I watched this Bulbil just before daybreak singing lustily and tunefully with an intention to be heard! In the stillness of the morning, the bird call was loud enough to be heard from a distance.
Sure enough another Bulbul came in response! They were silent but turned to each other! Then the singing bird flew away and soon the other one too.
After the day break, I found them perched on a cable! I look forward to spotting them together!
There is a lot like these happening all around us in the bird's world!
The recent disaster in Turkey following the earthquake, the ongoing war in Ukraine, the tension between China and the USA over the ballon China seems to have sent to the US air space for spying, etc are major events which disturb and consume our attention and response.
I have sometimes wondered recently that the news of big such events so disturb us that we live stressed and anxious, loosing out on the richness of life on earth!
What is in a Bulbul attempting to find its pair!
It is a message about building relationships.
The earth is a place of our belonging where humans are to live harmoniously and responsibly. Yesterday, the prime Minister of India inaugurated the express high way between Delhi and Jaipur, during which he turned to appeal to the gathering that, 'if only there was a BJP government in the state of Rajasthan, there would have been greater development'! I thought it was an occasion to comment all those who gave land for the highway, planned, laboured and executed the project to make it rather special in the road transport in the country. Instead he turned it into a political campaign for canvassing for votes for the forthcoming state election of Rajasthan, where the current ruling government is that of the congress party.
We have acquired a skewed mind set on many matters and departed from the spirit of humanity where we build and upbuild to make our earthly journey more relational and collective!
No wonder of Jesus of Nazareth told parables about the birds of the air and called the attention of HIs listeners: 'Lok at the birds of the air, that hey do not sow, neither do they they reap, nor gather into barns, and yet you heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?' (Mathew 8:20).
I feel that humans exist with the vulnerability of wanting to dominate, control, exert and be authoritarian! The freedom to live and be oneself is getting eroded in an existential world where people with a greedy instinct of wealth creation and luxurious living thrive! A recent drive among professionals, that I fear would take us to another tangential direction, is a frenzy for investment in the financial markets where the returns would be double or triple of what one would get from depositing in the post office or bank deposits.
The erosion of share values of an Indian conglomerate, during the recent crisis in the financial market, is a reminder of the compromise of ethical practices in the way many companies function, surrendering to the addiction of multiplying resources. Where is the wisdom or prudence when some who have resources thrive by edging those in the margins, who struggle to live, educate their children or attend to their health needs! The advocacy for wealth creation to use the resources to improve the lot of those stressed financially is a weak proposition, as in my life time thus far, I have watched the disadvantaged benefitting feebly, while the well to do gain disproportionately.
I feel grieved when those who preach and profess to practice the way of Jesus of Nazareth, who came 'to minister and not to be ministered unto' have the hidden instinct to be rich before they can 'minister' to others. The commendation of Jesus of what a widow did by putting two copper coins in the treasury is worth recalling as the golden rule in the practice of social economics." Truly, I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the contributors to the treasury; for they all put in out of their surplus, but she, out of her poverty, put in all she owned, all she had to live on' (Mark 12: 41-44).
I find this outlook to wealth that Jesus proposed a foundational value in social economics. It does spring from another fouundtional value, that we see in the act of a boy, who gave five leaves and two fish, when Andrew came seeking for food when Jesus desired to feed five thousand people who came to listen to him and had no place to go to, to get food in that wilderness (John 6: 1-14). This boy who gave his food packet away conveyed a smiler orientation to what the widow showed by putting her gift out of the little she had.
Jesus multiplied the five loaves and two fish to make it sufficient to feed a multitude.
The parable of Jesus recorded in the gospel of Luke 12:13-21 comes to mind. A landowner who had planned to 'tear down his barns' and build new ones was occupied with a thought 'Soul you have many goods laid up for many years come, take your ease, eat, drink and be merry'(v.19). But he was confronted with a question: 'This very night your soul is required of you; and now who will own what you have prepared'?. The heart of the parable is expressed by Jesus: 'Beware, and be on guard against every form of greed ; for not even when one has an abundance, does his life consist of his possessions' (v.15).
I found this Black-naped Oriole having found the mulberry fruit, went into ecstatic bird calls repeatedly before eating the fruit. It called out for other birds or its pair to come to taste the fruit. This is generosity to share against the more common nature of greed. I fear that greed overtakes generosity even before we are aware of it! The call to create wealth to bring equal opportunities for the have-nots can be a subtle trap to make us go astray to go after more wealth.
All of us have enormous appreciation for Bill and Melinda foundation for its generous contribution to bring health care through supporting universal immunisation and multiple other projects. It is an example of wealth redistribution. There are similar outstanding examples. I hope there would be more wealthy who would tread this path.
To me the path of the widow and the boy in the above two instances chose, would bring in another dimension in social economics. We give the little we have to God, from what we have so that His multiplying grace is operational in every context. So the focus is not so much on wealth creation, but making our tithes as our way of responding to human need with God at work to make them more than ordinary in effect and in quantity.
Let me place this thought before those who profess to be followers of the Nazarene that it is the little, a drop, from which all the rest follows. So giving for a worthy cause from what we have, has more universal appeal than propping up financial investors to create wealth, when we have no control over the ethics of practice employed in wealth creation.
The two birds in this story brought me two messages: Humans are created for relationships. We are stewards of what we are given and are to live mindful of others!
M.C. Mathew(text and photo)
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