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The Social Justice Commission of the Anglican Church of Aotearoa & Polynesia

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The mattress

By / 11 May 2008

Recently, while sleeping on the ground in a city park for a month, I had the good fortune to find an old mattress lying on the side of the road rotting. As I was dragging it back ‘home’ I was confronted by a lady on her morning walk.

“Where are you taking that matress, what do you think your doing with it?”

This in a tone of voice that implied moral indignation and outrage at my (obviously) degenerate behavior.

“I’m taking it somewhere far more sensible than the side of the road.”

Eventually, when she was satisfied I wasn’t going to use it for a strange student ritual, she relaxed slightly and said… “it’s disgusting that it has been left on the side of the road. An eyesore. I have to walk past it every day. Why don’t the council take it away. I had a good mind to call them!”

Funny. Even though she hated it she appeared to have formed a relationship with it. She was concerned I was taking it away. Indignant, an attachment with her indignation, and a belief that the powers that be should have done something about it.

I went to a meeting about food and environmental justice last week. This maybe unfair, but it felt to me very similar to that lady’s attitude. Outrage, an attachment to our outrage, and a belief that the system out there should do something.

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About us

This site is run by the Social Justice Commission of the Anglican Church.

We seek to nurture justice spirituality and imagination, and engage in advocacy in all areas of life, overcoming poverty and transforming violence.

We encourage people to think and live “justly”, and emphasise debate and action on local, national and global issues.

Although we are Anglican, our vision isn’t so much about being Anglican. It’s about living justly. Justice is about how you live your life, and being just where we are. Working together, we can all flourish.

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