Het levensverhaal van JC een beetje kennende was ik wel wat onder de indruk van deze song.

I hurt myself today
to see if I still feel
I focus on the pain
the only thing that's real
the needle tears a hole
the old familiar sting
try to kill it all away
but I remember everything
what have I become?
my sweetest friend
everyone I know
goes away in the end
and you could have it all
my empire of dirt

I will let you down
I will make you hurt

I wear this crown of thorns
upon my liar's chair
full of broken thoughts
I cannot repair
beneath the stains of time
the feelings disappear
you are someone else
I am still right here

what have I become?
my sweetest friend
everyone I know
goes away in the end
and you could have it all
my empire of dirt

I will let you down
I will make you hurt

if I could start again
a million miles away
I would keep myself
I would find a way

A bargain friend (author unknown)

Lord, help me to be a 'bargain' friend. By that I mean , let those who come to me for friendship get more than they expected. For what they give me in friendship, Lord, let me remember to try to give them still more. Let them always go away suprised at the fullness of their hearts. Let me always put an extra something, an unexpected pleasure, into the hours they spend on me. Let my thoughts and words, which are my commodities, be always fresh and appealing. May my friends who come to me for understanding never find it out of stock. Remind me never to deceive them with false advertisement of myself. Thus help me to be a 'Bargain' friend, O Lord, always.

Als je van iemand houdt (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was een protestants theoloog die in Duitsland leefde voor en tijdens de tweede wereldoorlog.

Hij zou ondertussen 100 jaar geworden zijn, maar hij werd slechts 39. In 1943 werd hij gearresteerd en na twee jaar op bevel van Hitler opgehangen.

Tot kort voor zijn dood, ook in de gevangeniscel, bleef hij schrijven, vooral over verlatenheid en overgave.

We lezen uit één van deze geschriften:

"Als je van iemand houdt"

Als je van iemand houdt
en je bent van hem of haar gescheiden,
kan niets de leegte van zijn afwezigheid opvullen.
Je moet dat niet proberen,
je moet eenvoudig aanvaarden en volharden.
Dat klinkt erg hard, maar het is een grote troost,
want zolang de leegte blijft,
blijf je aldoor met elkaar verbonden.
Het is fout te zeggen: God vult de leegte.
Hij vult haar helemaal niet... integendeel.
Hij houdt de leegte leeg en helpt ons zo
de vroegere gemeenschap met elkaar te bewaren,
zij het dan ook in pijn.
Hoe mooier en rijker de herinneringen,
des te moeilijker de scheiding.
Maar dankbaarheid verandert de pijn
van de herinnering in stille vreugde.
De mooie dingen van vroeger
zijn geen doorn in het vlees,
maar een kostbaar geschenk dat je meedraagt.
Je moet zorgen dat je niet in je herinneringen blijft graven
en je erin verliest.
Een kostbaar geschenk bekijk je niet aldoor,
maar alleen op bijzondere ogenblikken.
Buiten die ogenblikken is het
een verborgen schat, een veilig bezit.
Dan wordt het verleden
een blijvende bron van vreugde en van kracht.

Afscheid van grootmama

Ik ga je zo vreselijk missen, maar ik ben heel erg dankbaar dat ik zoveel mooie herinneringen aan jou mag hebben. We hebben zoveel gelachen, elkaar zoveel geplaagd, zoveel gediscussieërd,... Ik genoot van je liefde voor mij, van je prachtige lach,... Je was echt zo bijzonder voor mij!

Afscheid nemen

Afscheid nemen
is met zachte vingers
wat voorbij is dichtdoen
en verpakken
in goede gedachten der herinnering.

Is verwijlen
bij een brok leven
en stilstaan op de pieken
van pijn en vreugde

Afscheid nemen
is met dankbare handen
weemoedig meedragen
al wat waard is
niet te vergeten...

Is moeizaam
de draden losmaken
en uit het spinrag
der belevenissen loskomen
en achterlaten
en niet kunnen vergeten...

Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

Dealing With Skeptics (www.comereason.org)

Om het eens een keertje om te draaien :)

He who asserts most prove.

SKEPTIC: "How can you Christians believe the book of Genesis to be true? All you are relying on is blind faith."
CHRISTIAN: "So, you're saying believing in something by faith alone is wrong?"
SKEPTIC: "Yes. Science has proven that stuff to be nonsense."
CHRISTIAN: "Oh really? How has science proved that?"
SKEPTIC: "Well, evolution proves it. Scientists have shown evolution to be true."
CHRISTIAN: "Scientists have shown evolution to be true? Just exactly which scientists? Exactly how have they proven evolution true?"
SKEPTIC: "All the scientists! Everyone knows that."
CHRISTIAN: "Well, there are great differences in evolutionary theory in the scientific community. Can you tell me just which version you mean? Tell me which studies you're referring to so I can look at them and address those issues."
SKEPTIC: "I don't know which studies. All I know is that they proved it!"
CHRISTIAN: "Actually, it doesn't sound like you do know. You can't tell me which scientists to which you're referring, you can't tell me which study and you can't tell me how it was proven true. Just where did you get this information?"
SKEPTIC: "It's common knowledge. You hear it all the time."
CHRISTIAN: "Just because you hear something a lot doesn't make it true. At Christmas I hear about Santa all the time, too. That doesn't make him real. What you're asking me to do is believe in evolution without providing me any evidence for doing so. I'm sorry, but I can't do that. I can't just accept what you say as true just because you say it. That would mean I would have to believe it by faith alone, and you just said that was wrong."

It seems that many people who object to Christianity want the Christians to do all the work and provide an answer for every nuance of their belief system, but don't feel that they are obligated to do the same. What bothers me is many Christians accept that premise and do a lot of work when the person objecting really wasn't interested in the truth to begin with. Now, some people are sincerely seeking answers, and we should be able to give them good reasons for believing why we believe. But if the skeptic feels it is important for you to have reasons for your faith, then they should be equally accountable.

Focus on interests, not positions (by Roger Fisher & William Ury)

Deze dingen komen veel te vaak voor. Spijtig genoeg is er dan ook meestal geen 'librarian'.

Consider the story of two men quarreling in a library. One wants the window open and the other wants it closed. They bicker back and forward about how much to leave it open: a crack, halfway, three quarters of the way. No solution satisfies them both.
Enter the librarian. She asks one why he wants the window open: “to get some fresh air.” After thinking a minute, she opens wide a window in the next room, bringing in fresh air without a draft.

This story is typical. Since the parties’ problem appears to be a conflict of positions, and since their goal is to agree on a position, they naturally tend to think and talk about positions - and in the process often reach an impasse.
The librarian could not have invented the solution she did if she had focused only on the two men’s stated positions of wanting the window open or closed. Instead she looked to their underlying interest of fresh air and no draft. This difference between positions and interests is crucial.

Internationalization

Interessant/grappig om te zien hoe Keynes de internationaliserende wereld 100 jaar geleden zag.

What an extraordinary episode in the economic progress of man that age was which came to an end in August 1914!... The inhabitant of London could order by telephone, sipping his morning tea in bed, the various products of the whole earth, in such quantity as he might see fit, and reasonably expect their early delivery upon his doorstep; he could at the same moment and by the same means adventure his wealth in the natural resources and new enterprises of any quarter of the world, and share, without exertion or even trouble, in their prospective fruits and advantages; or he could decide to couple the security of his fortunes with the good faith of the townspeople of any substantial municipality in any continent that fancy or information might recommend. He could secure forthwith, if he wished it, cheap and comfortable means of transit to any country or climate without passport or other formality, could dispatch his servant to the neighboring office of a bank for such supply of the precious metals as might seem convenient, and could then proceed abroad to foreign quarters, without knowledge of their religion, language, or customs, bearing coined wealth upon his person, and would consider himself greatly aggrieved and much surprised at the least interference. But, most important of all, he regarded this state of affairs as normal, certain, and permanent, except in the direction of further improvement, and any deviation from it as aberrant, scandalous, and avoidable. The projects and politics of militarism and imperialism, of racial and cultural rivalries, of monopolies, restrictions, and exclusion, which were to play the serpent to this paradise, were little more than the amusements of his daily newspaper, and appeared to exercise almost no influence at all on the ordinary course of social and economic life, the internationalization of which was nearly complete in practice. ’ J. M.. Keynes.