monday ruminations

we want the best for any child.
we feel that they deserve the best since they have the whole life ahead of them.

my friends provide well for their children; education not just in the area of academic but also sports and music, a home with warm and closely knitted family and surrounded by adults whom they can trust and receive love from and most important of all ... a future they can look forward to.

children who survived a disaster and in the process losing everything including their family have little hope for the future. all they can see is the survival on a day to day basis.
children born into circumstances beyond their control, hold no hope for their future. what else can they do but wait for a turn of situation that will get them out of this vicious cycle. even when the opportunity presents itself, do they have the strength and tenacity to press on to get out?

Born into Brothels, a multi award documentary tried to show the world of the children of the prostitutes in a red light district in Calcutta and the effort of Zana Briski a photographer to get out of the hopeless future.
it was a beautiful film with extraordinary cinemography, stories of lives that there hidden from the public were told in the open in a refreshing way... through the eyes of children.
it deserves the awards that it won.

but it was also a sad and funny film of the journey of these 9 children who for the first time see the world through the lens and documentation of their perspective of the world. through the interviews, they reveal their fears and hope for the future. their love and aspiration.

like any of the children around the world, they are no different; with love for their parents who are prostitutes, illegal liquor seller, drug dealers and with the same childishness and idealism of the future.
but as they grow older and begin to understand the and situation better.. not unlike the rest of the jaded adults, they show signs of apathy and despire.

and after all the efforts of helping them to get into schools and all, the end credits shown that only 2 of the 9 kids stay in school and pressing on to their ideals.
what makes 1 stay and other give up?
love?
which they have little
hope?
hardly any but auntie Zana did give them some
support...?
maybe that is the key since some of their parents actually took them out of schools and put them on the streets.

my thoughts ...
thank God for family and community.
but most of all thank God for Hope that motivate us to be more than what we seems to be capable now.

Hope that there He has a future and a purpose for us all and it is not just anyone who say that but the Creator of the Universe (more than the master of universe!)

what is your perception of comics? cartoons for kids?

what comics come into your mind? Archie?
maybe more superheroes stuff like the heroes from Marvel Comics like Superman, Batman...

maybe the Japanese Manga series of Naruto or the Shonen type of teen stories

or the Hong Kong produced comedy type of comics not unlike Dilbert.

but a novel?
not the bible novel in graphic form or the Chinese comics with materials from epics like Journey to the West, Romance of the 3 Kingdoms...

here comes another genre called the graphic novel.
Neil Gaiman created this genre of storytelling where graphic mash with text to produce an sci-fi, fantasy in comic/manga.
the sandman series collected a lot of accolades and awards including the 1991 year's best short story at FantasyCon Howard Philips Lovecraft trophy.
it has crossed genre.

what is so fascinating and different about Sandman?
there are stories not of heroes but Dream Lord who through the medium of fantasy question the bigger questions of life and eternity.
we are often uncomfortable talking about issues of heaven and hell, of death, dreaming and all the negative emotions. since Gaiman is not a christian, (he is Jewish and son of a prominent Scientology elder) it may reflect christian values or bias but certainly not evangelical.
but the questions and proposition can be quite universal in nature.
in the Season of Mist, Dream Lord wanted to go to Hell to rescue his love Nada from Lucifer but instead he was given the keys of Hell. The fallen angel was so tired of managing the place where the condemned are to come, he released all the souls and demons and resigned.

Lord of Dreams were then pursed by all parties for the right to regain hell. there were so many who came forward to bribe, the threaten and negotiate for the right to rule hell. so many needed it as a place for penance, the demons needed a place of residence and the Creator want Hell to continue doing what it does. it is a reflection of Heaven. without Hell, there can be no Heaven. the dilemma was resolved with the Creator sending His 2 angels to come and take charge of Hell.

will we live our life differently if there is no hell? what is our perception of heaven if there is no hell?
this issue brought out the idea of 'better to reign in hell than serve in heaven - Milton in Paradise Lost (1667) with the very diverse sources and inspiration. just maybe through this genre we can venture to wrestle these with a less concern about being politically correctness and desire to conform.

it is just a discussion of the book on fantasy right?

my sermon that i preached in the begining of Lent to a youth congregation.


What has Mardi Gras got to do with Lent?

Video…
Mardi Gras is often associated with the Sydney gay pride, the big carnival in brazil.
This raucous, sometimes hedonistic event has its roots lie in the Christian calendar, as the "last hurrah" before Lent begins on Ash Wednesday.
The best-known celebration in the U.S. is in New Orleans and the French-Catholic communities of the Gulf Coast. Mardi Gras came to the New World in 1699, when a French explorer arrived at the Mississippi River, about 60 miles south of present day New Orleans. He named the spot Point du Mardi Gras because he knew the holiday was being celebrated in his native country that day.
Mardi Gras literally means "Fat Tuesday" in French. The name comes from the tradition of slaughtering and feasting upon a fattened calf on the last day of Carnival. The day is also known as Shrove Tuesday (from "to shrive," or hear confessions), Pancake Tuesday. The custom of making pancakes comes from the need to use up fat, eggs and dairy before the fasting and abstinence of Lent begins.
http://www.samizdata.net/blog/archives/007384.html

Why do we fast and abstain from entertainment etc during the season of Lent?
Why people in the past, seems to be mourning during Lent?


Reading from Lent
Matthew 26 to Matthew 27

When I first re-read this passage, and watch the video, what impacts me most was the pain that Jesus suffered.
It is a lot of pain in different form.
Lent is a period of 40 weekdays from Ash Wednesday to Holy Saturday. It is a time when Christians remember the pain of Christ and his sacrifice for us all.
We reflect on the suffering of Christ, the passion of Christ, all that He had to go through for us to have eternal life with God.
Jesus experienced different types of pain; the physical pain of being whipped, nailed on the cross and left to die there. And the emotional and spiritual pain.
Looking at the video give me chills in my spine that my God, chose to die for me not in any other ways like jumping off a skyscraper but the slow extricating death on the cross.
The pain of crucifixion is a very bloody horrendous thing. Jesus must have suffered so much.

But was the physical pain the worse thing he experienced?
Isaiah 53:4: "Surely he has borne our grieves and carried our sorrows"

Those who have gone through heart ache or breakup or any other pain can testify to the extent of the pain. It is not physical, there is no trace of blood but it is so unbearable!
People who cut themselves are called cutter. Cutters cut when they are in pain. They need to express those crippling emotional and mental anguish, those unexplained sadness. Cutting was the way to give pain a tangible form and in turn gives them relief to the emotional pain.

I want to talk about pain but the bloodless pain.

Jesus was 100% man and 100% God on the cross. His sense of self preservation is no different from any of us. His tolerance of pain, his vulnerabilities as human, his emotional and spiritual is no different from us.

Emotional Pain of Christ;
1.he knew when he is going to die and how he is going to die. The wait must be horrible. Many with terminal illness gone into depression, and Jesus were not be spare from it. He can countdown to the minutes and events leading to his suffering and death.

2.Pain of drinking this cup of judgment for all people from all nations. In Jesus' physical life He experienced all the temptations we experience - without sin. And at the end he took upon Himself all of our sins - all of the temptations we've succumbed to. Hebrews 4:5, "For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with feeling of our infirmities but was in all points tempted like we are, yet without sin’. He takes on all the darkness and corruption. The world’s darkness in the heart. He, who is righteous and pure, has to experience it all. Imagine a good person suddenly got to engage in all these immoral activities, it is not fun but pain of turning away from your nature.

3.the all knowing God, knows the coming suffering of his disciples. It is like the father seeing his children, the people he love suffered and not being able to do anything about it. The pain of knowing that his sheep will be lost and fall by the wayside when he leaves them.


4.the pain inflicted by the ones he most loved. Betrayal is a form of lost, the losing of faith and hope. Jesus knowingly walks to his excruciating death through the betrayal by someone whom he has loved and lived with for the last 3 years.


Imagine that you are in so much suffering, what curses and complains would you have?
There must be a lot of groaning and crying.
There was no explicit recording of Jesus groans and agony throughout crucifixion, but the one recording of his cry in Matthew 27:46

About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi,[a] lama sabachthani?"—which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
Losing that fellowship with God was the worse.
Not the suffering on the cross.

The greatest pain is the separation from God.
With the sin that Jesus has undertaken for the world; the darkness and evil of pedophiles, murders, adulterers and all the other immorality and unrighteousness, he can no longer be in the presence of His Father the Holy God. The sins that Jesus undertake for us, separate him from God.
That separation was the worse pain of it all.

Post crucifixion, we need not suffer Jesus extreme anguish anymore.
Today we are assured of that intimacy because we can be made holy by the blood of Christ. We can just call out and God will forgive us and allow us to commune with him.

Prayer is out means of communing with Him.
Talking and hanging out with Him.
Why then are we not enjoying that intimacy with God?

seems so long ago that i went to vietnam for short trip.
joined a package tour that took us to the sights in hanoi and hulong bay.

i was chosing between hanoi or saigon but ended with hanoi at the end as it was the most historical and less commercial city in vietnam.

the first impression was the land of motorbikes! not the big loud ones but the scooter hybrid that ranges from 70cc upwards with varying degree of automatic gearing. they are everywhere!
from the airport to the hotel situated in the old quaters of the city, we encounter hundreds of motorbikes and had our first taste of the traffic here. the lights are merely a suggetion to what you should do, green of course you go, amber you just go faster and red is merely a suggestion for you to stop.

crossing the road require guts and skill.
for the first timer, you should just follow the locals closely. the uncles and aunties has been most genereous in letting me tag along for the what lonely planlet called 'the parting of the motorbike sea'. when you walked into the sea of bikes and car, you make eye contact with the motorist and boldly walked across.
and suddenly it would be like Moses parting of the red sea, you were be given space to move along.

the food is great here but greatly chinese infulenced so if you are coming from this part of the world, you would not be too surprised by the food.

the favourite noodle dish is pho, the flat rice noodle cooked in beef or chicken broth.
brilliant! we love noodles!

and the rice paper spring roll is different with fish or meat fillings.
most are just wrapped in this wonderful rice paper.

they love catfish!
there is a dish that has been cooked the same way for the last 40 years or so, where they fried pieces of the catfish fillet in a pan on a charcoal stove, and you just put in the parsely and stuff to cooked it with. the oil in the pan that has been soaked in the catfish will cooked the vege and you eat the flat noodles with it.
it was delicious but not mind blowing. a little too much oil for us.

but the greatest thing here is the coffee.
they are aromatic and strong.
they have a special drip for each cup that is tiny amount just like expresso.
and u drink it with condensed milk.
certainly will melt your emamel on your teeth.

the sweets is really not the best here.. skipped and save the calories for other wonderful stuff.

Halong Bay, listed as a World Heritage Area of outstanding natural beauty. we has a almost private charter since we are the only passengers around on the 3-hour cruise on a chinese junk through the picturesque bay of 3,000 limestone islands dotted with caves and grottoes. the most amazing this are the stalactite and stalagmite that took thousands of years to grow. the cave is carved out of these limestone and they are one of the biggest in the world. they are very beautiful.
just for the awesome wonder of God's creation in this hidden away caves, it is well worth the trip.

as i leave vietnam, i am reminded how much progress singapore made.
and we were at the same state of developement but our Singapore Inc. type of government gave us an edge over our neighbours and allow this little island with no resources progress beyond our natural inheritance and resources allowed us to.

kudos to the government and the can do attitude of singaporeans..
my parents and grandparents to have faith in this adopted land and labour on.

i don't read much rather i don't have blocks of time to read. and being sick has its perks.
i get to read... and more than usually and not the triathlon related books or theology but fun stuff.

i used to think Feng Shui is a lot of mambo jumbo superstitious stuff.
but i read some time ago there are bits of it that are logical but a lot of them are based on a certain belief of how the world function and which i don't subscribe to.

picked this book up after jeffery Archer's collection of shorts stories after his 2 years of incarceration 'cat o'nine tales' just because it was lying around in my house..
after 3 dvd, lots of medication and sleep.. and Jeffery archer... i come down to this..

and it was surprisingly good


what was interesting for me;
1. CF wong, the typical feng shui man with the eye for money, but with surprisingly Sherlock Holmes type of logical deductions and the protagonist of the novel.
2. the clash of culture of west and east in Joyce, the intern to CF wong. in some ways i can resonate bits of her experience.. like why tim sum in the morning! how to eat all these oily food when my body just got up!
3. Singapore was the backdrop and you will find many of the references familiar but a bit dated on the club scene bits.
4. the twist and turn of the story that did not really require the feng shui master special feng shui skills to unravel but rather his logical mind to deduce.

but most of all for his gems of his experience told in the tales of sages of old. not much different from the morality tales or just stories by mr. tan ah teck in under one roof (a dated comedy by TCS that was actually funny). if you have not seen the comedy.. it is just a twist of the main point of the story...
eg. one ruler of an ancient empire wanted to test the leading mystic. so he disguised his wife as one of the courtesans and ask him to identify her. and rightly he did.
the moral of the story... if you can't see it with your own eyes, get someone who can!

one of his logic on feng shui that i agreed with ...
CF wong was consulted by a business man on the feng shui of his office.
like all good businessman, you keep records.. records that you don't need anymore.
and you have piles of stuff that you need to attend to like bills to pay and memos... lots of them
according to this feng shui master; all these junk just zapped your energy.
office too cluttered, can't move around easily.. too much stuff... take up energy even if you don't deal with them. they reminded you how far behind you are.
can't move, can't be at peace...
how to feel good.
no money can be made with little ideas and irritations...

maybe we can take a leave from our CF wong..
for our need to buy and accumulate..
to throw and pare down..
to allow freer movement and greater calm to surround us