Love at First Sight - Wislawa Szymborska
Both are convinced
that a sudden surge of emotion bound them together.
Beautiful is such a certainty,
but uncertainty is more beautiful.
Because they didn't know each other earlier,
they suppose that
nothing was happening between them.
What of the streets, stairways and corridors
where they could have passed each other long ago?
I'd like to ask them
whether they remember-- perhaps in a revolving door
ever being face to face?
an "excuse me" in a crowd
or a voice "wrong number" in the receiver.
But I know their answer:
no, they don't remember.
They'd be greatly astonished
to learn that for a long time
chance had been playing with them.
Not yet wholly ready
to transform into fate for them
it approached them, then backed off,
stood in their way
and, suppressing a giggle,
jumped to the side.
There were signs, signals:
but what of it if they were illegible.
Perhaps three years ago,
or last Tuesday
did a certain leaflet fly
from shoulder to shoulder?
There was something lost and picked up.
Who knows but what it was a ball
in the bushes of childhood.
There were doorknobs and bells
on which earlier
touch piled on touch.
Bags beside each other in the luggage room.
Perhaps they had the same dream on a certain night,
suddenly erased after waking.
Every beginning
is but a continuation,
and the book of events
is never more than half open.
September 19, 2003
September 18, 2003
Don't fart in bed
This is a story about a couple who had been happily married
for years. The only friction in their marriage was the husband's
habit of farting loudly every morning when he awoke.
The noise would wake his wife and the smell would make her
eyes water and make her gasp for air.
Every morning she would plead with him to stop ripping them
off because it was making her sick. He told her he couldn't stop
it and that it was perfectly natural. She told him to see a doctor;
she was concerned that one day he would blow his guts out.
The years went by and he continued to rip them out! Then one
Thanksgiving morning as she was preparing the turkey for
dinner and he was upstairs sound asleep, she looked at the
bowl where she had put the turkey innards and neck, gizzard,
liver and all the spare parts and a malicious thought came to her.
She took the bowl and went upstairs where her husband was
sound asleep and, gently pulling back the bed covers, she
pulled back the elastic waistband of his underpants and emptied
the bowl of turkey guts into his shorts.
Some time later she heard her husband waken with his usual
trumpeting which was followed by a blood curdling scream and
the sound of frantic footsteps as he ran into the bathroom.
The wife could hardly control herself as she rolled on the floor
laughing, tears in her eyes!
After years of torture she reckoned she had got him back pretty
good. About twenty minutes later, her husband came downstairs
in his bloodstained underpants with a look of horror on his face.
She bit her lip as she asked him what was the matter. He said,
"Honey, you were right." "All these years you have warned me
and I didn't listen to you."
"What do you mean?" asked his wife.
"Well, you always told me that one day I would end up farting my
guts out, and today it finally happened. But by the grace of God, some
Vaseline, and these two fingers, I think I got most of them back in."
This is a story about a couple who had been happily married
for years. The only friction in their marriage was the husband's
habit of farting loudly every morning when he awoke.
The noise would wake his wife and the smell would make her
eyes water and make her gasp for air.
Every morning she would plead with him to stop ripping them
off because it was making her sick. He told her he couldn't stop
it and that it was perfectly natural. She told him to see a doctor;
she was concerned that one day he would blow his guts out.
The years went by and he continued to rip them out! Then one
Thanksgiving morning as she was preparing the turkey for
dinner and he was upstairs sound asleep, she looked at the
bowl where she had put the turkey innards and neck, gizzard,
liver and all the spare parts and a malicious thought came to her.
She took the bowl and went upstairs where her husband was
sound asleep and, gently pulling back the bed covers, she
pulled back the elastic waistband of his underpants and emptied
the bowl of turkey guts into his shorts.
Some time later she heard her husband waken with his usual
trumpeting which was followed by a blood curdling scream and
the sound of frantic footsteps as he ran into the bathroom.
The wife could hardly control herself as she rolled on the floor
laughing, tears in her eyes!
After years of torture she reckoned she had got him back pretty
good. About twenty minutes later, her husband came downstairs
in his bloodstained underpants with a look of horror on his face.
She bit her lip as she asked him what was the matter. He said,
"Honey, you were right." "All these years you have warned me
and I didn't listen to you."
"What do you mean?" asked his wife.
"Well, you always told me that one day I would end up farting my
guts out, and today it finally happened. But by the grace of God, some
Vaseline, and these two fingers, I think I got most of them back in."
September 17, 2003
Splashed with bright white paint right across the side of the garbage truck in large, bold letters, a baffled university student had written, "Where is God?"
Most people wonder about this same question at some time or other. If there is a God, how can we know that he exists and how can we find him?
In some ways God is like an atom. You can't see him with the naked eye but you can see evidence of his presence and power everywhere you look.
For instance, God shows himself to us through creation. As David the psalmist said, "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the end of the world."1
In My Search for the Ultimate, research scientist Lambert Dolphin Jr. writes, "Confronted every day with the mysteries of space and the atom, I continue to be amazed at the complexity and order of our universe. From the sub-microscopic realm of the atom to the expanding reaches of the galaxies, our universe runs like intricate and well-oiled clockwork according to great physical laws which never change or falter.
"The heavens declare the glory of God."
"Our sun, which is the nearest star, a hundred earth diameters across, is 93 million miles into space. Each day the sun supplies our solar system with heat, power and light at the rate of a million billion, billion horsepower! Yet it is only an average star.
"Our island universe of stars which we call the Milky Way is 100,000 light years across. If we could travel at the speed of light (186,000 miles per second), it would take us 100,000 years to traverse the Milky Way! Yet this is only one of a billion or more such island universes stretched out in every direction from our earth to distances measured in billions of light years."
However, one doesn't need to be a scientist to see and feel the greatness of creation all around us. Vacationing on Kangaroo Island in South Australia, I marveled at the wonders of nature–the grandeur of rolling hills, the brilliance of spring flowers, the majesty of cliffs rising from the sea with the waves crashing rhythmically against them and pounding lonely, deserted beaches.
I watched a sea gull, beautiful and agile, swooping over the waves, tipping his beak into the water to pluck his meal from the sea. I marveled at the grace of a huge pelican, stretching his wings to a span of eight to ten feet as he soared effortlessly above me.
So many marvels to see: a playful porpoise dodging beneath the bow of our boat, gliding with ease through the crystal clear water; a curious fur seal, popping out of the sea in answer to a child's call; a kangaroo bounding across a distant field; and a koala high in a eucalyptus tree. Later, a million stars shone above to dance in chorus with a brilliant full moon and mirror their beauty in a now calm sea.
I have stood breathless at the sight of millions of gallons of water plunging over the Niagara Falls, and speechless at the splendor of the Grand Canyon. I have walked in amazement in the Yosemite Valley where mountains of granite seem to reach up out of nowhere to stab the sky in unparalleled artistic beauty.
"Did all this happen by chance?" I ask myself. For me it would take more faith to believe that than to believe that our world and universe were created by a Master Designer whose power and greatness are beyond human understanding.
Besides through creation, God has also shown himself through the human soul. As well as being a physical, rational, and emotional being, man is a spiritual being with a living soul in which is implanted a consciousness of God. This consciousness is made up of a "religious and moral instinct" which acknowledges a supreme being upon whom man is dependent and to whom he is responsible.2
Anselm, the famous Italian theologian who lived in the eleventh century, stated that the idea of God in the mind is proof that God exists. Pascal, the French physicist and philosopher who lived in the seventeenth century, spoke about the "God-shaped vacuum in every life that only God can fill."
Furthermore, if God didn't exist in the mind of the atheist, why would he feel compelled to disprove God's existence?
God has also revealed himself to us through his Word, the Bible. The Bible doesn't seek to prove God's existence. It accepts it as fact and simply says, "In the beginning God...."3
In the Bible God speaks with authority, stating that it is his Word and that he is the one and only God.4 It is God's written message to mankind. Fulfillment of scores of prophecies in accurate detail is sufficient evidence to prove its validity.
God can be seen in creation, in the human soul, and in the Bible, but his final and clearest revelation of himself to us is in his Son, Jesus Christ.5 Not only is Jesus the Son of God, but also God the Son. Referring to Jesus, John wrote, "In the beginning was the Word...and the Word was God...And the Word became flesh and lived among us."6
There is a God-shaped vacuum in every life that only God can fill.
When Philip, a disciple of Jesus, asked to see God, Jesus said, "He who has seen me has seen the Father [God]."7
In life we all see and believe basically what we want to see and believe. If we want to see and believe in God, we can. If we don't want to see him, we won't. Most people do believe in God but it is an entirely different experience to find him personally. The only way to do this is through Jesus Christ.
Jesus himself said, "I am the way, the truth, and life; no man comes to the Father [God] except through me."8
It is our sin–by causing both spiritual and physical death–that has separated us from God and prevented us from finding him. But because God loved us, he gave his Son, Jesus, to die for us and thereby pay the penalty for our sins.
To find God is very simple. You can do this right where you are. Simply pray and confess your sinfulness to God, tell him that you believe Jesus died on the cross for you, and ask Jesus come into your heart and life as your personal Lord and Savior. When you do this, God forgives you for all your sins, cancels your guilt and gives you the gift of eternal life. His invitation is to all who will come.9
1. Psalm 19:1-4, (NIV).
2. See Genesis 2:7; Acts 17:22-28 and Romans 2:14-15.
3. Genesis 1:1.
4. See Timothy 3:16 and Mark 12:29.
5. Hebrews 1:1-2.
6. See Mark 1:1 and John 1:1,14.
7. John 14:9.
8 John 14:6.
9. Revelation 22:17.
Taken off Article
Most people wonder about this same question at some time or other. If there is a God, how can we know that he exists and how can we find him?
In some ways God is like an atom. You can't see him with the naked eye but you can see evidence of his presence and power everywhere you look.
For instance, God shows himself to us through creation. As David the psalmist said, "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the end of the world."1
In My Search for the Ultimate, research scientist Lambert Dolphin Jr. writes, "Confronted every day with the mysteries of space and the atom, I continue to be amazed at the complexity and order of our universe. From the sub-microscopic realm of the atom to the expanding reaches of the galaxies, our universe runs like intricate and well-oiled clockwork according to great physical laws which never change or falter.
"The heavens declare the glory of God."
"Our sun, which is the nearest star, a hundred earth diameters across, is 93 million miles into space. Each day the sun supplies our solar system with heat, power and light at the rate of a million billion, billion horsepower! Yet it is only an average star.
"Our island universe of stars which we call the Milky Way is 100,000 light years across. If we could travel at the speed of light (186,000 miles per second), it would take us 100,000 years to traverse the Milky Way! Yet this is only one of a billion or more such island universes stretched out in every direction from our earth to distances measured in billions of light years."
However, one doesn't need to be a scientist to see and feel the greatness of creation all around us. Vacationing on Kangaroo Island in South Australia, I marveled at the wonders of nature–the grandeur of rolling hills, the brilliance of spring flowers, the majesty of cliffs rising from the sea with the waves crashing rhythmically against them and pounding lonely, deserted beaches.
I watched a sea gull, beautiful and agile, swooping over the waves, tipping his beak into the water to pluck his meal from the sea. I marveled at the grace of a huge pelican, stretching his wings to a span of eight to ten feet as he soared effortlessly above me.
So many marvels to see: a playful porpoise dodging beneath the bow of our boat, gliding with ease through the crystal clear water; a curious fur seal, popping out of the sea in answer to a child's call; a kangaroo bounding across a distant field; and a koala high in a eucalyptus tree. Later, a million stars shone above to dance in chorus with a brilliant full moon and mirror their beauty in a now calm sea.
I have stood breathless at the sight of millions of gallons of water plunging over the Niagara Falls, and speechless at the splendor of the Grand Canyon. I have walked in amazement in the Yosemite Valley where mountains of granite seem to reach up out of nowhere to stab the sky in unparalleled artistic beauty.
"Did all this happen by chance?" I ask myself. For me it would take more faith to believe that than to believe that our world and universe were created by a Master Designer whose power and greatness are beyond human understanding.
Besides through creation, God has also shown himself through the human soul. As well as being a physical, rational, and emotional being, man is a spiritual being with a living soul in which is implanted a consciousness of God. This consciousness is made up of a "religious and moral instinct" which acknowledges a supreme being upon whom man is dependent and to whom he is responsible.2
Anselm, the famous Italian theologian who lived in the eleventh century, stated that the idea of God in the mind is proof that God exists. Pascal, the French physicist and philosopher who lived in the seventeenth century, spoke about the "God-shaped vacuum in every life that only God can fill."
Furthermore, if God didn't exist in the mind of the atheist, why would he feel compelled to disprove God's existence?
God has also revealed himself to us through his Word, the Bible. The Bible doesn't seek to prove God's existence. It accepts it as fact and simply says, "In the beginning God...."3
In the Bible God speaks with authority, stating that it is his Word and that he is the one and only God.4 It is God's written message to mankind. Fulfillment of scores of prophecies in accurate detail is sufficient evidence to prove its validity.
God can be seen in creation, in the human soul, and in the Bible, but his final and clearest revelation of himself to us is in his Son, Jesus Christ.5 Not only is Jesus the Son of God, but also God the Son. Referring to Jesus, John wrote, "In the beginning was the Word...and the Word was God...And the Word became flesh and lived among us."6
There is a God-shaped vacuum in every life that only God can fill.
When Philip, a disciple of Jesus, asked to see God, Jesus said, "He who has seen me has seen the Father [God]."7
In life we all see and believe basically what we want to see and believe. If we want to see and believe in God, we can. If we don't want to see him, we won't. Most people do believe in God but it is an entirely different experience to find him personally. The only way to do this is through Jesus Christ.
Jesus himself said, "I am the way, the truth, and life; no man comes to the Father [God] except through me."8
It is our sin–by causing both spiritual and physical death–that has separated us from God and prevented us from finding him. But because God loved us, he gave his Son, Jesus, to die for us and thereby pay the penalty for our sins.
To find God is very simple. You can do this right where you are. Simply pray and confess your sinfulness to God, tell him that you believe Jesus died on the cross for you, and ask Jesus come into your heart and life as your personal Lord and Savior. When you do this, God forgives you for all your sins, cancels your guilt and gives you the gift of eternal life. His invitation is to all who will come.9
1. Psalm 19:1-4, (NIV).
2. See Genesis 2:7; Acts 17:22-28 and Romans 2:14-15.
3. Genesis 1:1.
4. See Timothy 3:16 and Mark 12:29.
5. Hebrews 1:1-2.
6. See Mark 1:1 and John 1:1,14.
7. John 14:9.
8 John 14:6.
9. Revelation 22:17.
Taken off Article
September 16, 2003
Quoteworthy
'To be able to be together is fate, but so is separation.'
- Actor Takeshi Kaneshiro
'Language has subconscious power.'
- Comedian Steve Martin
'Asian beauty is a positive thing. There is nothing wrong. But if we keep thinking it is an issue, we stereotype ourselves.'
- China-born actress Bai Ling
'To be able to be together is fate, but so is separation.'
- Actor Takeshi Kaneshiro
'Language has subconscious power.'
- Comedian Steve Martin
'Asian beauty is a positive thing. There is nothing wrong. But if we keep thinking it is an issue, we stereotype ourselves.'
- China-born actress Bai Ling
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