Friday, June 29, 2007
Thursday, June 28, 2007
timetable
cooking porridge at 6.05am
10.30am To see the model of femininity: my HOD (who has a professorship from cambridge, family and good dress sense)
11am To meet my tutor, the genius of psychoanalysis who has translated works by Laplanche and written highly acclaimed articles and books on Freud
2.3opm To see off my course-mate who is probably the first to finish all her essays (3 months before the deadline) and will be getting married in a few months' time
3.30pm To speak to a couple over skype - my parents hehehehe
10.30am To see the model of femininity: my HOD (who has a professorship from cambridge, family and good dress sense)
11am To meet my tutor, the genius of psychoanalysis who has translated works by Laplanche and written highly acclaimed articles and books on Freud
2.3opm To see off my course-mate who is probably the first to finish all her essays (3 months before the deadline) and will be getting married in a few months' time
3.30pm To speak to a couple over skype - my parents hehehehe
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
morning
Today's dawn is a cloudy grey one, the sky slowly turning a shy blue but not quite yet. An adolescent boy from a mission school on his first excursion to a Girl-Guides bonfire night.
wow, look at you now
Flowers in the window
It's such a lovely day
And I'm glad you feel the same
'cos to stand up I'm in the crowd
You are one in a million
And I love you so; let's watch the flowers grow
'Flowers in the Window' by Travis
Here is a poignant poem, An Arundel Tomb, which was (is?) a favourite of my JC literature teacher. Oh, especially that last line!
wow, look at you now
Flowers in the window
It's such a lovely day
And I'm glad you feel the same
'cos to stand up I'm in the crowd
You are one in a million
And I love you so; let's watch the flowers grow
'Flowers in the Window' by Travis
Here is a poignant poem, An Arundel Tomb, which was (is?) a favourite of my JC literature teacher. Oh, especially that last line!
Saturday, June 23, 2007
on envy and it's antithesis
To compare is to err, but, oh, how hard it is to do otherwise!
Comparison leads to envy,
envy leads to hate,
hate leads to....
well, you know this one.
Indeed, those who face such a problem know that there is 'no rest for the wicked':
the vicious cycle of envy and looking at others' green pastures and wishing and longing and fighting for which is never enough.
Stratagems to do otherwise:
to look at, aspire to, the one who is perfect, and who in that perfection loves all who are imperfect.
At age 14, I learnt that attrition and pressure release were weathering processes in Geography.
At 23, I am learning that contrition and loving are processes too.
Comparison leads to envy,
envy leads to hate,
hate leads to....
well, you know this one.
Indeed, those who face such a problem know that there is 'no rest for the wicked':
the vicious cycle of envy and looking at others' green pastures and wishing and longing and fighting for which is never enough.
Stratagems to do otherwise:
to look at, aspire to, the one who is perfect, and who in that perfection loves all who are imperfect.
At age 14, I learnt that attrition and pressure release were weathering processes in Geography.
At 23, I am learning that contrition and loving are processes too.
Truly truly thank God for the people he has sent into my life, for those I have met or spoken to over the phone or msn or facebook or received a mail from have been so generous with their time and sincerity, especially these past two months. Even if it has just been a sentence of telling me about your life, a phrase of well-wishes or a conversation about future plans, each means so much.
He never leaves us bereft or broken, because he will send his messengers to support and love.
He never leaves us bereft or broken, because he will send his messengers to support and love.
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
not much of a title is this title
Where will I be 14 days later?
I can't even answer that
In which place in time and space,
In work and play, sorrowful or gay
(that makes a lousy rhyme)
here's what I mean
The blank darkness that looms ahead;
One like me has an impulse to flee -
Nothing I've experienced before
Something out of a folktale or lore.
Oh, I know I'm running away,
Or at least creating a delay
When I have hot chocolate with marshmallows
and apple brambly turnover in a single day.
Yet what difference is this
From the mystery that life is?
When death or accident will overtake us
And if not, that'll only be, might only be, a plus.
Trite though words may seem
They present the kernel of what is
And unless you want to disregard centre
Be wary of the judgements that enter
Interestingly enough, after writing this I dropped half of my turnover, cream and all, on the table, chair and carpet. While I usually would have moaned (being the perfectionist I am, about not having dropped it 90 degrees pointing east), I felt absolutely no emotion after the occurrence. Scarily interesting, interestingly scary.
I can't even answer that
In which place in time and space,
In work and play, sorrowful or gay
(that makes a lousy rhyme)
here's what I mean
The blank darkness that looms ahead;
One like me has an impulse to flee -
Nothing I've experienced before
Something out of a folktale or lore.
Oh, I know I'm running away,
Or at least creating a delay
When I have hot chocolate with marshmallows
and apple brambly turnover in a single day.
(apple brambly turnover)
Yet what difference is this
From the mystery that life is?
When death or accident will overtake us
And if not, that'll only be, might only be, a plus.
Trite though words may seem
They present the kernel of what is
And unless you want to disregard centre
Be wary of the judgements that enter
Interestingly enough, after writing this I dropped half of my turnover, cream and all, on the table, chair and carpet. While I usually would have moaned (being the perfectionist I am, about not having dropped it 90 degrees pointing east), I felt absolutely no emotion after the occurrence. Scarily interesting, interestingly scary.
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Saturday, June 16, 2007
A day out in pictures
Summer Break! Now you see us...
Now you don't!
City of Coventry: Catheral, Shopping malls and Council houses
The old Benedictine Priory grounds
The ruined cathedral of St. Michael.
It dates from 1300 A.D. and was one of the largest parish churches in England.One can imagine how it stood, with its walls, stumps of pillars and the altar still surviving.
This is it: the new St Michael
Thursday, June 14, 2007
What do you live for?
Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards. - Søren Kierkegaard
Very true, and either tragic or inspiring, depending on which way you look at it.
Kierkegaard was s a philosopher whose work influenced Ibsen's drama - interestingly enough Ibsen went from happy endings to increasingly poignant, even catastrophic, endings.
Not to mention, an atheist perspective? As the Father of existentialism I would expect no less, but this does not make his account an authoritative one.
Hope means looking past the future (what a conundrum), past the world that we live in, and to live in the perspective of a different world. If we lived in the perspective of this world we would end up violent, sadistic, selfish creatures, because that is what society, competition and capitalism breeds. Sure, there is wealth, but wouldn't you agree it brings along with it vices that man seem to complacently accept in the present as normal by-products?
I was asked if I thought world religions were 'comfort blankets', cushions and safety nets we place below our precarious positions in life to assure us with an illusion that 'everything will be alright'. In other words, if people believe in a god because it gives them an ability to stand up on their feet after defeat, regardless of an actual existence of god.
I find that assertion thoroughly repulsive, since it is almost as good as Cypher (from The Matrix) saying "give me my steak even though there is no such thing, because all my life is about is enjoyment for the period I am alive". Then 'belief' in a religion, in a god, is a mere opium, a dulling of the senses to be able to live for a while, for myself.
True belief, on the other hand, grounds the knowledge of the supernatural with experiences of God. It says, "I know there is a God, and if there isn't one I rather accept that too than go on living in a lie just to be 'happy'". Religion is not the opiate of the people; is it a life of love and necessarily a life lived for others. It is an enlightenment rather than a shutting out of facts and truth.
Very true, and either tragic or inspiring, depending on which way you look at it.
Kierkegaard was s a philosopher whose work influenced Ibsen's drama - interestingly enough Ibsen went from happy endings to increasingly poignant, even catastrophic, endings.
Not to mention, an atheist perspective? As the Father of existentialism I would expect no less, but this does not make his account an authoritative one.
Hope means looking past the future (what a conundrum), past the world that we live in, and to live in the perspective of a different world. If we lived in the perspective of this world we would end up violent, sadistic, selfish creatures, because that is what society, competition and capitalism breeds. Sure, there is wealth, but wouldn't you agree it brings along with it vices that man seem to complacently accept in the present as normal by-products?
I was asked if I thought world religions were 'comfort blankets', cushions and safety nets we place below our precarious positions in life to assure us with an illusion that 'everything will be alright'. In other words, if people believe in a god because it gives them an ability to stand up on their feet after defeat, regardless of an actual existence of god.
I find that assertion thoroughly repulsive, since it is almost as good as Cypher (from The Matrix) saying "give me my steak even though there is no such thing, because all my life is about is enjoyment for the period I am alive". Then 'belief' in a religion, in a god, is a mere opium, a dulling of the senses to be able to live for a while, for myself.
True belief, on the other hand, grounds the knowledge of the supernatural with experiences of God. It says, "I know there is a God, and if there isn't one I rather accept that too than go on living in a lie just to be 'happy'". Religion is not the opiate of the people; is it a life of love and necessarily a life lived for others. It is an enlightenment rather than a shutting out of facts and truth.
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