Alfred

The Power of Naming

Today was my first visit to Bristol's Museums, Galleries & Archives. Today also marked my first 'close encounter' with our cousin great ape, the gorilla. Although I had seen the shadows of some sleeping apes in Beijing Zoo seven years back, this was the first time I saw one face to face, head to toe and in a distance no more than two feet away.

Now, I must also clarify that this great ape I saw was a specimen in the museum's wing exhibiting animals from the world. This was certainly not my first time seeing large taxidermied specimens on display in a museum but there was something special about this gorilla. It was named.

Alfred was his name. He came to the Bristol Zoo back before the second world war and was visited by many residences and tourists in the area. Alfred was an oddity at that time when gorillas were less understood and scientifically studied. He was quite an attraction and had aqquired nicknames as well during the wars. After Alfred died, his skin was mounted by a famed taxidermist and shown in the museum.

As I was reading the information panel, a family came into the room. The gentleman told his wife, 'Isn't he alive the last time I visited the zoo?' The lady exclaimed, 'Oh dear, it's a shame he died.' It was just like what was written on the panel of how people came to visit Alfred long after his passing, bringing their children and telling stories about him.

Personally, I think this is special. People do not talk about specimens in museum as if it is something alive very often. I had never seen Alfred back when he breathe and walked the zoo grounds, but through just knowing his name, reading about his history, how he came to Bristol, how he lived in Bristol and how he died suddenly made him so much alive to me. At once, from being just another specimen, just another mounted gorilla, this one became a person. He took on a personality. From an 'it' it has become a 'he' to many people including me.

The power of having a name, and knowing a brief history even if only an inanimate object can make such a profound difference on a very personal level.

Being an animator, I should learn how to imbune life into my creation which the audience initially knows nothing more than I did with the gorilla in the display case. When I leave, I had seen more than an ape, I had met someone, I had faced a celebrity. It was a wonderful experience.

~Written on 19 Jan 2008(Tues)
and here's a link to the said ape and museum. http://www.bbc.co.uk/bristol/content/panoramas/museum6_360.shtml

Greetings from Bristol

Greetings from Bristol.

I have arrived here on 16 Jan after a 14 hour in the air.
It has been 3 weeks now, and by His grace and goodness things are moving along fine.
Meet some really nice flat-mates and found a homely church to belong in.

1 more week to go before classes starts. Here's some photos for the meantime.

The huge Amsterdam airport complex while waiting for the transit.

The view of the River Avon next to the flat I'm staying.

The street of Bath. I visited bath during the first Sunday.

More of the River Avon, when the sun is shining gloriously.

A more rural scene near Bower Ashton, the Art, Design and Media Faculty of UWE.

Bristol is indeed a beautiful place to live in. It has a good blend of traditional architectures and museums, modern shopping and commercial complexes plus the rural farmland and green parks are not too far away.

How do you feel

This should be the last entry here in Malaysia for a while.

People often ask, 'how do you fee? Are you excited about it?'
I'll describe it here as stepping over the edge of the world that you know and fall or with Grace, soar.

May the Lord bless this trip.

The Depth of End

At the beginning of 2008, I learn this:

2 things I can say about The End or endings in general:

1) The Beginning and End comes about not by the will of man but by the will of God. We seldom get to choose the day and hour as well as circumstances of an ending.

2) The end always comes like a thief. Not because it is sudden and unexpected, but because it comes so subtly, it come so unobtrusively and we grew so used to its coming that when it is finally here, it almost seems natural that this is the only reasonable conclusion. It often slips our mind that change is approaching, that death and new life is around the next bend down the road. We often know. We are most of the time aware but grew accustomed and familiar with the Phoenix’s Fire burning a little further in our path.

At the end of 2007, I think the biggest lesson I’ve learnt is this:

After being part of the Graduation Campaign and the Camp Committee, working with mostly non-Christians in one case and exclusively Christians in the other, I would like the assert my hypothesis that people often goes more than six feet underwater.

People are like icebergs. Most of us only show very little above the water. The deeper we dive, the more we see that ‘hey, there’s so much more to others under the surface as well. There are very few shallow people out there or perhaps it would be a fair assumption that there are in fact No shallow people out there. The intellectuals like to pass this judgment on others. But now I wonder. Perhaps it is only my own lack of depth that makes me see others as shallow. That because I’ve not dive deep enough myself that I cannot see the depth of other peoples’ iceberg.)

What does seeing these icebergs beneath the surface means? It fills me with awe. A reminder that I’m not dealing with walking cardboards or talking mannequins or scripted NPCS, but dynamic living growing Image Bearers, whose potential in Him is only as far as they limit themselves.

We do not see, often is because we have not opened our eyes.

We see what we don’t like because we are only willing to stick our head in the shallows.

But when really give our all and dive deep, deep, deep to the abyss, we find treasures and glory and a heaven beneath the waves.

What’s not to like there?

New Year Exhortation

I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort t to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. ~ Eph 4:1-2

Such are the urging of Elder Ang, that the 5 marks of Christ likeness are these – humility, patience, long suffering in love for one another, wisdom and peace.

‘With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.’ ~ Eph 4:2 KJV

May the new year be committed unto the Lord. May He lead us the everlasting way. Amen.

Slow Tongue

Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, - James 1:19

If we are to take a look at it from the side of the speaker, perhaps it does make fair sense. When someone pours out their heart in good intention, speak of that which they have lived, experienced, words upon which they have experimented their very lives, right or wrong, correct or otherwise, merits more than words that rolled out without more than a mere moment’s thought. It is only fair then, that to answer words that have taken years and months and lifetime to compile, we might need a matching period to consider. Instant answers or counter arguments doesn’t do justice.

Perhaps in many case, the rightness or wrongness of an answer bears less relevance when we actually scrutinize our assumptions.

To see with unclouded eyes are hardly an easy thing to do.

On the other hand, while there are certainly undeniable good and reasonable things proposed by many good atheists and humanist, my one question will be how will their believe hold up in the face of that which is senseless, unreasonable, uncertain and that inevitable appointment with death.

Humble us, dear Lord.

Of Being Interesting

Sir, what book do you recommend?

Sketchbook, the best book in the world

Yes, indeed how my hands itch and yearn to pick up a pencil and scribble away. But deeper inside than drawing for drawing’s sake, I come to face another more important question.

What are you interested in?
What are you interested in, well I mean besides drawing?
Because if you are not interested in anything, the work you do are not going to be interesting. And people won’t want to watch boring things.

What am I interested in? What turns me on? These are the deeper question that underlies the expression. Perhaps it is true that one can never express for the sake of expressing. There needs to be more.

‘I am interested in entertaining people, in bringing pleasure, particularly laughter, to others, rather than being concerned with ‘expressing’ myself with obscure creative impressions.’ ~ Walt Disney

What is the difference between indulging in expressing myself and blessing the audience? The focus is different. One is done mindful of people. One is done solely for self-gratification. Yet it is also true that like minded people will also relish by your self-gratifications.

Sometimes I do wonder, can an artist who is only interested in comics Only, ever be a great comic artist? Will a dork only interested in fantasy ever be able to create good fantasy? Perhaps, but will fantasy be based on fantasy based on fantasy many times removed from reality ultimately loses its touch and connection with human? Will fiction born of fiction be its own demise? Perhaps there has got to be that vital link of human connection in an artist’s works that makes them truly great.

Originality – not that it is something that we can seek directly. We can’t be original for original’s sake, can we? But to birth something new, to add something to the existing landscape, an artist will need something deeper within. Many wonderful works that I love, be it in films, images, words or music, one core ingredient is that I can relate to it, that I can somehow care about it.

What makes me interesting? Can I really be different, a difference that count?

‘How monotonously alike all the great tyrants and conquerors have been: how gloriously different are the saints.’ ~ Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis

Perhaps herein lays the answer. I have to recognize the Giver, Sustainer, Author and Finisher of all things. All the gifts that I have comes from Him, all the trainings, opportunities and experience as well as all the wonderful people in my life are a gift from him. I can be where I am today because of His generosity. And to be different, to be the head and not the tail is all have to do with his favor. I can only be different – to be great if I can put it that way by abiding in Him. How can I be fruitful save to remain in Him? To walk with Him, to be close to Him, to be attentive and sensitive to Him, that is what it takes to make me interesting – a Fellowship with the Divine.

Help me therefore to surrender all these to You.
For it is only in You that I can reach my fullest potential.
For it is only in You that I can touch my destiny.
For it is only in You that these make any differences in Eternity.