Fast forward to the early 80s, an Easter holiday image of the shocked face of the being brought up Catholic child of a friend of mine when I proposed that Jesus was a radical protestor, using a description the child understood very well.
Surely, if an historical Jesus existed, he was tortured and murdered for advocating broadly socialist, tolerant, humane behaviour in that era of cruelty, autocracy, hegemony, colonialism, imperialism, and misogyny to name some of the injustices, then - and that we are still living with and fighting against.
As we know, crucifixion was favoured by the Romans as a method of torturing people to death. In the scriptures Barabbas, a violent insurrectionist also sentenced to be crucified is juxtaposed with Jesus, and chosen by the crowd to be freed. This posits him as the lesser criminal in the eyes of society, or perhaps a crowd who understood the distinct biases of the Roman authorities. This all takes place far from Rome. Very modern.
Torture has continued to be used, refined, and expanded, despite intermittent declarations of our advanced evolution. When we tell ourselves these soothing stories, do we mean the mere continuation of our species with our huge brain, or something much more cognisant of the vagaries of the overall human condition, running sweetly and smoothly along tracks forged of respect, love, care, sharing, kindness and compassion? If the latter, how dare we.
I don’t want to dwell on contemporary examples of torture, but seeing as it is my custom to roam the territory between traumatic events, and especially collective trauma, and resilience and therapy, I am impelled to note that Francesca Albanese, UN SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR ON THE PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES OCCUPIED SINCE 1967 has called torture on the accumulation and decades long cruelty and now genocide perpetrated by the Israeli system against the Palestinian people of Gaza. It is entirely relevant that this all takes place in the so-called Holy Land when Eid, Passover and Easter practically run over each other. Happy festivities, all.
#torturealwayswasalwayswillbeevil
We’re a deeply secular society here in Aotearoa-New Zealand, (and also tolerant of the myriad religions) but stick to an anachronistic, even hypocritical law that restricts Good Friday trading. Perhaps most notably, garden centres are not allowed to open. Garden centres. This is despite the fact that Easter is the longest long weekend in our calendar, making it a massive DIY project and gardening time for stay at homers, and the last gasp of fingers crossed summery break away time for others. Carparks of building supplies warehouses overflow, the queues instore test patience. We eat hot cross buns with lashings of butter, chocolate eggs - and we get shit done. We pack the car and go away. Maybe not so much this year with petrol at near enough to $NZ3.50/litre. Full speed to the 25th amendment.
ill-advised, Bill Nighy’s pod.
You send your questions in and Bill Nighy speaks to them as only he could, he thinks taking care not to be consequential. In fact he’s droll, wise, ironic and funny. He also mentions some music, and reads from a book he’s enjoyed recently. Trust me it’s all a soothing balm for your heart and mind. Your nervous system will thank you for every episode. Truly a delicious dose of nonsense-not nonsense in all the flavours of just let go and be gently rocked. ‘If you are socially adept there is nothing really for you here, but if you have time to squander, this podcast might just be for you.’
Recommended music and books are in the show notes. I listened on Spotify. Here’s a little taste from the episode Procrastination of 09 October 2025, ‘…from what to do when you don’t recognise somebody, to his thoughts on clutter.
‘..people always presume that I’ve got vinyl and a sophisticated sound system. In fact, I don’t. I have a couple of little you know Bluetooth speakers around the house and the reason for that is because I can’t bear to give up the space. I’m always going to prefer the space where it isn’t to the object…’ Bill Nighy
And that’s in lieu of some lines of poetry this time.
Karen Sole is a Family Constellations Facilitator living in Napier Aotearoa-New Zealand.
www.manawafamilyconstellations.com English language. Global reach.
manawa = heart breath emotion
karensole@manawafamilyconstellations.com drop a line to arrange a workable time
Karen Sole is a member of the International Institute for Complementary Therapists, and of the International Systemic Constellations Association (isca-network.org), and a former member of ANZCI, the Aotearoa New Zealand Constellation Incorporated. She took her first training from Yildiz Sethi yildizsethi.com of familyconstellations.com.au. Karen’s profile can be found on the above organisational sites. She participates in monthly professional supervision, facilitator member constellations of ANZCI, ISCA, and informal international groups of experienced credentialed facilitators. From 01 October 2025 to 30 September 2026 she is a member of CI Connect, ‘a safe space to connect to self and others through compassionate sexf-inquiryand the exploration of our shared humanity in today’s world’ with Dr Gabor Mate and Sat Dharam Kaur ND and CI Facilitators.
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