Pericles

"Just because you don't take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you."- Pericles.

For those of you, ahem….who haven’t the faintest irking who ahem…….. Pericles is (also spelled Perikles) 495–429 BC, (meaning "surrounded by glory") was a prominent and influential statesman, orator, and general of Athens during the city's Golden Age–specifically, the time between the Persian and Peloponnesian wars. He was descended, through his mother, from the powerful and historically influential Alcmaeonid family.

Pericles promoted the arts and literature; this was a chief reason Athens holds the reputation of being the educational and cultural centre of the ancient Greek world. He started an ambitious project that built most of the surviving structures on the Acropolis (including the Parthenon). This project beautified the city, exhibited its glory, and gave work to the people. Furthermore, Pericles fostered Athenian democracy to such an extent that critics call him a populist.

I believe theologians would be familiar with Athens, birthplace of Socrates, Pericles, Sophocles and its many other prominent philosophers, writers and politicians of the ancient world. It is widely referred to as the cradle of Western Civilization.
We have progressed far deeper into civilization now – looking around us, problems are still in existence, disguise in different names I suppose.

When I read biographies of men, I often see these men attribute much of their greatness to their mother's influence on them in their early life. Pericles' mother, Agariste, was a scion of the powerful and controversial noble family of the Alcmaeonidae. Woman are just amazing…….........
Pericles is prehistoric figure. So what am I doing with this historical figure in our modern era? Simple I like his quotes and I like reading historical figure. Simple English for you………
“The whole earth is the tomb of heroic men and their story is not given only on stone over their clay but abides everywhere without visible symbol woven into the stuff of other mens lives.” Pericles

Up up up and away it goes

Up Up Up and away it goes, so our $$$ is vanishing at a speed of a jaguar Toning down our expenditures is quite mind-bogging these days, people who earn 4 figure salaries are crying ‘foul’. I have to survive on a 3 figure income and refrain from screaming ‘unfair’ ‘injustice’ and ‘intolerable’. This can be quite stressful for the my brain – you know, especially if you wheelchair bound individual. People tend to look at me as entity, without any personality or temperament, something like a casing. they think that being handicap is a ‘worry free’ lifestyle. We eat grass and drink air to sustain our life!!! Mana ada lah?
As I mingle among assorted troupe, my scrutiny is expanded and modified, so there are pros and con when I am among the various communities. This is an eye opener for me.
On my visiting rounds at University Hospital – the invisibility of christians in this place is really heartbreaking matter. The hospital is overflowing with muslims nurses and doctors. Many of then are generously kind & cooperative. I am a Christian and this finding makes me very unhappy. And I’m sure it will definitely make God unhappy too. Churches today seem less interested in investing quality time for the ‘people of the world’ but are hyper active within the four wall of their church. This sometimes agitate me. Christians have become frantic perfectionist within the church atmosphere. This is not a pleasant thing to say about my fellow believers and I am not saying this due to any inferno complex. I have visited churches in Petaling Jaya and Kuala Lumpur, the picture is still the same. When Jesus said go and preach the gospel – we have to go OUT to do it. Jesus Christ mingled with all kinds of people, the church only mingle with selected sect, They name it ‘the marketplace’ personally I find this ironic. Of course there is always the theological argument and answer for this issue – that is for you to decide.
We are going to face some kind of financial calamity, and I must confess this is a disturbing thought for our country which isn’t developed yet. I haven’t explored any method on stretching the dollar – frankly I have to leave in God’s Hands. Absolutely impossible on my part! It would be wonderful if the churches radiant God’s love and blessings instead of moving in hectic speed. People out there need to see God in this difficult time we all going through.

Mortality

There is something about this poem that trapped one simple industrious word…..

Mortality

Oh! why should the spirit of mortal be proud?
Like a swift-fleeting meteor, a fast-flying cloud
A flash of the lightning, a break of the wave
He passeth from life to his rest in the grave.
The leaves of the oak and the willow shall fade,
Be scattered around, and together be laid;
And the young and the old, and the low and the high,
Shall moulder to dust, and together shall lie.
The infant a mother attended and loved;
The mother that infant's affection who proved;
The husband, that mother and infant who blest,--
Each, all, are away to their dwellings of rest.
The maid on whose cheek, on whose brow, in whose eye,
Shone beauty and pleasure, -- her triumphs are by;
And the memory of those who loved her and praised,
Are alike from the minds of the living erased.
The hand of the king that the sceptre hath borne,
The brow of the priest that the mitre hath worn,
The eye of the sage, and the heart of the brave,
Are hidden and lost in the depths of the grave.
The peasant, whose lot was to sow and to reap,
The herdsman, who climbed with his goats up the steep,
The beggar, who wandered in search of his bread,
Have faded away like the grass that we tread.
The saint, who enjoyed the communion of Heaven,
The sinner, who dared to remain unforgiven,
The wise and the foolish, the guilty and just,
Have quietly mingled their bones in the dust.
So the multitude goes -- like the flower or the weed
That withers away to let others succeed;
So the multitude comes -- even those we behold,
To repeat every tale that has often been told.
For we are the same our fathers have been;
We see the same sights our fathers have seen;
We drink the same stream, we view the same sun,
And run the same course our fathers have run.
The thoughts we are thinking, our fathers would think;
From the death we are shrinking, our fathers would shrink;
To the life we are clinging, they also would cling; --
But it speeds from us all like a bird on the wing.They loved --
but the story we cannot unfold;They scorned --
but the heart of the haughty is cold;They grieved --
but no wail from their slumber will come;They joyed --
but the tongue of their gladness is dumb.They died --
ay, they died; -- we things that are now,
That walk on the turf that lies over their brow,
And make in their dwellings a transient abode;
Meet the things that they met on their pilgrimage road.
Yea! hope and despondency, pleasure and pain,
Are mingled together in sunshine and rain;
And the smile and the tear, the song and the dirge,
Still follow each other, like surge upon surge.
'Tis the wink of an eye -- 'tis the draught of a breath--
From the blossom of health to the paleness of death,
From the gilded saloon to the bier and the shroud:--Oh! why should the spirit of mortal be proud?

By William Knox