As an observer of life, I feel that most people are sleepwalking through life. They don't pay attention to the details of life and savor experiences to get a full range of their impact. As hard as I try to keep awareness alive,sometimes I do things in such a hurry, that I make mistakes. Case in point is my experience at the local library today. I got an automated message from the library that the book I had put on hold had arrived. So I went to the Northwest Regional Library in Coral Springs. But my book was not there! The clerk told me that it is at Northwest branch in Pompano.
There are three libraries in Broward County with basically the same name that unless you pay close attention to, you will make a mistate. 'Northwest' in Pompano Beach, 'North Regional' in Coconut Creek and 'Northwest Regional' in Coral Springs. When I put the hold on the book, I clicked the wrong branch because I didn't pay attention.
I did not get upset with the clerk when she told me that the book was not there. I did not blame myself for making a careless mistake. I did not get aggravated for going to the wrong branch. I took it in stride. It was a learning experience in awareness.The lesson here for me is, SLOW DOWN, TAKE A DEEP BREATH; PAY ATTENTION.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Monday, September 21, 2009
My Two Birth Days!
I have two birthdays. It is nothing miraculous, but just cultural.In fact, a doctor on my hospice team (from South America) and a nurse (from Haiti) also have two birthdays. For a western mind, it may be very hard to understand how one person could have have two birthdays. But it is more common than you think.
When I was growing up in India in the fifties, birthdays were neither mentioned or celebrated. My mom who neither read nor wrote English, followed an Indian Calendar. I never had a birthday party or received a birthday card or a birth day present. My wife thinks I was a bad boy, not true, just cultural. Never heard of Hallmark until I came to the US in 1981!
When I was registered in Elementary School, documents such as birth certificate, social security card,phone bill or utility bill were not required. None of these existed! My dad took me to school, and told the headmaster who my dad knew, that I was five years old and needs to be in school. So, the headmaster wrote my name on a book and told my dad to send me to school the next day, and that was my first day of school! No photos, no videos. We had no camera. As a matter of fact, there are no baby pictures of mine. I was 19 years old when my first picture was taken. No way of knowing what a cute baby I was!!
So, during the first 15 years of my life at home, there was no mention of any birthday. For the next 10 years in the Seminary, my "feast day" was celebrated but not birthday. By the way, feast day honors the Saint for whom a person is named. I was named after "St. Paul" and his feast day is June 29th. I still get sporadic feast day greeting cards from nuns in India, on June 29th.
The first time a serious need for a DOB arose, when I applied for a passport in 1981. In the passport application, I wrote down a date that matched the Indian Calendar my mother followed and that date was September 22! Again, no supporting document was needed for this. So, since 1981, in all official documents, my DOB is September 22nd. But I knew it was not the day I saw the light of day. So, when I went to India in 1986, I did some digging. The place to look is the church where you are baptized. In India, a baptism certificate takes the place of birth certificate for Christians.
I was baptized in my mother's parish church. And I found my baptism certificate in an old dusty ledger, at St.Mary's Church, Muttuchira, and viola, the exact date of my blessed birth, is October 6, 1950! I was baptized seven days later on October 13th. Baby baptism was the norm those days, for fear of going to limbo, should the baby die before being baptized. The pope recently removed limbo from the list of possible places for unbaptized babies!!
So October 6th is the day I celebrate my birth, thanking the Lord for giving me life, although I gracefully accept good wishes and presents starting on September 22nd!
When I was growing up in India in the fifties, birthdays were neither mentioned or celebrated. My mom who neither read nor wrote English, followed an Indian Calendar. I never had a birthday party or received a birthday card or a birth day present. My wife thinks I was a bad boy, not true, just cultural. Never heard of Hallmark until I came to the US in 1981!
When I was registered in Elementary School, documents such as birth certificate, social security card,phone bill or utility bill were not required. None of these existed! My dad took me to school, and told the headmaster who my dad knew, that I was five years old and needs to be in school. So, the headmaster wrote my name on a book and told my dad to send me to school the next day, and that was my first day of school! No photos, no videos. We had no camera. As a matter of fact, there are no baby pictures of mine. I was 19 years old when my first picture was taken. No way of knowing what a cute baby I was!!
So, during the first 15 years of my life at home, there was no mention of any birthday. For the next 10 years in the Seminary, my "feast day" was celebrated but not birthday. By the way, feast day honors the Saint for whom a person is named. I was named after "St. Paul" and his feast day is June 29th. I still get sporadic feast day greeting cards from nuns in India, on June 29th.
The first time a serious need for a DOB arose, when I applied for a passport in 1981. In the passport application, I wrote down a date that matched the Indian Calendar my mother followed and that date was September 22! Again, no supporting document was needed for this. So, since 1981, in all official documents, my DOB is September 22nd. But I knew it was not the day I saw the light of day. So, when I went to India in 1986, I did some digging. The place to look is the church where you are baptized. In India, a baptism certificate takes the place of birth certificate for Christians.
I was baptized in my mother's parish church. And I found my baptism certificate in an old dusty ledger, at St.Mary's Church, Muttuchira, and viola, the exact date of my blessed birth, is October 6, 1950! I was baptized seven days later on October 13th. Baby baptism was the norm those days, for fear of going to limbo, should the baby die before being baptized. The pope recently removed limbo from the list of possible places for unbaptized babies!!
So October 6th is the day I celebrate my birth, thanking the Lord for giving me life, although I gracefully accept good wishes and presents starting on September 22nd!
Theological Thriller!
I just finished reading Dan Brown's latest novel - The Lost Symbol - It came out last Tuesday, I bought it the same day and read 100 pages a day and finished in five days. It is that interesting and gripping. I usually don't read fictions, but Brown's books are not just fiction. There is so much theology in it. For example this book begins with a statement at the beginning. "To live in the world without becoming aware of the meaning of the world is like wandering about in a great library without touching the books."
How true that is! As an observer of life, I feel that majority of people are sleepwalking through life only to find out that their life is often a nightmare. Many people live very peripheral lives. Take for example the charge by Sarah Palin that Obama's health care reform has "death panels." Those words are not in the bill. They were used by a shallow politician to whip up political frenzy. It has nothing to do with reality, but to find that reality, one has to do some reading and reflection. There is a recommendation in the Bill for doctors to discuss with the elderly, 'end-of-life issues' which, as a hospice chaplain, I feel, is a GREAT IDEA. I deal with people who have never thought about death until the day of their death and the pain and trauma they go through while dealing with the inevitable. A smart president suggests that we do something that is smart and and the sleepwalkers twist it as something else.
As a matter of fact we currently have 'death panels" and they are called HMOs who won't insure you if you have a pre-existing condition, or drop you when they find out you have a condition they don't want to cover, and charge you huge sums until you go bankrupt. Now that is a death panel for you, but nobody sees it.
The Lost Symbol has great insights about God, our destiny as image of God, and the great role a community can play in our overall well being. In fact,after reading the novel, you will want to be member of a church or a temple.
How true that is! As an observer of life, I feel that majority of people are sleepwalking through life only to find out that their life is often a nightmare. Many people live very peripheral lives. Take for example the charge by Sarah Palin that Obama's health care reform has "death panels." Those words are not in the bill. They were used by a shallow politician to whip up political frenzy. It has nothing to do with reality, but to find that reality, one has to do some reading and reflection. There is a recommendation in the Bill for doctors to discuss with the elderly, 'end-of-life issues' which, as a hospice chaplain, I feel, is a GREAT IDEA. I deal with people who have never thought about death until the day of their death and the pain and trauma they go through while dealing with the inevitable. A smart president suggests that we do something that is smart and and the sleepwalkers twist it as something else.
As a matter of fact we currently have 'death panels" and they are called HMOs who won't insure you if you have a pre-existing condition, or drop you when they find out you have a condition they don't want to cover, and charge you huge sums until you go bankrupt. Now that is a death panel for you, but nobody sees it.
The Lost Symbol has great insights about God, our destiny as image of God, and the great role a community can play in our overall well being. In fact,after reading the novel, you will want to be member of a church or a temple.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
God Is Plural
I just finished reading The Lost Symbol, Dan Brown's latest novel that was released last Tuesday. I have never bought or read a book with such eagerness in such a short time. Five hundred plus pages...in five days. It is that interesting. I like this book for its mystery and thrill, but above all for its theology and philosophy of life. There is lot in it that is very theological.It talks about Noetic Science, the theory that people's thought has the power to effect change in the physical world. Brown talks about a new consciousness that is emerging for the better, despite all the doom and gloom around. The last word of this million word novel is HOPE!
I was really inspired by the idea towards the end that the Hebrew word for God - Elohim - is a plural. God is plural. God is a community. We find and experience God best,in a community setting. We are not meant to be alone; no man is an island. Feel the connection with others and you will automatically feel the connection to God.
If you think that you cannot know God or you don't feel God,look around. God is hiding in plane sight in the community that is around you, be it your family, your church your town, your country, your world!
I was really inspired by the idea towards the end that the Hebrew word for God - Elohim - is a plural. God is plural. God is a community. We find and experience God best,in a community setting. We are not meant to be alone; no man is an island. Feel the connection with others and you will automatically feel the connection to God.
If you think that you cannot know God or you don't feel God,look around. God is hiding in plane sight in the community that is around you, be it your family, your church your town, your country, your world!
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