election time

We are always having to decide what we think about people.  Mostly it's just about small daily stuff that doesn't matter much.  At the moment in South Africa it is about public people and who I think should be running our city.  There is not much to go on, and everything available from the bizarre to the deadly.  The main manifestation of the looming choice is posters, endlessly and everywhere.

 

And then there are the important choices, the times when what I think of someone may change lives, may change my life: How trustworthy is this man?  How reliable is this woman?  How perceptive is this child?

We are looking at the saga of an ancient spiritual sage.  Throughout his writing he relates the choices as he show us how people responded to the person he was following and learning from.  He also shows us how the leaders had decided quickly that anyone who ordinary people liked so much couldn't be a good thing.

"Among the crowds there was widespread whispering about him.  Some said, 'He is a good man.'  Others replied, 'No, he deceives the people.'  But no one would say anything publicly about him for fear of the leaders."