A Series of Unfortunate Events

The day after D's dad's funeral, D having taken the day off, we went to KLCC and caught the movie "Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events". Certainly the right movie to lift up the spirit, we thought, as we considered our lives in comparison with those of the 3 unfortunate orphan protagonists, the Baudelaire siblings. It was quite well-made, to our pleasant surprise, with Jim Carrey playing the villain Count Olaf in his various personas or disguises to the hilt. It is based on the first 3 of Snicket's books of the same title. He's planning to write 13 in all (every book containing 13 chapters) and is up to Book the Eleventh. I had only read the first, called "The Bad Beginning". I had thought it a witty and easy read though unremittingly pessimistic, and I took the author's advice to stop reading the rest of the sad vicissitudes, the word here meaning "the sudden or unexpected changes or shifts often encountered in one's life, activities, or surroundings" in the lives of Violet, Klaus and Sunny Baudelaire.

Well, the movie piqued (meaning to provoke or arouse) my curiosity, since I had only read the first book and the movie had unfortunately included events which were apparently from the later books. Fortunately for me, Ethan has the whole series in his room so I started taking Book the Second, then the Third, then the Fourth and so on, till now I'm at Book the Tenth, all in less than 2 months. As I said, they're easy reads, though unremittingly gloomy in outlook.

So what kept me going on? It's the play and fun with words, the definitions and explanations of words, phrases, expressions, which, mind you, are not always correct. Everything is tongue-in- cheek and deadpan (which means "impassively matter-of-fact, as in style, behavior, or expression).

But also, it's the fact that the writer has very cleverly and sneakily leaked clues and some answers in each book making the reader go on to the next book to find more clues and a few answers only. And I have a weakness for mysteries, especially murder mysteries. Hopefully, the whole mystery of why the children's parents and so many other people were killed, and who really are the VDF will be finally revealed, although it would be too farfetched to hope that the children and their triplet friends will live happily ever after.

Widows

My mother-in-law is 76 and can only speak in her mother tongue, the Chinese dialect of Hainanese, with a smattering of some of the other dialects like Hokkien and Cantonese. She had never gone to school in her younger days and after marriage in her early 20's, for over 50 years, she depended on her husband who was fluent in the Chinese, English and Malay languages to interpret for her: every sermon or speech in church, every movie or news on the tv, the newspapers or magazines he read. He tried to teach her some Mandarin, but she didn't seem to have the gift for languages. Or maybe she didn't try too hard. After all, he was always there, explaining things and answering questions. And she was kept busy in the kitchen cooking all his favourite dishes, besides those of her children and grandchildren.

Now that he is gone, she wants to learn to read the Bible in Chinese. And this is thanks to Aunt Mei, her younger sister who had also lost her husband to liver cancer some 10 years ago. Aunt Mei used to work in a bank and now retired with 3 grown children and 3 grandchildren, she spends her time with one or other of them or at home in Penang, but all the time, praying, praising, singing and talking about the Lord wherever she is. She is with her sister now for 2 or 3 weeks, doing all that and encouraging her to learn to read and speak Mandarin, to depend on the Lord. As she says in her broken English, "I tell my sister, I am alone but I am not alone. God is always with me."

Then there is Malliga, whose husband John died in July last year. Malliga had never worked outside the home: from her mother's house, she went to live with John and continued to cook and clean and serve her husband and then an adopted daughter. She can read and write English and Tamil, and is supported by her family and her church, the Tamil Methodist Church in Ipoh. She can cook the best dhall, chicken curry and thosai in the whole country, and whenever we visit, as we did last Thursday, we get to eat all that finger-lickin' great Indian food, followed by the best steaming hot teh tarik. She also sews and earns a little from sewing curtains and clothes.

The house is quiet without John's loud boisterous voice calling her for this and that, from the moment he wakes till he sleeps. 14 year old Nisha goes to school and then for tuition for every subject ("Tuition is my hobby, " she says), and at home, it's homework all the time. That's the life of a typical Malaysian student. Thankfully, she has her cousins and church youth fellowship to keep her weekends and holidays full. And she has a mother who, like the wife of noble character of Proverbs 31, is clothed with strength and dignity, and can laugh at the days to come, who watches over her and does not eat the bread of idleness.

Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. (Proverbs 31:30)

Borders in KL

Yesterday was the opening of the long awaited biggest bookstore in Malaysia, Borders in the Berjaya Times Square in KL. We went, of course, after having been told the news by a friend (also a book lover) on the phone... we don't usually buy the daily newspapers.

"Mom, can we go crazy now?," Elliot asked, as we approached the entrance with heightening anticipation and excitement. The boys and I could hardly contain ourselves: two floors of shelves and shelves of unwrapped books nicely arranged with wide aisles and occasional benches and sofas for readers. There were also sections for music and movies, CD's and DVD's, Starbucks and another cafe and decorative items and knick-knacks. The prices seem to be about the same or higher than the other bookshops, except for the bargain buys that are displayed on tables in the open areas.

David joined us later from the office and we bought 2 cookbooks and a historical novel by Umberto Eco, all from the bargain buys. After a quick dinner, I drove back to the church for my line dancing class while the guys stayed back to browse some more and then to catch the movie "Robots" at the IMAX theatre.

"Is KL joining the civilised world at last?" David asked. I hope so, I hope people take care of the books and not mistreat them. I did see one book pushed into the shelf with its cover jutting out and had to put it back properly. It's sad. Kinokuniya in KLCC started out with unwrapped books but now every book there is tightly wrapped with plastic. There may be one open for browsing or you'll have to ask the staff to unwrap one for you to check it.

History Alive

I love history and now I get to learn it all over or mostly, for the first time, with the boys. We're doing Roman history and reading the excellent Augustus Ceasar's World by Genevieve Foster as well as the Story of the Word - History for the Classical Child by Susan Wise Bauer. We read aloud Shakespeare's Julius Ceasar and it's true I enjoy it more than the boys.

Besides that, we have the historical fiction readers which make history come to life by transporting you back to long ago far away times and places, populated with real people like ourselves, young and old: books like Mara, Daughter of the Nile and The Golden Goblet by Eloise Jarvis McGraw, Hittite Warrior and God King by Joanne Williamson, etc...

I just read about Cicero, Rome's foremost orator, writer and senator, who was killed by the Triumvirate who took over after the assassination of Julius Ceasar. He had once said about death, "When the time comes, I shall withdraw from life, not as one leaves home, but as from a temporary lodging place. On that brightest of all days, when I depart from the confusion of this world, I shall set out, I believe, for a far-off divine gathering of spirits...
But, if I am mistaken, in that I believe men's souls to be immortal, I am glad to be mistaken...
And all my life I shall continue to believe it..."

This was said before December 7, 43 B.C., the day of Cicero's death. B.C. - before Christ, before the Word became flesh and revealed God in full.

Number our days

So... it's been almost 6 months since I last posted. I thought I'd never write again... sigh.... Life is happening too fast for me! But... I can't just stop writing after that last entry... as if after Bush wins, everything's A-okay now.

D's dad went to be with the Lord on March 20, almost 9 months to the day after he was diagnosed with the liver cancer. By God's mercy, he had special times with family and old friends who came from far and near to visit and renew old ties, and he had time especially to encourage his faithful, constant wife, telling her that he did not want to eat anymore because he was going to have a feast in heaven. He said he saw the gates of heaven and his brother, who had passed on recently of the same disease, waiting for him. Throughout the 9 months and at the end, he did not suffer much pain, amazingly. His youngest daughter, May Lyn, was with him at his last moments, having just come back from Australia where she's doing postgraduate studies since February.

As it is written in Revelation 15: "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them."

Hundreds of thousands upon thousands have died in the earthquake and tsunami on the day after Christmas last, and thousands more in the earthquake on the day after Easter.

Daily, more die of bomb blasts everywhere and in Malaysia, of gruesome traffic accidents and some rape-murders.

Death... we hear of it, see it happen to others, but try not to think of it happening to us, as it will one day. Yes, as it is appointed unto men once to die...

I will pray the words of Moses in Psalm 90:

"So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.
Return, O LORD, how long? and let it repent thee concerning thy servants.
O satisfy us early with thy mercy; that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us, and the years wherein we have seen evil.
Let thy work appear unto thy servants, and thy glory unto their children.
And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us: and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it."

W Wins!

Thank You, Lord!
Lord of Heaven and earth, Lord of the Universe, Thou who art on the throne, and who ordains the powers that be, I praise and thank You.
For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south.
But God is the judge: He putteth down one, and setteth up another. Psalm 75:5,6

Against big money and Hollywood celebrities, film makers, pop idols, bestselling book writers, newspapers and TV networks, against world opinions and all kinds of pundits and pollsters, George Walker Bush won! People may make fun of him, hate him and his very face and name, say and write all kinds of things against him, but does Bush worry? No, he looks cool and upbeat most of the time, and as the night of vote counting begins. Here is a man who does not make decisions based on the polls or to seek the approval of the greatest majority, needing to pass a "global test". Many cannot understand him. Doesn't he care? Is he dumb? Is he heartless? Is he insane? Who does he think he is?

I think I know. It is because he knows who he is: a man under God. He is a man who has put his faith in the God of the Bible and who seeks His approval and will first, above all, and one who has chosen to live by His word and makes His rules his principles.

Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee: because he trusteth in Thee. Isaiah 26:3

Lord, grant Mr. Bush and his team the strength equal to the tasks demanded of them in the coming days, and the wisdom they need. And grant them steadfast and growing faith in Thee.

Election Fever

It's the American elections, but it seems like the whole of the world is involved too. It seems like all of America and of the world too is divided: Bush or Kerry? Right or left, Republican or Democrat, war or peace, right or wrong, God or the devil? I guess it's because of the web that we all can be involved: all the blogs for and against, the breaking news, even the videos and ads can be seen online.

I'm in deep: reading the blogs, watching the debates and videos, and I laugh and I weep. I can't vote, but I can pray. Everyone else is too, it seems, even the atheists, each for his or her candidate to win. Father in Heaven, Thy name be hallowed, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done here on earth as it is in heaven.

At the recent Australian elections, our friends, the Leslies in Adelaide were up to their necks in helping to campaign for their former pastor's newly formed party, Family First Party. Amazingly, against the odds, it won several seats and made a real difference in the whole election. And Howard won by a high majority, upsetting predictions that he would lose altogether.

Father, grant that there be a smooth, incident-free election and a clear winner without any doubt or legal tussles ensuing. May Thy mercy and grace be upon the US and upon us all.

Oh yes, I'm rooting for GWB to be re-elected .

Actually, I did vote for GWB in the Malaysiakini poll. An American expat gave up his vote (and his mind) to Malaysians. Sadly, the majority was for Kerry.

Righteousness in the heart

Attended the Asia Pacific Family Dialogue from 11 to 13 October with D and Ethan, as participants and rapporteurs. Met people from all over the country and the world, and heard all kinds of interesting facts and figures, comments, queries, anecdotes, from all sorts of speakers, some good, others who have apparently not taken any public speaking courses in their life.

One unforgettable lady was a 30 or 40 something year old gynaecologist from Afghanistan, by the name of Fakhriah Haseem. She had come to learn from all of us and not so much as to share with us how they do things in her country, she said in her halting English. "We are just rebuilding our country now. There is so much to do." The elections for their president were going on while she was preparing to come over here, so she had missed casting her vote. But hey, she's here, and going back to work with the government, the ministry of health, to rebuild her poor war-torn country. I felt really excited to meet her because I had recently finished a book My Forbidden Face: Growing Up Under the Taliban, a Young Woman's Story by Latifa (a pseudonym) and had got a glimpse of what it had been like, living under the oppressive regime of the fundamentalist Muslims, especially as a female. It was worse than prison, it was femicide. And now there's freedom to come out of the house, even of the country, freedom to work and freedom to breathe and live.

Another lady was an old varsity mate whom I hadn't seen in over 20 years. She could recognise me and I her, and we were telling each other how we haven't changed. I guess it means that we don't really change physically through the years, though I hope we grow wiser and not duller. She had done an Arts course and became a teacher in the small town of Mentakab for many years. And now, to my surprise, she had taken up law and is practising in a firm in PJ. She's still single, and the session we were attending was on the subject of the rising number of singles, so we got to talking and realizing that many of our contemporaries have remained single. But they're living full and busy lives as pastors, real estate agents, teachers, lawyers, etc., and looking good.

One thing I took back from the Conference was a little bookmark they gave us with our bags and folders containing this Chinese proverb:

"If there is righteousness in the heart,
there will be beauty in character.
If there is beauty in character,
there will be harmony in the house.
If there is harmony in the house,
there will be order in the nation.
If there is order in the nation,
there will be peace in the world."

How true! Lord, grant that we may hunger and thirst more and more for righteousness, for then we will be filled, and satisfied and have peace within and without.

Paradise Lost?

About the hour we landed in the Bali International Airport, on Sept 9, the bombs shattered the morning hustle and bustle in Jakarta in front of the Australian embassy. 9 people were killed, all Indonesians, and hundreds injured. The Indonesian TV channels in the hotel room were all on the scene the whole afternoon. It brought back sharp memories of the Oct 2002 bombings in the Kuta nightclubs in Bali. Asta, our tour guide, did not take us to see the bombed out site.

Everyone tried not to think too much of the bombings everywhere and somehow managed to have a pretty good holiday. We enjoyed the clear skies and seas, the abundant flora and fauna, the handmade artistic products, the spicy and fingerlickin' seafood, and the cheerful and gentle but tough and resilient islanders.

Read Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen)'s Anecdotes of Destiny, which includes the story Babette's Feast. The movie of the same title is beautifully made and received the Academy Award in 1986 for Best Foreign Film. I have watched it more than once, each time savouring even more the art and the message. It is quite faithful to the written story, one of hope and redemption, of seeing beyond life here on earth, beyond a life of missed opportunities, unfulfilled dreams and ambitions.

Achille Papin writes to his love, Philippa, who is gifted with an angelic voice but misses the chance to become a famous opera singer: "... As I write this, I feel that the grave is not the end. In Paradise I shall hear your voice again. There you will sing without fears or scruples, as God meant you to sing. There you will be the great artist that God meant you to be. Ah! how you will enchant the angels. ... Babette can cook. "
And later, Philippa echoes his words to Babette: " Yet this is not the end! I feel, Babette, that this is not the end. In Paradise you will be the great artist that God meant you to be! Ah!" she added, the tears streaming down her cheeks. " Ah, how you will enchant the angels!"

Fair is foul, and foul is fair

"How goes the world, sir, now?"
"Why, see you not?"
"....Fair is foul, and foul is fair.
Hover through the fog and filthy air."

This is the world we live in: where the rich and privileged are admired and feted, the poor are despised and shunned; the handsome and beautiful are sought after, the plain and ugly not worth a second glance; the strong and powerful rule and lord it over others, the weak, young, old, disabled, female, are neglected, taken advantage of, or worse, oppressed and subjugated.

This is the world we live in: where possessions maketh the man, things are more important than people, self-advancement and fulfilment than relationships, and one is judged by his colour, clothes, his outward appearance, not his heart.

I forget who now, but someone wrote about we humans being in a state of amnesia. We have forgotten who we are, who made us, who our Creator is, why we were made, why we are here on earth. So this is the upside down world we are in: where things are opposite to what they should be, where fair is foul, and foul is fair, as Shakespeare put it in Macbeth.

We lie and rationalise it (harmless white lies), we lust, we seek to possess more and more, we hurt each other in anger and hatred. We kill in a rage or in jealousy, in revenge, in the name of a god or in delusion.

I suppose that's why when the Son of God came to earth, we couldn't recognise him. As the prophet Isaiah said, many years before Jesus came and fulfilled his prophecy,

"Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry groud: he hath no form or comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." Isaiah 53: 1-6

And when Jesus came, He came to turn the world right side up. He said things which shock our amnesiac brains: love your enemies, bless those who persecute you, blessed are the poor in spirit, the meek, the merciful, the peacemakers, it is more blessed to give than to receive, the last shall be first, and the first last, whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it, whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be servant of all: For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life as a ransom for many. And He laid down his life for those who had rejected and despised Him, and He rose again. Thank you, Jesus, for coming to turn us back to our Maker and to turn us right side up to become who we were meant to be.