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Thursday, April 03, 2008

-- Opened --

#-Forgives most, but condones least.

I'm reading CS Lewis' Problem of Pain again, but I have company this time, so I might actually get to finish it rather than dying at the 5th chapter due to bombastic words and arduously long sentences. However, although the language might be quite a swamp to wade through, what precious gems of wisdom reside in those beautifully crafted words and sentences. I'm in not much mood to blog these days, due to the business of studying for exams, but I hit a fantastic chapter last night and thought that I just had to write some quotes down.

"Love can forbear, and Love can forgive...but Love can never be reconciled to an unlovely object...He can never therefore be reconciled to your sin, because the sin itself is incapable of being altered; but He may be reconciled to your person, because that may be restored."
-Traherne, Centuries of Meditation, II, 30.

"There is kindness is Love: but Love and kindness are not coterminous, and when kindness is separated from the other elements of Love, it involves a certain fundamental indifference to its object, and even something like contempt of it......If God is Love, He is, by definition, something more than just mere kindness. And it appears, from all the records, that thought He has often rebuked us and condemned us, He has never regarded us with contempt. He has paid us the intolerable compliment of loving us, in the deepest, most tragic, most inexorable sense. " - CS Lewis, Problem of Pain.

And one more that has been part of my long-standing thinking that in a relationship, parties should not be afraid to hurt one another, as in the verse, "as iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another". Here CS Lewis talks about love between a man and a woman.

"Love, in its own nature, demands the perfecting of the beloved; that the mere 'kindness' which tolerates anything except suffering in its object is, in that respect, the opposite pole from love. Love may forgive all infirmities and love still in spite of them: but Love cannot cease to will their removal. Love is more sensitive than hatred itself to every blemis in the beloved...Of all powers he forgives most, but he condones least: he is pleased with little, but demands all." -CS Lewis, Problem of Pain.

And how true it is, for when we truly love, we do not merely tolerate flaws and blemishes in the beloved, but try our best to change them. That, my friend, is love: love that, in my opinion, should not only be expressed with our significant others, but also our friends, for after all, the goal is to grow more and more into the image of Christ, and that is never without suffering.

On to an update about my trip to Budapest then. 6 of us went to Budapest, Hungary, for 4 days from 22-20 Mar 08. It was an enjoyable trip to say the least, not just due to the beauty of the place, but also the company. Budapest has quite historical and pretty architecture. The buildings, although mostly old, carry with them a certain charm; an almost surreal atmosphere engulfs you when you walk down its long lanes. The food was fantastic! Never in my life have I had so much game meat. I've always loved trying new and interesting foods, and I was satisfied. Granted I was still fasting during the trip and skipping lunch while watching the 5 other hungry companions devour their slabs and chunks of succulent meat was not that much pleasant. But during dinner, oh that's where my bottomless pit of a stomach takes in its victims. I remember having meats like wild boar, stag, hare, ox tongue, and goose liver. All were good, although the last memory I had of hare's meat was delicious, which was not so this time (too dry). But the wild boar and ox tongue took the cake. I've had ox tongue before, but when it was shredded in made into a sauce on top of wild boar meat, which is just as tender and flavoursome, it was awesome.

Visiting the tourist attractions was nice too, and the House Of Terror Museum, telling the history of the secret police and the communists and Nazis in Budapest, had to be the most well done and creative museum I have ever been to. The exihibits were whole rooms of posters, video clips and artifacts from the Nazi time, complete with a tank and a car in the building. There was even a basement where tey recreated the different prison cells of that building, which was formerly used as a headquarters for the Nazi and communists. The last room was sort of a memorial to the victims of the Nazis. It was a small black room with metal walls, in which the names of the victims were engraved. Many crosses were erected from the floor using thin wooden sticks, each with a dim light at the intersection. One could feel the stirring in the air near that room; it was eery. But not only that, the music they played in the background added to the mood. I remember a repeating theme based on a phrase of 4 bars followed by the second phrase of only 3 bars, which threw Debra off when she heard it and made her feel very uncomfortable. In some another room about the Jewish during that period, there was Gregorian-style chanting. The last one I could remember was a string orchestra piece which many tremelos, forming a very sinister mood.

As you can tell, I really enjoyed the trip. Getting to know Melvin and Amanda was nice too, and also, time spent with the other 3, Edward, Mae and Debra.

I will be playing at Royal Albert Hall this weekend for Prom Praise with All Souls Orchestra. Other than that, next week, I'll also go to Salzburg for 2 days with Michael Lui. That should be good too.

-- Closed --

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