Hello, Goodbye

What is it about an airport that makes a trip to one seem like a special occasion? When I was growing up I never really understood the almost universal fascination – we weren’t going anywhere – but I could sense that we were still doing something special. But I now realise that living in a country where everywhere else is so far away means airports have come to be equated with life-changing moments. They are spring-board destinations. When we went to see relatives off we were witnessing that very point in their lives where things were literally going to take off.

Nine’s reality-style production, Hello, Goodbye capitalises on the sense of life-change airports bring. Animal Rescue regular Rebecca Harris wanders the departure and arrival halls asking the simple question, ‘Why are you here?’ What emerges is a tapestry of human tales that makes for compelling viewing. A non-descript figure becomes Leo, a middle-aged man who was adopted out as a child in Spain. He has only recently met his natural family and is now returning his elderly mother to her homeland. A dark-skinned couple turn out to be Tejan and Massah, refugees from war-torn Sierra Leone. They are waiting to take eight orphaned nieces and nephews home to begin a new life. “I say to them, ‘Hey, you know what? You guys can call me dad,” the young man smiles.

Hello Goodbye is visually limited, with nearly every scene consisting of a small group of people clustered around a travel carte or a conveyor belt. But behind the bags are the sorts of emotionally charged stories only real lives can produce. Nine may still employ the predictable slow-motion close-ups we’ve come to associate with commercialised emotion, but there are no actors here and the unfeigned joy and unrestrained tears leave your average drama for dead.

The appeal of Hello, Goodbye owes much to its ability to foster a sense of connectedness in its audience. Each week a few simple questions transform unremarkable crowds into interesting individuals. It taps into the modern Australian’s often unexpressed craving for community. A sad bi-product of modern communication devices, work practices and purchasing options is that we no longer have to meet with people. There was a time when simply filling your car with petrol or buying a loaf of bread might bring you into personal contact with another human being. Now you can be as impersonal as you want. However many people are regretting this distance.

The togetherness Hello, Goodbye offers may be limited – after all, television isn’t really all that interactive – but it’s not altogether illusory. Programs like this help us realise that the people around us are real as we are, sharing hopes and pains much like our own. In that respect, they are arguably more effective at nation-building than a dozen federally funded jingles. Properly considered they should also have a significant effect on evangelism.

I have a theory that we get by in life by unconsciously assuming that 90% of the people around us are cardboard cut-outs – mere scenery. Cities are difficult places to live in simply because of the number of people we have to move around each day. Dehumanising them simplifies our interaction, allows us to concentrate on what is uppermost in our minds at that time. However, if we believe that those figures around us actually think and feel as much as we do, then we should treat them differently.

A prominent Sydney evangelist recently suggested we are in danger of developing a ‘1 minute culture’ when it comes to talking to people; real evangelism is engaging with their lives. Let’s put an end to the quest for the perfect, one-size-fits-all model for evangelism. Such thinking will ultimately result in a depersonalised response. Our concept of evangelism has to become more expansive. Whatever means we use to deliver the Gospel it should include the commitment to relate to the people. We can no longer treat people as the biological equivalent of letter-boxes which we slip our evangelistic tract into and move on.

I wonder whether this approach would mean that we actually really evangelise only a handful of people in our lives - those we’re prepared to get involved with. John Bunyan’s analogy of evangelism in Pilgrim’s Progress was for his main character to invite people to join him on the journey to the Celestial City. There was no ‘Hello and Goodbye’ there, but a perpetual witness that lasted for a life-time. It might be worth noting that though Jesus clearly proclaimed the Gospel to thousands of people, he took it on himself to personally evangelise twelve and his promise to them was, ‘I will be with you even to the end of the age’.

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