Exclusion

Yesterday my friend Nigel posted a piece about ninety-year-olds having to use a smartphone to access basic rights:

‘,,,everything has become an app, a code, a portal. The very people who built this country… now find themselves illiterate in their own homes. If booking a medical appointment or paying a bill requires the help of a son or granddaughter – assuming there is one – then the system has failed.

This is not innovation. It is exclusion…’

Yesterday Cliff beat Terry in an exciting final of our Men’s Shed pool competition. Cliff excluded the rest of us from winning. That’s the nature of the competition – there can only be one winner.

About ninety children and young people auditioned last weekend for ‘Beauty and the Beast’ – The Seagull Theatre’s Christmas show. Yesterday the cast list – involving thirty-five children – was published. Many children are excluded. That’s the nature of auditions. It’s tough.

On Sunday Stephen told Jesus’ parable of the Great Banquet: A man invites guests to a banquet. They make excuses, choosing to exclude themselves from the banquet. That’s the nature of invitations – you can refuse them.

The story continues… ‘The poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame’ are invited and included…

Gary and Annie Jackson from Cambridge were on last night’s news.

Their son Harry, was born with an abnormality of the bowel; he developed intestinal failure-associated liver disease.

Harry was excluded from enjoying a good, healthy childhood. That’s the nature of health. Good health and ill health are randomly distributed.

Tests revealed that Gary, was a suitable match for organ donation. He lost six stone, followed a strict diet and stayed focused for months to make sure he was healthy. In a long, complex operation twenty percent of Gary’s liver and one-and-a-half metres of his small bowel were removed and ‘given’ to Harry.

Gary’s actions moved Harry from excluded to included.

Musing… When exclusion is OK… When it’s difficult, but has to be accepted… When I should do something to enable the excluded to be included.