Poem by Billy Collins

came across this from The Writers' Almanac for today. What a delightful poem that helps me to appreciate the arts. I will use it in the future....

Introduction to Poetry

by Billy Collins

I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide

or press an ear against its hive.

I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,

or walk inside the poem's room
and feel the walls for a light switch.

I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author's name on the shore.

But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.

They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.

Engineering Conversions (bad jokes...)

- 2000 pounds of Chinese soup: Won ton

- Time between slipping on a peel and smacking the pavement: 1 bananosecond

- Weight an evangelist carries with God: 1 billigram

- Half of a large intestine: 1 semicolon

- 1000 aches: 1 megahurtz

- 453.6 graham crackers: 1 pound cake

- 1 million-million microphones: 1 megaphone

- 1 million bicycles: 2 megacycles

- 365.25 days: 1 unicycle

- 2000 mockingbirds: 2 kilomockingbirds

- 10 cards: 1 decacards

- 1 millionth of a fish: 1 microfiche

- 10 rations: 1 decoration

- 2 monograms: 1 diagram

- 8 nickels: 2 paradigms

- 2.4 statute miles of intravenous surgical tubing at Yale University Hospital: 1 I.V. League

- 100 Members of Parliament / Senators: Not 1 decision

Missionary one day...

It's almost 10 years since this was written. It's taken from our OFM worldwide newsletter, FRATERNITAS No. 45 - 07.1999. I still remember how I was astounded by the call. Since then, I have been thinking about missions. And I am still. Perhaps I should start seeing myself in Taiwan as a missionary?

"No one can stop the work of the Spirit"

Br. Giacomo Bini, speaking to the Provincial Ministers of Europe


In our franciscan vocation the Lord uses the most diverse circumstances and events to call us to Himself. Our journey takes place in a particular house, in a particular Province.

But the Lord has called us for the sake of his Kingdom, not for the sake of our Province.

Thus it was for the disciples in the days after Pentecost. Thus it was for Francis when he understood the nature of his vocation, after hearing the Word of God. Thus, too, for the first friars, still few in number; their "option for the lepers" took on a universal dimension of evangelization. They would go out to all the lepers of the world, not waiting until the lepers of Assisi were attended to first, the lepers of "one's own Province." We are not called to tend our own "closed garden" first, and only then to care for what is "outside!"

A local or provincial fraternity that is weighed down with too many things to do "at home," with too many personal projects - however good in themselves - loses out on its own vocation, which is to participate in the mission of Jesus: "Receive the Holy Spirit ... go out into the whole world!"

Many of our vocations are born from missionary experiences and missionary aspirations. Today, too, many young people carry in their hearts this desire/expectation which is failing to find expression. There are many friars, too, willing to take up again the itinerant path of evangelization.

The Order has initiated international missionary projects which are dying through lack of friars. In some areas of the world, of course, for various reasons, the Order's presence is declining. But does this allow us to betray our missionary evangelization? Are not the poor, perhaps, the most generous? Can a Minister Provincial, in the name of the needs of his Province, justifiably block a missionary call? Our Rule is clear: no one can impede the work of the Spirit!

Gurhkas, UK and HK

In Britain, the High Court is to begin hearing a test case brought by veteran Gurkhas from Nepal who've been refused permission to live in Britain. All foreign soldiers who've served Britain for at least four years are entitled to settle in the country, except Gurkhas who retired before 1997. They have to apply individually, and at least 1,000 have been refused - many on the grounds that their ties to Britain weren't strong enough.

Just makes me angry to hear the above news. It's so true that the British are so racist. Australians, Canadians and New Zealanders (and South Africans) too used to enjoy privileges that others in the Empire did not. These Gurhkas and also the presence of the large Indian / Pakistani community in Hong Kong were due to the fact that Hong Kong was part of the Empire. As HK returned to China, it was understandable if Gurkhas, Indians and the Pakistanis did not want to be part of this "new" country.

The UK should not forsake the Hong Kong - Chinese but even if they choose to forsake the HK- Chinese, they should respect these from the Sub-continent who came to HK just because of the British, not because of the Chinese. On the other hand, HK authority to welcome them to stay, if they choose to. China has always been multi-ethnic, as they claim. So why not having Indians, Pakistanis and Nepalese as official minority nationalities in China?

2008-08-22/23 楊梅天主堂的藝術靈修

楊梅天主堂的藝術靈修：成年人及年青人一起，為我是首次！

Shichien - a jolly good landscape architect

Could anyone believe that it has been TWENTY years, TWO DECADES since I started my post-grad studies at U of Edinburgh???
I was aspiring to be a landscape architect... a bit disillusioned with becoming a town planner, wanting to do more designing...
There I met Shichien Huang, a fellow student from Taiwan, Architecture graduate from 成功大學 - 2o years ago. At the top floor of Minto House, 20 Chambers Street, Department of Architecture, EH1 1JZ.... (I still remember the PostCode...!)

After working in Taichung for some years, she continued her career in the other China (Mainland), got married to a lucky man in Beijing and started a family there.

She came back to TW to visit her family (and really for the 20th anniversary of graduating from Cheng Kung University) and we met up one day to visit a wooden sculpture museum in Sanyi, County Miaoli.

She has now an adorable son, 7 years old.

I still remember one time, when she was mentioned by Dr Byrom (the director for the Landscape Architecture Programme at U of Edin) in her absence to a guest lecturer, the comment was: "Shichien [pronounced in a French way with the CH sounding like SH-- what a beautiful name - she must be jolly interesting person." Indeed, Shichien is jolly interesting and has been a jolly good friend all these years.

什麼是藝術 / 靈修 / 藝術靈修？

什麼是藝術：

• 難明、通俗、高深、娛樂、音樂、繪畫、曲高和寡、歌仔戲、雲門、果陀、米勒、色香味……
維基百科：藝術迄今還沒有公認的定義。通常認為，藝術是人類以情感和想象為特性，來把握和反映世界，表示對世界及自身，對二者關係的看法的一種特殊方式。其通過審美創造活動再現現實和表現情感理想，在想象中實現審美主體及客體的相互對象化。通俗的說，藝術也就是人的知識、情感、理想、意念綜合心理活動的有機產物，是人們現實生活和精神世界的形象表現。因為人類的某些經歷是難以用言詞來表述的，為了表述這些深存在內心的最強烈的感情和思想，我們就使用一種稱之為藝術的更敏銳、更精巧的語言。藝術借助人類的感性反映世界，包括客觀和主觀的世界。藝術更多的是“創造”。藝術是人類心裡真實情感的反映。

什麼是靈修：

• 心靈、上帝、宗教、奧秘、蠟燭、寧靜、修道、信仰、禁慾、平安……
維基百科：靈修即「靈性的修煉」。是一宗教術語。
Wikipedia: Spirituality, in a narrow sense, concerns itself with matters of the spirit 心靈, a concept closely tied to religious belief and faith宗教信仰, a transcendent reality超越的實體【：天主 / 上帝？】, and one or more deities神明. Spiritual matters are thus those matters regarding humankind's ultimate 終極nature and purpose, not only as material biological organisms, but as beings with a unique relationship to that which is perceived to be beyond both time and the material world. 越超時空及物質世界

什麼是藝術靈修：

• 「藝術靈修」揉合欣賞藝術、藝術創作以及靈修經驗，可以藉此探討兩者相同的地方，去闡揚藝術及宗教信仰、心靈成長的關係。
• 你需要有藝術的氣質：因為人需要學會觀看、認得美麗、發揮創意……
• 你需要有靈修的情操：因為觀看、美麗、創意是心靈的活動……
• 所以來一下「藝術靈修」……

導師簡介：

• 負責人伍維烈為天主教方濟會修士，持蘇格蘭愛丁堡大學景觀建築碩士、加拿大滑鐵盧大學環境學（城鄉規劃）學士、台灣輔仁大學道學碩士、香港中文大學教育文憑等；於1998年起為不同教友、宗教團體、堂區等主持以藝術為媒介的靈修講座、退省等，曾任教於馬鞍山聖若瑟中學，任宗教科主任及文化聯科主任；於該校任教時，曾於2000/2001年實施教育署校本課程計畫設計「信仰 | 藝術」（優異設計獎）、2001/2002年負責演藝發展局之薈藝教育計畫「神奇彩衣縈鞍山」（傑出計劃獎）等；2003/05年獲美國耶魯大學神學院獎學金，負笈美國深造「宗教與藝術」、獲宗教學碩士後回港，專注推動藝術靈修。