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James K. Baxter Complete Prose Volume 3

[Extract from The Six Faces of Love]

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The guest is a sacred person sent by God. It is my opinion that if we turned away any guest from the door – mad or sane, drunk or sober, male or female, young or old – then we would be excluding God from the house. The guest should be welcomed with signs of love, and given food and drink – even if there is very little to eat in the house – and given a place to lie down. If guests choose to stay for any length of time, they should not be asked to contribute money or perform tasks – though their help should be welcomed if they offer it.

What about the bludgers and parasites?

Well – we all live in a house God made for us – this earth with its rivers and trees and mountains and oceans. And we cut down the trees for no good reason, and fill the rivers with sludge, and destroy through greed the fishing beds of the ocean and carve up the mountains to make roads for tourists who will give us money. We ruin the ecology of the world because of our frantic pursuit of the dollar note, which is in a sense the god of our civilisation. And we kill our fellow guests in wars, or let them starve to death while we stuff ourselves with mutton and pork and alcohol and ice cream. We are very bad guests indeed, unruly, destructive and parasitic. But God does not turf us out of the house made for us. Instead God suffers our presence out of love, and continues to shower us with gifts. I think it proper that human beings should try a little to imitate the hospitality of God.

James K. Baxter, The Six Faces of Love

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