This Halloween was no different but there was an interesting episode at the tail end of the evening.

It was about quarter past nine when we thought no more kids would come by. Then there was a series of very rapid bell rung. I opened the door and saw about ten kids. They were all colored kids and did not seem to be from our neighborhood. They were also in a rowdy mood. It started routinely as candies were transferred from my basket into their bags. A couple do not even have bags, they just pointed to their pockets. Then one yelled, “I want O-Henry, not those”. I complied. Then another yelled, “I want Reese”. I complied again. By then things began to get a bit chaotic. I saw a couple of hands poking out from behind the kids in front and started grabbing handfuls from my basket. Before I knew it, almost the entire basket was emptied. I had a smaller backup basket but seeing the chaos I signaled the end. So the last two kids just stood there and obviously stunned. One exclaimed, “What the Hell, …”. I said, “Watch your language, young man.” The other kid was smarter; he immediately said coyly, “may I have some candies, please”. I passed out the candies to both of them and when they were leaving I told the “bad mouth” kid, “I want you to watch your language, not for the candies but for yourself.” He looked at me as if he understood. I was not so sure, myself.

I used to think these ill manner kids were just not taught properly at home. But then I realize there was likely no one at home to teach them. Some may not even have the luxury of candies other then Halloween.

That was my Halloween Flight 2010.

Report by Toronto Star

Shortly after noon Elizabeth yelled to me that there is a lot of smoke in our backyard. I went out and looked and saw very thick smoke coming from a house nearby. The fire trucks arrived very soon. A lot of neighbors went out to look. As I was talking with a neighbor we saw two persons being wheeled to the ambulances. One ambulance left immediately, another remain. The neighbor I was talking to commented, “That one probably will not make it, otherwise the ambulance would have left immediately.” He was right.

We were riveted for a few days, two young lives gone. The next day Elizabeth commented, “Today is a nice day but those two girls will not see it anymore.” It is so sad. Indeed, every death diminishes us, especially when it is so close to home (in this case literally).

Sometime I wonder why bad things happen to us, in this case I wonder why are we so blessed, we certainly do not deserve it.

Aside from the warmer weather, the mountains were a real treat. Only when I saw them I realized how much I miss the mountains. I grew up in Honk Kong with hills and peaks all around. Toronto though not as flat as the Prairies has few natural vertical intrusions. Seeing the snow capped mountains was breath taking, it was simply majestic. It was raining most of the time when I was there but I took every opportunity whenever there was a break in the clouds to just go out and take in the view. With the mountains as a back drop and the skytain running in the foreground was a live post card. I wish I could have taken some pictures.

I stayed at Metrotown Hilton in Burnaby which is close to a huge Mall called Metropolis. There is also a Chinese Mall called the Crystal Mall right next to the hotel. When I walked around I noticed that there are so many Sushi restaurants and so many Starbucks. Literally you cannot walk a block without seeing one of them. There are also so many Asians. The game I played was to guess whether they are Mainlanders, Taiwanese, Hong Kong-ese, CBCs, Japanese, Korean or Filipino.

We went to watch the movie “Invictus” the other day. It was a inspirational movie of portraying Nelson Mandela, in his first term as the South African President, initiates a venture to unite the apartheid-torn land: enlist the national rugby team on a mission to win the 1995 Rugby World Cup. NM was portrayed as an inspirational but fully human leader. The movie showed his regrets in his personal life without a final explicit reconciliation and strained physical exhaustion certain showed the discretion of a more subtle and matter of fact rather than a more melodramatic approach. The racial theme though is rather preachy and blatant. The part that showed the cell NM was in was particularly sweeping. The name of the movie was from a poem that inspired Mandela to endure the 27 years unjusted imprisonment for the color of his skin.

“Invictus” (meaning “Invincible” in Latin) was a short poem written by William Earnest Henley and published in 1875. The impact of its verses is probably best summed up by this passage from a 2007 Reader’s Digest interview with Mandela:

RD: When you were in prison all those long years on Robben Island and elsewhere, was there something that came back to you, something you had either in your mind, a message or passage from a book, a song, something that helped sustain you and keep up your spirits?

NM: There was a poem by an English poet, W.E. Henley, called “Invictus.” The last lines go: “It matters not how straight the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.”

Additionally, from the official Nobel Prize website, there is this aside, amid a passage detailing the impact of literary heritage on Mandela’s life:

At Robben Island, Mandela recited this poem and taught other prisoners these defiant lines; reading such words “puts life in you”, Mandela says.

Henley wrote the piece following a foot amputation due to tubercular infection. He lived until age 53, apparently unbow’d and unafraid, a productive poet, critic and editor. (The one-legged Henley also served as an inspiration for his close friend Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Treasure Island” character Long John Silver.)

Another bizarre note is that the poem’s final verse was used as the last words by Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.

Here is the full text of Henley’s “Invictus”:

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud,
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbow’d.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find me, unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

Christmas is special because it showed us a reality that supposes to be normal. Giving, forgiving and loving should be normal and not reserved for the special occasions. At Christmas even at the workplace people are more forgiving. They say if you cannot finish the work, it is okay to wait till later. Work is easier at Christmas for sure, but if everyday is like Christmas would it not be a better world. Some say then we’ll never get anything done. I beg to disagree. Firstly, people do perform better in a giving, forgiving and loving environment. Secondly, even if people do not do we need to get all the work done? Let make this Christmas special by make it not so special because we made a resolution to make everyday like Christmas.

listen to this here:
Traveler’s Prayer

My question continue to be why don’t we sing more of this at church?

If you like the Traveler’s prayer, you may also like Gregorian Chants :
Ubi Caritas 1

Another rendition of the chant:
Ubi Caritas 2

Latin Text

Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est.
Congregavit nos in unum Christi amor.
Exultemus, et in ipso iucundemur.
Timeamus, et amemus Deum vivum.
Et ex corde diligamus nos sincero.

Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est.
Simul ergo cum in unum congregamur:
Ne nos mente dividamur, caveamus.
Cessent iurgia maligna, cessent lites.
Et in medio nostri sit Christus Deus.

Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est.
Simul quoque cum beatis videamus,
Glorianter vultum tuum, Christe Deus:
Gaudium quod est immensum, atque probum,
Saecula per infinita saeculorum. Amen.

English Translation

Where charity and love are, God is there.
Christ’s love has gathered us into one.
Let us rejoice and be pleased in Him.
Let us fear, and let us love the living God.
And may we love each other with a sincere heart.

Where charity and love are, God is there.
As we are gathered into one body,
Beware, lest we be divided in mind.
Let evil impulses stop, let controversy cease,
And may Christ our God be in our midst.

Where charity and love are, God is there.
And may we with the saints also,
See Thy face in glory, O Christ our God:
The joy that is immense and good,
Unto the ages through infinite ages. Amen.

Keith Duke is another artist I discovered through the pray as you go site (http://www.pray-as-you-go.org) after Margaret Rizza. Too bad their music has not reach a larger audience here in North America.

See the wiki entry:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codex_Sinaiticus

It is online now: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/8135415.stm

Awesome!!

You want to serve people or you want to alleviate some suffering. There is a need right here right now within our nation.

Mission trips do not need to be foreign.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/newfoundland-labrador/story/2009/06/02/dying-pain-report-602.html

“Throughout Newfoundland and Labrador many of the most vulnerable, terminally ill and those with life-limiting illnesses continue to suffer hideously,” says a needs assessment report completed last fall for the Dr. H. Bliss Murphy Cancer Centre in St. John’s. CBC News obtained a copy of the report, which has not yet been publicly released.

“They struggle daily for medications and services and such as medical care, home care, nursing and medical care. They struggle through the bureaucratic roller-coaster of endless paperwork for admission to acute care, respite care, palliative care and long-term care facilities … because of the lack of these same basic services in their individual communities.”

The report, written by Fiona Shaw, found that palliative care is currently a specialized service available to less than 10 per cent of the people who die in Newfoundland and Labrador.

The report found that the lack of services is only bound to become more serious, as cancer is expected to eclipse cardiovascular disease as the leading cause of death in Newfoundland and Labrador.