How to Dance in the Rain

I received this email from a friend, it is a beautiful example of love:

It was a busy morning, about 8:30, when an elderly gentleman in his 80's arrived to have stitches removed from his thumb. He said he was in a hurry as he had an appointment at 9:00 am.

I took his vital signs and had him take a seat, knowing it would be over an hour before someone would to able to see him. I saw him looking at his watch and decided, since I was not busy with another patient, I would evaluate his wound. On exam, it was well healed, so I talked to one of the doctors, got the needed supplies to remove his sutures and redress his wound.

While taking care of his wound, I asked him if he had another doctor's appointment this morning, as he was in such a hurry.

The gentleman told me no, that he needed to go to the nursing home to eat breakfast with his wife. I inquired as to her health.

He told me that she had been there for a while and that she was a victim of Alzheimer's Disease.

As we talked, I asked if she would be upset if he was a bit late.

He replied that she no longer knew who he was, that she had not recognized him in five years now.

I was surprised, and asked him, 'And you still go every morning, even though she doesn't know who you are?'

He smiled as he patted my hand and said,

'She doesn't know me, but I still know who she is.'

I had to hold back tears as he left, I had goose bumps on my arms, and thought,

'That is the kind of love I want in my life.'

True love is neither physical, nor romantic.

True love is an acceptance of all that is, has been, will be, and will not be.

With all the jokes and fun that are in e-mails, sometimes there is one that comes along that has an important message. This is one of those.

The happiest people don't necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the best of everything they have.

'Life isn't about how to survive the storm,

but how to dance in the rain.' I hope you share this with someone you care about. I just did!

Youth and Age (1823-1832)

This Poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) is reflection of my 36^th birthday I celebrate last Sunday (October 25, 2009) with my close friends here in Dallas, Texas, US. Thank you very much for the valuable friendships like sheltering trees:

Verse, a Breeze 'mid blossoms straying,

Where HOPE clung feeding, like a bee—

Both were mine! Life went a-maying

                      With NATURE, HOPE, and POESY,

                              When I was young!

When I was young?—Ah, woful WHEN!

Ah! for the Change 'twixt Now and Then!

This breathing House not built with hands,

This body that does me grievous wrong,

O'er æry Cliffs and glittering Sands,

How lightly then it flashed along:—

Like those trim skiffs, unknown of yore,

On winding lakes and rivers wide,

That ask no aid of Sail or Oar,

That fear no spite of Wind or Tide!

Nought cared this Body for wind or weather

When YOUTH and I lived in't together.

         FLOWERS are lovely; LOVE is flower-like;

         FRIENDSHIP is a sheltering tree;

         O ! the Joys, that came down shower-like,

         Of FRIENDSHIP, LOVE, and LIBERTY,

                                                     Ere I was old!

Ere I was old? Ah woful ERE,

Which tells me, YOUTH'S no longer here!

O YOUTH ! for years so many and sweet,

'Tis known, that Thou and I were one,

I'll think it but a fond conceit—

It cannot be that Thou art gone!

Thy Vesper-bell hath not yet toll'd:—

And thou wert aye a Masker bold!

What strange Disguise hast now put on,

To make believe, that thou art gone?

I see these Locks in silvery slips,

This drooping Gait, this altered Size:

But SPRINGTIDE blossoms on thy Lips,

And Tears take sunshine from thine eyes!

Life is but Thought: so think I will

That YOUTH and I are House-mates still.

               Dew-drops are the gems of morning,

               But the tears of mournful eve!

               Where no hope is, life's a warning

               That only serves to make us grieve,

                                          When we are old:

That only serves to make us grieve

With oft and tedious taking-leave,

Like some poor nigh-related guest,

That may not rudely be dismist;

Yet hath outstay'd his welcome while,

And tells the jest without the smile.

[Note: lines 1-38 were published as Youth and Age 1828, 1829, and lines 39-49 as An Old Man's Sigh in 1832].

A witness story to DTS’ Theme Song

In  Dallas Theological Seminary (DTS) we regularly sing the hymn “All Hail the power of Jesus’ Name” written by Edward Perronet in 1779. This is a story of Rev. E.P. Scott's use of it in mountains of India--

Transcript of the video:

Soon after Rev. E.P. Scott was a missionary to India, One day he passed a man of unusual appearance. A man from a wild mountain tribe, unreached by the gospel. Mr. Scott prayed over the matter. . .Against the pleadings of his friends. . .H e decided to visit the tribe. As he neared their village. . . He was ambushed by a war party. They seize him. Spears pointed at his heart. With no hope of escape. . . Scott carmly open his violin case . . .Breathed a prayer. . . and began to sing “all Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name!” At every kindred, every tribe. . . He opened his eyes. . .The warriors stood in tears. . .Spears lowed. . .Mr. Scott was allowed into the village. He speared two years with them, many believed in Christ.

Faith Lost?: Christians fall through the cracks!

This week I met a Christian, who has never experience kindness from the church or Christians around her. She was marveled by our generosity and kindness. There is something very wrong in the contemporary evangelical Christianity. This resonates in the story of Van Gogh. The famous painter Vincent Van Gogh, sought to be a clergymen. He loved to read the bible, teach in Sunday school (when he was living in London), and listen to various sermons—his letters to brother and sister are filled with bible quotations. His failure to gain admissions to Amsterdam University for the theological training as clergy men, resulted in going to an evangelical college. He graduated and commissioned to the Belgian mission field, where he became cynical of the evangelical faith. In his later years, he distant himself from the religion—failure to find employment, or sell his paintings and mental disorders drove him to take his own life, in a corn field, where he was drawing. This is an excerpt taken from the lovely book called Evangelical Disenchantment by Dr. David Hempton:


No doubt piqued by a sense of rejection, and schooled in the evils of hypocrisy by his readings in Shakespeare, Dickens, and Harrier Beecher Stowe, Vincent developed a passionate cynicism for those in authority, especially those in religious authority in the same way that he lost respect for commercial art dealers in Paris and London, and self-serving theological educators in Amsterdam, he grew disenchanted with the evangelical leaders hip he encountered in Belgium. "I must tell you," he wrote Theo, "that with evangelists it is the same as with artists. There is an old academic school, often detestable, tyrannical, the accumulation of horrors, men who wear a cuirass, a steel armor, of prejudices and conventions; when these people arc in charge of alEiirs, they dispose of positions, and by a system of red tape they try to keep their protégés in their places and to exclude the other man." Comparing the spirituality of evangelical worthies to that of shakespeare's drunken Falstatf (very Dickensian), van Gogh concluded that they were incapable of normal human emotions or of anything approaching clear-sightedness. A similar distrust of religious professionals shows up a year later, when, after yet another bout of unrequited love, this time with his cousin Kee Vos,he wrote that the object of his love was in a mental prison imposed by the "Jesuitism of clergymen," which no longer had a hold on him because he knew some of "the dessojis de canes": "For me that God of the clergymen is as dead as a doornail. But am I an atheist for all that? The clergymen considering so—so be it—but I love, and how could I feel love if I did not live and others did not live. Now call it God, or human nature or whatever you like, but there is something which I cannot define in a system though it is very much alive and very real, and see that as God, or just as good as God." Van Gogh's criticism of the religious professionals he had once sought to emulate was accompanied by a more inclusive and less mutually competitive view of religion, art, literature, and spirituality than was the case in his evangelical phase. "I think that everything which is really good and beautiful—of inner moral, spiritual and sublime beauty in men and their works—comes from God, and all which is bad and wrong in men and their works is not of God, and God does not approve of it." In this way van Gogh was able to move beyond what was at times an antithetical view of religion and art to one that sought unity in all "the many things one must believe and love." Thus he could find something of Rembrandt in Shakespeare and something of the Gospel in Rembrandt and so on. Nevertheless, resolutions of old warring members did not come easily to van Gogh, and not all was resolved. He recognized that he had spent five years of his life "more or less without employment, wandering here and there," and that he was still without a suitable vocation, financial resources, familial respect, or his own family. He described himself as a caged bird imprisoned by adverse circumstances, a damaged reputation, and insufficient redeeming love. Even if his cage had not sprung open, something substantial changed in him in the years 1879—80. After parting company with the Belgian evangelicals, never again are his letters dominated by endless scriptural quotations, pious instructions, and a desire to find some form of sacrificial Christian service. Van Gogh, the evangelical Protestant, was buried somewhere in the coal mines of the Borinage. The person who emerged from the Belgian "black country" was just as much a tortured soul as the person who entered it,
but never again was the torture prescribed for him by some form of intense biblical Christianity. Van Gogh came to believe that love was the more excellent way and that art, for better or worse, was his passion. In 1880 he wrote, "the best way to know God is to love many things. Love a friend, a wife, something—whatever you like—and you will soon be on the way to know more about Him."

  
Source: David Hempton, Evangelical Disenchantment: Nine Portraits of Faith and Doubt. (New Haven:Yale University Press, 2008), 128-29.

ජනතාවට වැදගත් වන ප්‍රශ්නය කුමක්‌ද?

[This article is in Sinhalese unicode typescript]
සටහන:දිවයින පුවත්පතේ කර්තෘ විසින් ඉතා වැදගත් කතුවැකියක් ලියා තිබිණ. එය කෙතරම් වටිනා සටහනක් වී ද, මා විසින් එය මෙහි පළ කරන්නට කැමැත්තෙමි. එයින් දැනට ලංකාව ජනතාව විසින් කල්පනාවට ගත යුතු කරුණු කිහිපයක් දක්වයි. දැන් ලංකාවට අවශ්‍යවනුයේ තවත් ඡන්දයක් නො ව, සංවර්ධනයයි; ජනතාවට ජීවත් විය හැකි ජීවන බරකි. එහෙත් දේශපාලකයන් විසින් එවැනි ඡන්දයක් ජනතා දුක් නොසලකා, ඔවුන්ගේ වාසිය තකා ගෙනෙන්නට සූදානම් වන්නේ ‍නම් පවතින ආණ්ඩුව පරදවා (හෝ සුළුතර ආසන ප්‍රමාණයක් දී) පාඩමක් ඉගැන් විය යුතු ය. එවි‍ට ඡන්ද සෙල්ලම අත්හැර, ඔව්හූ වැඩට බසින්නා හ. බලයේ සිටින්නන්ට දැක්මක් ඇති කරලීම ඡන්ද දායකයා ගේ ශුද්ධ අයිතියකි. එසේ කටයුතු කිරීමට ලාංකියන්ට ප්‍රඥාව ලැබේ වා!

ජනරාල් සරත් ෆොන්සේකා දේශපාලනයට එනු ඇතැයි අයෙක්‌ කියති. තමා එසේ කරන බවක්‌ කිසිවකුට කියා නැතැයි එවිට ජනරාල් කියයි. ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ ස්‌ථාවරත්වය බිඳ දැමීමට හේතු විය හැකි ඕනෑම කුමන්ත්‍රණයකදී ශ්‍රී ලංකාවට උපකාර කරන බව ඉන්දියාව කියයි. මේ සියලු කරුණු අතර මීළඟට පවත්වන්නේ ජනාධිපතිවරණයද නැතහොත් මහ මැතිවරණයද යන්න විසඳාගත නොහැකිව ආණ්‌ඩුව ලතැවෙයි. ඒ අතර උදේට කෑවොත් දවල්ට කන්නේ කොහොමද, දවල්ට කෑවොත් රෑට කන්නේ කොහොමද යනාදී වශයෙන් කල්පනා කරමින් මහජනයා ලතැවෙයි.

මේ රටේ ජනයාගේ ආදායමින් හරි අඩක්‌ම වැයවන්නේ ආහාර සඳහා බව හෙළිවී ඇතැයි ඉරිදා (18 දා) "දිවයිනේ" මුල් පිටුවේ පළ වී තිබේ. මේ ප්‍රතිඵලය නියෑඳියක්‌ වශයෙන් තෝරාගත් පිරිසකගේ වියහියදම්වල සාමාන්‍යයකි. සැබෑ තත්ත්වය නම් මාසයේ මුළු වැටුපම ආහාර පිණිස වැය කර එයත්a මදි බැවින් තවත් ණය වන පවුල් දහස්‌ ගණනක්‌ මේ රටේ සිටින බව ය. උදාහරණයක්‌ වශයෙන් මසකට රුපියල් 12000 ක වැටුපක්‌ ලබන ගෘහමූලිකයකු සිටින පස්‌දෙනකුගෙන් යුතු පවුලක්‌ ගනිමු. රුපියල් 12000 දින 30 න් බෙදූ විට දිනක ආදායම රුපියල් 400 කි. පස්‌දෙනකුගෙන් යුතු පවුලකට දිනකට ආහාර වේල් 15 ක්‌ අවශ්‍ය ය. උදේ ආහාර වේල් 5 ට රුපියල් 100 ක්‌ද දිවා ආහාර වේල් 5 ට රුපියල් 200 ක්‌ ද රාත්‍රි ආහාර වේල් 5 ට රුපියල් 150 ක්‌ ද වැය කළ විට දවසේ වියදම රුපියල් 450 කි. එතැනම මේ පවුල දිනකට රුපියල් 50 බැගින් මසකට රුපියල් 1500 ක්‌ ණය වෙයි. මේ මිනිසුන්ට බස්‌වල ගමන් කිරීමටද ඇඳුම් පැළඳුම් සඳහා ද, ලයිට්‌ බිල් ගෙවීමට ද මුදල් ඉතිරි නොවේ. එ බැවින් තර්කයක්‌ වශයෙන් ගතහොත් මේ පවුල කරුවලේ නිරුවතින් ගෙතුලට වී කල් ගෙවිය යුතු ය. ගෙහිsමියා පමණක්‌ යන්තමින් විලි වසාගෙන වැඩට යා යුතු ය. එහෙත් රුපියල් 12000 ක ආදායමක්‌ කළමනාකරණය කිරීම සඳහා වෙනත් ක්‍රම ඇති බැවින් මේ මිනිස්‌සු ද අනෙක්‌ මිනිසුන් මෙන් ලයිට්‌ බිල්/ ගෙවල් කුලී/ වතුර බිල් ගෙවමින් තුන් වේලෙන් දෙවේලක්‌ හෝ ආහාර ගෙන දිවි ගැටගසා ගනිති.

ප්‍රශ්නය මේ මිනිසුන් කෙසේ හෝ ජීවත් වන බව කල්පනාවට ගෙන හිත හදා ගැනීම නොවේ. කෙසේ ජීවත්වේද යන්න සිතා බැලීම ය. දිනෙන් දින ඉහළ නගින උද්ධමනය හමුවේ බඩු මිල පහළ දැමිය නොහැක. ඒ ප්‍රශ්නයට විසඳුම ජනයාගේ ආදායම ඉහළ දැමීම ය. තිස්‌ අවුරුදු යුද්ධයක්‌ පැවැති රටේ යුද්ධය දිනූ ඇසිල්ලෙහි ජනයාගේ ආදායම ඉහළ දැමිය නොහැක. යුද්ධය නැවැතී ඇති නිසා යුද්ධයට වැය කළ සල්ලිත් ඉතිරි නොවේදැයි සමහරු ප්‍රශ්න කරති. එහෙත් අප යුද කළේ ද ණයට ය. ඒ නිසා තවත් අවුරුදු කිහිපයක්‌ම යුද ණය ගෙවීමට තිබේ. එසේ නම් කළ යුත්තේ කුමක්‌ද? මේ වළෙන් ගොඩ එන්නේ කෙසේද?

මුලින්ම බොරු වියදම් නැවැත්විය යුතුය. ජනාධිපතිතුමා ඇතුළු රටේ පැවැත්මට තීරණාත්මක ලෙස බලපාන දේශපාලනඥයන්ගේ සහ නිලධාරීන්ගේ හැර අන් සියලු දේශපාලනඥයන්ගේ විය හියදම් අඩු කළ යුතු ය. දැනට සිටින කරකබල් වැනි දේශපාලනඥයෝ පවා තමන් වෙනුවෙන් ආණ්‌ඩුවේ මුදල් විශාල ලෙස වියදම් කර ගනිති. ඇතැම් සුළු දේශපාලනඥයකු වුව පාරේ යන විට ඉදිරියෙන් වාහන තුන හතරක්‌ ද පස්‌සෙන් වාහන තුන හතරක්‌ ද ගමන් කරති. ඔවුන් එකතුවන තැන්වල පරිභෝජනය සහ පරිභෝජන වියදම නිතැතින්ම නගී. කළ යුත්තේ මේ වැය කපා හැර එම ඉතිරිය රටේ ජාතික ධනයට පොම්ප කිරීම ය. එසේ නැතුව ජෙනරාල් 
ෆොන්සේකා දේශපාලනයට එනවාද නැද්ද යන්න ගැන ලතවීම නොවේ.

Rewriting the Human Evolution Story

It is ironic that the evolution story has to be rewritten with the discovery of the Ardi, which stands for Ardipithecus ramidus predating iconic bones of Lucy form least a million years. 4.4 million years old, partial fossil-skeleton hints the scientists that humans and apes are evolved from more human like ancestor or forebear, than they earlier theorized. Therefore, the human and ape evolution is reversal not progressive. That is to say humans are not evolved from apes but apes have evolved from human like hominoids. The wall street Journal article states:
"Although the differences between humans, apes and chimps today are legion, we all shared a common ancestor six million years or so ago. These fossils suggest that the common ancestor – still undiscovered – resembled a chimp much less than researchers have always believed.

In fact, so many traits in modern chimps and apes are missing from these early hominids that researchers now question the notion that chimps and apes are a repository of primitive traits once shared by our ancestors. "We all thought the ancestral animal would look more like a chimp," said Yale University anthropologist Andrew Hill. 

Instead, the new finds show that what seems most ancient about modern chimps and apes -- such as canine fangs, long limbs with hooked fingers for swinging through trees, and hands designed for knuckle-walking -- may actually be more recent developments, the researchers said. In that sense, the human hand today actually may be the more primitive appendage, they said.

Unlike modern apes and chimps, these hominids had supple wrists, strong thumbs, flexible fingers and power-grip palms shaped to grasp objects like sticks and stones firmly. They were primed for tool use, even though it would be another two million years or so before our ancestors began to fashion the first stone blades, choppers and axes"

It amazing isn't it, how Science can fool people for decades!!!

Watch the WSJ presentation of the founding, you'll be astonished: