Yesterday, my family was enjoying a nice meal of dim sum (or yum cha which is what Aussies call them, from the Cantonese phrase which literally means “tea drinking,” a reference to the aromatic teas that accompany the dishes of delicacies served during such meals) at one of the many Southern Californian restaurants that serve up this ubiquitous sumptuous fare. This was the first time we went to this particular restuarant and the quality of the food was really quite good, and we were also rather hungry to begin with so we tucked into the delicious steaming dishes without much conversation initially.

When most of us have had our fill, the conversation started up, and halfway through it, one of my teens started talking about an exercise that he suggested my wife ought to practice. He described it in detail and as soon as he started I recognized that to be the Kegel PC muscles toning exercise. The thing is, my son, a high school freshman, was attempting to teach his mother how to do it! I found that Read the rest of this entry »

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Technorati Tags: teenagers, conversations, dimsum, family, sex, talks, listening, question-asking

I wrote about this last week, and today it happened again. This morning, I had to rush out the door but my wife needed me to help her on the PC. She couldn’t find an old file, and she is not very conversant with using the search functions on the PC.

I tried to help her briefly but could not stay to help, and had to rush off. As I drove off, I wished I was ale to help her, and as I thought about it, I was reminded of a good friend of ours because he used to come over and help my wife quite a bit on the PC. This is one friend we haven’t contacted for about five years and he still lives halfway around the world in Australia where we used to live. This evening, when I got back from work, my wife announced that she received an email from our old friend.

How about that? Is this just me, or do you get similar experiences as well? Do you think of someone and that person calls you or emails you?

What does that tell us about the unseen world?

Or do you think it is just all coincidences?

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Quick! Without looking, what do you think the word crapulous mean?

Crap!?!

No, not quite, but that’s pretty close!

It is the word of the day, so go look it up now.

I just saw it and thought you might like to know!

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Inspired by a post at Messy Christian’s blog, I started thinking about the difference between a fundamentalist, a liberal and a postmodernist during a conversation I was having with my son.

While we were chatting, I responded to something he said with, “You bet!”

We talked some more, but I started thinking about what a fundamentalist, a liberal and a postmodernist might each say in response to that.

So, what are the differences in the three responses?

A fundy most likely would reply, with a censorious frown, “No, sir! I don’t gamble!”

The liberal might respond capaciously, “I bet you’re right!”

The postmodernist, ever to immerse, embrace and go-with-the-flow, and the experience will quip without batting an eyelid: “I’ll see your bet and I’ll raise you!”

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But the … case seems like yet another example of the lack of coordination between agencies serving the poor, homeless and mentally ill. The cracks are too wide and deep, and the political will for reform is too weak, if a man who suffered a life-threatening head injury less than five months ago can be left to the streets again.

Sometimes reading articles like the one from which the above quote is taken, gives me pause. Yet I still think there is hope as I alluded to a few days ago. You can read the whole article here.

As I said a few days ago in my previous post highlighting the story about the little boy saving the beached fishes one at a time, making a difference to each fish as he threw them back to the sea, it may not be the case of changing society dramatically all at once. However, if each of us do our part and if we only get involve in the cause of changing lives and impacting others so that the under-resourced and the marginalized of our societies can be empowered, we can then create a ripple of change that will impact others one life at a time.

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Last night, I sat down with my family to watch Unleashed, starring Jet Li and Morgan Freeman. Now, as much as I like Jet Li, and as much as I like Morgan Freeman’s work, and as much as I like kung-fu flicks and martial arts, I just could not bring myself to enjoy this distorted attempt at movie story telling.

Somehow I just found the entire movie rather distressing, and, well, just plain wrong! Someone should have stopped it from making it to celluloid.

It might be petty of me to do so, but I just cannot help but complain about the simplistic Hollywood stereotyping of Asians (subservient, uncouth and uncivilized who is tamed twice by the more dominant Westerner. And, how in the world could an abused, traumatized young boy who was caged from the moment he was abducted learn to be a deadly martial arts exponent? Oh, but of course! He is Asian! It just come naturally to these exotic, not-quite-human super fighters!).

Read the rest of this entry »

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Apparently, my workmate is quite a philanthropist! Yet he might not be one.

Well, it’s like this: he just found out that he has made a couple of donations to the Red Cross. Also, he found that he has been purchasing products online and shipping them interstate.

Only he did not really buy those products, nor did he make those donations. Actually, someone has been using his credit card and making those charges. That’s right. This guy has made donations to charity, but using my friends card!

Can you imagine this? Read the rest of this entry »

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Apparently, some Australian politicians are pushing for the National Anthem to include a reference to “God” to reflect the “nation’s Chrisian values.” While there are some support from politicians who are Christians, some other, even prominent, Christian politicians do not support the move.

Perhaps those who are pushing to include a reference to “God” in the National Anthem will make Australia a more “Christian” nation than it currently is. Those who disagree think that the shapers of the Australian constitution wisely excluded the establishment of religion in Australia, and that such wisdom should prevail now. Probably they think that it is more important for politicians to spend their time and energy on the influencing and helping to shape policies and actions that more reflect Christian values.

There is some parallel in this country, for instance, in the push for the posting of the ten commandments on some public buildings, about the inclusion (or exclusion, as the case may be) of “under God” in the oath of allegiance. The difference is that in this country those symbolisms are already entrenched in the public spaces and there are moves by those who object to these to remove them. Do you think Christians ought to spend their time, energy and resources to ensure that national or public images and symbolisms reflect Christian values? Or do you think it is better to spend it where it is most needed to resource the underresourced, to promote justice and to build bridges to the unreconciled? What ought Chrisitans to do in the public sphere?

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