Weblog of Quests

Internalising death

Louis — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 07:31:33 +0000

Just finished reading the book Lament for a son. In fact, I had actually skimmed over A grief observed by C. S. Lewis a while back and was looking for similar accounts of people living through a loss of some form. I guess, after seeing my pet bunny die a week ago, I was simply looking for some insights on how to deal with the situation. Even though he had only been with me for less than 6 months, my heart ached seeing him take his last breaths in my arms…

Lament for a son was written by a father who had lost his son in a mountain-climbing accident; he was only 25 at the time. This book contained thoughts as the father tried to deal with his internal turmoil, trying the best he could to resolve the apparent contradictions between his faith and the pain of losing his son before his life had started properly. Why does God allow such suffering? All the things left undone, unsaid. Reading the words, one cannot help but feel the anguish and pain of a father, but, towards the end, also hopes of a new beginning.

While reading, I was intrigued that the author, a devout Christian, essentially came to a similar conclusion as what many budhists take for granted*.

“We are one in suffering. Some are wealthy, some bright; some athletic, some admire. But we all suffer. For we all prize and love… Suffering is for the loving. If I hadn’t loved him, there wouldn’t be this agony.
…In commanding us to love, God invites us to suffer.”

Perhaps, it is only though deaths (or similar tragic/traumatic incidents) will we have our faiths challenged, and maybe transcend ourselves – otherwise, as the author put it, the death was all for “nothing”.

* Although Christianity and Budhism diverge in how they treat this conclusion. Budha talked about escaping from the endless cycle of suffering…

Passing of a visionary

Louis — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 04:06:43 +0000

Yesterday was a day of sad news. It was the day when I read about the death of Steve Jobs, the main creative force behind the rejuvenated Apple (since he was brought back in 1997). He doesn’t know me and I have never had the privilege to meet him in person. However, love him or hate him (and there are plenty of those people, with a passion!), his company’s products – and some would say the results of his single-minded vision – have defined and continue to define much of the consumer technological landscape of the last decade to the present day. Ask someone what is an MP3 player, you’d probably either get a blank stare or iPod as an answer. When you are used as a benchmark (say, iPhone, iTunes, iPad) by all your competitors, you are on to something surely!?

Here is Jobs at the famous Stanford commencement address. As some people have commented, his passing – at such a young age too, I might add – seems to have triggered some form of self-examination: have we done enough with our god-given talents, with our lives?

Rest in peace, Steve.

Growth and change

Louis — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 11:13:18 +0000

Life is about growth and change. When you are no longer doing that — that is your whisper; that is your whisper that you are supposed to do something else.

Oprah Winfrey
American TV Host, Businesswoman and Philanthropist

Home NAS

Louis — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 07:52:16 +0000

Tossing up between choosing FreeNAS, Ubuntu server or Openfiler as choice of OS for my home network storage…

Riots and human dignity

Louis — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 09:42:31 +0000

We can probably analyse to death the social causes for the riots going on in Britain. However, personally I think there are no excuses for the disgrace taking place right now. Maybe there are lots of repressed frustrations, inequalities, blah-blah-blah…, at the end of the day each one of us needs to answer to our own actions – are we fighting for a cause or just satisfying our impulse for destruction and greed?

I am utterly impressed by the brave actions of this lady – seeing that innocent by-standers have been robbed or beaten up during the past few days of riots too.