Daryl's Blog

My dog Poppy takes me for a walk round a local park several times a week. When the park authorities asked a local ornithologist in to check out the local wildlife, he reported seeing 28 different species of bird: wren, thrush, willow warbler, two kinds of woodpecker, blackcap, nuthatch etc, etc. What birds do I see? I see collar doves and rooks and the occasional blackbird and thrush. Effectively, when I walk round Hotham Park I'm blind. But I'm blind in so many other ways as well.

In Avatar, there's a moment when Neytin, the young Pandoran girl says to Jake's Avatar, 'I see you', which meant that she could really 'see' the clumsy earthling in a way that he couldn't even dimly begin to understand. The film comes to a climax and in the closing scene he says to her, 'I see you', and she to him, 'I see you'; simple but eloquent. I see so little of what goes on around me. I don't understand people's motives. I jump to conclusions, invariably wide of the mark. Two people I love dearly quarrel and are estranged, there seeming to be no way out of the impasse they have created. It's clear to me that neither of them can 'see' the other. Each attributes to the others wrong motives, hidden agendas, lack of love, character flaw, and so on. And forgiveness doesn't seem to come into things at all. Doesn't scripture say something about believing the best of one another?

I really want to take time to see more. I want to enjoy seeing the abundance and variety of birds on Hotham Park. More than that though, I want to 'see' my fellow travellers for who they are: well intended but clumsy, often insecure, often frightened to trust and disclose themselves, frightened to give love, and receive it. Let's get to the point where we can say to a fellow human being, 'I see you'.