhood looks like on the whole, but I wish my neighbourhood was as homogenous and clear cut. Living in South Africa our neighbourhood includes the starkest of contrasts. Neighbourliness means mingling with many who cannot speak ones language, with those who celebrate when they can get a loaf of bread to eat, with those who live in sprawling mansions fenced shut from the outside world, with those who beg for your last cents, with those dressed in khaki and those in red T-shirts, and those transfixed at boxed sports shrines on weekends. To love ones neighbour in South Africa requires nerves of steel, hearts of gold, and minds that are expansive in there quest to be inclusive.
4 comments:
I'm a new reader since you commented on Quiet Paths a couple weeks ago. This post spoke to me quite well. Thank you. Could you explain the contrast sensitivity block you have here? I don't know too much about it.
Hi, I selected the image because it highlights the different shades of people we have living in South Africa. There are the contrasts and the mixtures and to all we show our neighbourliness. What the image actually is... well you have me there?
Contrast sensitivity is a measure of how well the eye can see contrast. I see four completely white circles on the chart. Other people will see more or fewer. I think the older you get the less sensitive the eye. I guess understanding this helps with colouring graphics so that they may be clearly discerned. (Sorry, I was curious, so I googled it!)
It would be interesting to see the contrasts of the hearts of the people in the church of today!
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