Jean Burman

Artwork & content Copyright Jean Burman 2007.

He came… he saw… and he conquered.

Not by force… with guns and impressive armies.

But instead… with a very simple message of peace… tolerance… kindness and warm-hearted compassion for our fellow human beings.

Last week… His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama arrived quietly… and with great humility… to share with the people of Australia his own special brand of humanity. And you don’t have to be Buddhist to appreciate his unique perspective on the troubles of the world and the challenges that we all face in these modern times.

“My religion is very simple… my religion is Kindness”

Regardless of religious persuasion… it is difficult to remain unaffected by a man such as this. He gave public talks to packed audiences wherever he went. His simple brand of infectious good humour, good will and compassionate warm-heartedness… was nothing short of inspirational.

His holiness meets with Prime Minster John Howard

I was also rather impressed… that despite strong objections from China… leaders on both sides of politics took it into their hearts to welcome the Dalai Lama personally. And for his part… the Dalai Lama encouraged the inclusion of China into the world community… with the words “it is as it should be”… recommending we make good relations and genuine friendships with China (albeit with the proviso that China should observe “certain principles of human rights, democracy, rule of law, free press… and on these things we should remain firm”). That sounds fair enough to me!

When asked in an interview with the National Press Club about the burgeoning crisis in the Middle East and the ongoing problems in Iraq… he remarked…”This is very sad… (pausing with head bowed) very… very sad” (pause). He then went on to say that violent intervention would only spawn more hatred and violence. “For instance” he said… “if you were to destroy Osama Bin Laden… there would be many many more Bin Laden’s who will rise up behind him”.

The tragedy that is currently unfolding in Iraq seems to bear testament to this. His belief is… the way to peace is through education… and the “turning” of people’s hearts.

Simplistic perhaps… but there is something about this man that makes me feel that anything is possible… if only we were to collectively adopt this viewpoint… and see the world through the filter of understanding our differences… and the cultivation of compassion for our fellow man.

‘Love for others and respect for their rights and dignity, no matter who or what they are: ultimately these are all we need. So long as we practise these in our daily lives, then no matter if we are learned… or unlearned… whether we believe in Buddha or God… or follow some other religion… or none at all… as long as we have compassion for others and conduct ourselves with restraint out of a sense of responsibility, there is no doubt we will be happy’ - Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama.

“I am no-one special… a simple monk from Tibet”

his comment upon receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989

When asked how we should deal with our inability to influence world events that affect us all… he suggested that (in general) we should look at a problem and if we think we can fix it… good… we should try to fix it. If we look at a problem and know we can’t fix it… we should simply let it go and stop worrying.

This philosophy reminded me of the Serenity Prayer… which has been adopted by Al Anon as inspiration for reforming alcoholics… (although I have never quite seen the connection)

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change

The courage to change the things I can

And the wisdom to know the difference…

At the beginning of what he had wanted to be a serious interview… a perplexed Ray Martin (in the Sunday programme) asked the Dalai Lama… with ever so thinly veiled mild annoyance…

“Why sir… do you laugh all the time?”

His Holiness replied… “Why not? Why not be happy? I could be sad (gesturing with slumped shoulders and grimacing face) but I choose to be happy… so I laugh… and I smile… why not?”

When asked if he was happy… he replied “of course!”

Yes… life is short (and it’s problems long)… indeed we should be happy… “why ever not?”

I was thrilled to have rediscovered this old Aussie bush poem on a google search yesterday. The poem… penned back in 1931 by John O’Brien… was one of many I learned by heart back in 6th Grade. I remember the class reciting it with great enthusiasm… especially the refrain… “we’ll all be rooooooned”… which was delivered with as much gusto as we could collectively muster!

The storyline follows the trials and tribulations of farmers in an outback town…(beyond the black stump) where lived Hanrahan… the biggest pessimist of them all! It seemed no matter what natural weather phonomenon occurred… things were just never good enough.

I have an inkling that Hanrahan’s spirit still lives on throughout the farming communities of this great country… if the fly on the wall at the local CWA hall knows anything at all.

As Dorothea MacKellar observed in her iconic poem “My Country”… our sunburnt country is indeed “a land of sweeping plains, of rugged mountain ranges, of droughts and flooding rains…” and we simply MUST get used to it!

WE’LL ALL BE ROONED - John O’Brien 1931

“We’ll all be rooned,” said Hanrahan,
In accents most forlorn,
Outside the church, ere Mass began,
One frosty Sunday morn.

The congregation stood about,
Coat-collars to the ears,
And talked of stock, and crops, and drought,
As it had done for years.

“It’s looking crook,” said Daniel Croke;
“Bedad, it’s cruke, me lad,
For never since the banks went broke
Has seasons been so bad.”

“It’s dry, all right,” said young O’Neil,
With which astute remark
He squatted down upon his heel
And chewed a piece of bark.

And so around the chorus ran
“It’s keepin’ dry, no doubt.”
“We’ll all be rooned,” said Hanrahan,
“Before the year is out.”

“The crops are done; ye’ll have your work
To save one bag of grain;
From here way out to Back-o’-Bourke
They’re singin’ out for rain.

“They’re singin’ out for rain,” he said,
“And all the tanks are dry.”
The congregation scratched its head,
And gazed around the sky.

“There won’t be grass, in any case,
Enough to feed an ass;
There’s not a blade on Casey’s place
As I came down to Mass.”

“If rain don’t come this month,” said Dan,
And cleared his throat to speak -
“We’ll all be rooned,” said Hanrahan,
“If rain don’t come this week.”

A heavy silence seemed to steal
On all at this remark;
And each man squatted on his heel,
And chewed a piece of bark.

“We want an inch of rain, we do,”
O’Neil observed at last;
But Croke “maintained” we wanted two
To put the danger past.

“If we don’t get three inches, man,
Or four to break this drought,
We’ll all be rooned,” said Hanrahan,
“Before the year is out.”

In God’s good time down came the rain;
And all the afternoon
On iron roof and window-pane
It drummed a homely tune.

And through the night it pattered still,
And lightsome, gladsome elves
On dripping spout and window-sill
Kept talking to themselves.

It pelted, pelted all day long,
A-singing at its work,
Till every heart took up the song
Way out to Back-o’-Bourke.

And every creek a banker ran,
And dams filled overtop;
“We’ll all be rooned,” said Hanrahan,
“If this ‘ere rain don’t stop.”

And stop it did, in God’s good time;
And spring came in to fold
A mantle o’er the hills sublime
Of green and pink and gold.

And days went by on dancing feet,
With harvest-hopes immense,
And laughing eyes beheld the wheat
Nid-nodding o’er the fence.

And, oh, the smiles on every face,
As happy lad and lass
Through grass knee-deep on Casey’s place
Went riding down to Mass.

While round the church in clothes genteel
Discoursed the men of mark,
And each man squatted on his heel,
And chewed his piece of bark.

“There’ll be bush-fires for sure, me man,
There will, without a doubt;
We’ll all be rooned,” said Hanrahan,
“Before the year is out.”

Around the Boree Log and Other Verses, 1921

My Aunt Heather used to often say…

“The winds of change cast their shadows before them… “

And I guess you know that change is on it’s way… and the universe is in overdrive… when

A rather overly-large red blimp appears from out of nowhere… and hovers just off the front fence whilst you are sipping your late afternoon cup of green tea out on the lawn.

What the…?

And the blades on the turbines at the Windy Peak wind farm are at full tilt… (amazing place - this photo was taken there yesterday… see more here

And the world is more than just a little bit weird when…

Your son sends a text message from Russia which reads …

“JUST FINISHED AT DENTIST… THEY DO THINGS A BIT DIFRENT OVA HERE HAHA. WATS NEW AT HOME?”

Oh good… he got there… at least he’s a-l-i-v-e!

And when your daughter phones at 1.30am in the morning from 2000 kilometres away to report that she thinks she has appendicitis… (same daughter who recently caught a flying hot iron, which fell into her open arms from the high shelf she was trying to place it on, whilst packing to come home from university) Healing nicely now… thanks for asking… LOL

And when your other daughter… (who had been suffering a severe gastric illness all weekend)… and for whom you still managed to singlehandedly pack for… and patch together enough… for her to stagger onto the flight which was to take her clear across the country to work until the end of the month)… rings from her hotel room 6 and a half hours later to say she is… no better. Oh good… now I don’t have to worry… *sigh*

I would like to make it official. Whoever said “when your kids leave home you can get a life”… didn’t have a clue what HE was talking about!

Mothers will be mothers for the rest of their lives… regardless of the age of their children. My mother informed me of this many years ago when I thought I was all grown up… but I assumed she was just being cute and/or neurotic. LOL

I now know what Mother’s the world over have always known… WORRY is the global currency of motherhood.

My three are currently traversing the various stages of becoming fully independent and sometimes the boundaries get challenging for us all. It’s a great trip though… and one that I wouldn’t want to miss for all the world!

To be able to feel the entire length, breadth and depth of human emotion… (through the full catastrophe experience)… is something not to be missed by anyone on the planet! The fact that Mothers get to have this experience is both an incredible privilege… and an immense burden. But therein lies it’s exquisite beauty…

Now… I have until the end of the month to get a life… but where oh where shall I start… hmmm… I thought I saw some paintbrushes around here someplace…

Like lots of kids growing up in the 60s and early 70s I was often reminded “to watch my P’s and Q’s”. What this “spelled” out was the requirement for me to be polite, mindful, respectful and courteous in my verbal exchanges with others.

I also eventually “got it” (through trial and error) that it was preferable (and pretty much absolutely necessary) to have one’s mind firmly “in gear” before releasing the clutch. But it took until my first driving lesson for me to fully grasp this concept… (grin) But I digress…

Artwork & content Copyright Jean Burman 2007

Watching my P’s and Q’s also “spelled” the need for me to keep the faith; to treat the English language with the respect that it deserved; striving always, not only for good expression but accurate grammar and correct spelling!

I’m not quite sure when I became obsessed with it, but I seem to recall around the age of 10 becoming the self-appointed sole chief custodian of the English language and Commander in Chief of the language police! Since that time, I have championed the cause as it’s noisiest exponent… (and all-round pain in the neck)… complaining loud and long, and as often as anyone would listen, about it’s ultimate and untimely demise.

But what I really want to know, right here, right now is:

Whatever happened to the word WHO? This little word has almost disappeared from common use having been surreptitiously replaced with THAT.

Who would do such a thing? Someone THAT can… obviously. *sigh*

And then there’s the word YOU’RE… the abbreviation for YOU ARE. This word has also slipped from common use replaced with the short and lazy, possessive YOUR.

So… in the words of the Teddy Bear’s Picnic… “when you go down to the woods today…YOUR in for a big surprise…”

or maybe it will come as no surprise at all that our beautiful English language (as we have known it) is fast disappearing.

But I guess we should not be too sad for, as history proves, our language has been changing and evolving for thousands of years. The Celts way back in 43BC were the first exponents, followed (over the next 2000 years or so) by the Romans, the Germanic tribes (Angles Saxons and Jutes) early Christian missionaries, the Danes, the Norse, Normans… and even the French.

Birth of Venus - Sandro Botticelli

The Renaissance brought great cultural and intellectual developments… none the least of which brought the printing press to England in around 1476. With books then going to print… rates of literacy increased… and it fell to printers to decide which words, spelling and grammar would be used.

Today… the English language continues to expand and change in response to the ever-changing modern world in which we live… with new words popping up almost continuously. Geographical factors now also play a part with the different English speaking countries adopting variances of the accepted written and spoken form.

So perhaps we should not be so perturbed? Until we are all speaking in sms we can (and should) all sleep easy…chill… cul8r lig8r! (smile)