The Other is relative and the point of subjectivity begins with me. We ‘other’ each other as the ‘I’ determines who is not like me, who ‘I’ will not like, who ‘I’ will be friendly with, who ‘I’ will have a prolonged conversation with, who ‘I’d’ like to meet for dinner.

As the ‘I’ grows and changes, we find some circles of others converging, others diverging, others repelled and out of sight only to return perhaps at some later stage in life.

Such relationships with others appear to be arbitrary and fleeting. Nothing much sustains it except for me and my decision to widen my circle, to move it to converge with another if it suits me.

Let me paint you another picture with the help of Isaiah

The Peaceful Kingdom (A possible image of heaven?)
The Royal Line of David is like a tree that has been cut down: but just as new branches sprout from a stump, so a new king will arise from among David’s descendants.

The spirit of the lord will give him Wisdom and the Knowledge and Skill to rule his people.
He will know the Lord’s will and honour him, and find pleasure in obeying him.
He will not judge by appearances or hearsay
He will judge the poor fairly and defend the rights of the helpless.
At his command will the people be punished, and evil persons die
He will rule his people with justice and integrity.

Wolves and sheep will live together in peace and leopards will lie down with goats.
Calves and lion cubs will feed together and little children will take care of them.
Cows and bears will eat together
And their calves and cubs will lie down in peace.
Lions will eat straw as cattle do.
Even a baby will not be harmed if it plays near a poisonous snake.
On Zion, God’s sacred hill,
There will be nothing harmful or evil.
The Land will be full of knowledge of the Lord
As the seas are full of water.

On God’s sacred hill, there is no other.
We take care of one ANOTHER.
(no matter how different we may be in looks, temperaments or beliefs.)
There will be no evil
And we will come to know God.

This was Isaiah’s image of Heaven. While the image of leopards lying down with goats may look like an image of reward and rest, Isaiah’s image however is one of work and effort. Isaiah’s image of  heaven, ie: The Kindgom of God needs to be built by none other than Christ and the tools of the trade given to him by God are:

Wisdom, Knowledge and Skill used to honour God.
Wisdom Knowledge and skill used not to judge by appearances and hearsay but to judge fairly.
Wisdom Knowledge and Skill then used to defend the helpless.
So that all may live with justice and integrity.

In concrete terms Jesus, with all the wisdom, knowledge and skill from his father, did not wage a jihad. He went out to restore dignity to those his society had rejected. The lepers, the lame, the ones with evil spirits, the women, the prostitutes, the tax collectors, the rich young men and the little children. (The examples are all over the bible). He changed the word ‘other’ into ‘another’ and preached love for one another.

“He sent me to bring the Good News to the poor. Tell prisoners that they are prisoners no more. Tell blind people that they can see and set the down trodden free…”

He also gave is a job to do, a part to play in building a kingdom of justice and integrity, aka the kingdom of god. And until our society ( and even our church) starts to look like this…

Question then: Where do we start? Which ‘other’ to transform into ‘another’ to love and reach out to?

There are others who have fallen off the page of our society. You hear of them but don’t really see them around, quite literally. They are those who have been rejected as economically and socially liabilities (prisoners), who have been rejected as stupid (can’t pass PSLE), who are mentally unsound (IMH) who are from a different, impoverished neighbouring lands (foreign workers), who are sexual deviants (ourselves?), who are unwanted children and those who are old and useless. (The Homes and centres),

How do we start?
By jumping in. This is work by a group of 12 inmates from Kaki Bukit Prison School. It was done over a series of workshops conducted over two years by Noorlinah Mohamed who looked after the drama and myself who did visual art with them. When we first started, I was uncertain if our work would get through. Afterall, I was only bringing crayons and paints to a group of supposed inmates. However, when the work started, we started to get to know them. Many seemed stuck in the past, and we envisioned a future that they wanted together.

This year, Noorlinah approached me to work with a group of foreign workers at a women’s shelter. Again I just jumped in and got to know them over a period of a month. During that month, the ladies from the Philippines and Indonesia made this video called the Hidden Channel. I had asked them what they felt they wanted to tell others, what they felt was important. The Hidden Channel speaks about the problems of both the Philippines and Indonesia, problems very close to their heart.

It is one thing to put money in an envelope and to send it off to the poor. It is another thing to step into their world (which has fallen off the page) and to work with them to bring their world back on the page. In art, personality emerges, voices become articulate and what is otherwise hidden away is brought out to the open for all. This is what I try to do in my work. But there are other ways, providing the basics for those who have none – clean living conditions, food, shelter, friendship, all goes towards restoring the dignity of a person’s worth to himself and others. We are no longer strangers to each other, but recognize ourselves in one another.

We take care of one another.
And in doing so we are all a little closer to the image that Isaiah had of heaven.

And so I end with something concrete since we are on ‘BUILDING’ relationships. A rubric I use with my children at NorthLight. My arts team and I try to ‘mark’ the children’s ‘relationship management skills’ and I get confused: a child is very nice and sensitive to his friends but not to others he doesn’t know. Does that mean he is good at relationship management? It was my Drama consultant who enlightened me: It is no point if he is only good to his friends. He sees himself in his friends and so he is still self-managing. He still cannot see himself in others who are not like him and hence cannot relate to them.

So remember – it doesn’t count if you are on a scale of 4 with only your friends. You have to make the others count too so that we can all transform the other to another and help build the kingdom of God right here on earth.