For those living in the United States this week, it has been a surreal experience to observe a continued unfolding tragedy in Puerto Rico (and other islands in the Caribbean as well as Florida and Texas) due to the latest hurricanes while hearing a national discussion on whether professional athletes are showing enough respect for… Read More Seeing A Flawed Nation But Loving It Still
With these impassioned words, Indian journalist and activist Gauri Lankesh would lash the editors in Delhi over the telephone. Based in Bangalore in the Southern Indian state of Karnataka, Lankesh was overseeing a weekly edition of a Kannada-language magazine. She had a firmly established reputation for challenging the ruling government, as well as injustice whenever… Read More “Speak up, you must do more, why are all of you so timid!”
No matter our season of life, there are places within us that are struggling to come to life, while other things are needing to die. This is a process of life, difficult yet so deeply needed. I have recently been drawn to the poetry of Ranier Maria Rilke (1875-1926), born and raised in Prague yet… Read More The Struggle to Grow
How do we respond when so much suffering surrounds us? This past week alone has seen a continuing potential genocide of the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar (Burma). The United Nations estimates that over 290,000 have fled to the border district of Cox’s Bazaar in Bangladesh in the past two weeks, to join the 100,000 already… Read More Silence as ‘Negative Space’
Are you aware of the illusions you may hold? About your own life? About your nation? Discerning and then facing our illusions is one of the most difficult processes we can go through in life. According to one definition, an illusion is a deceptive appearance or impression. It can also be a false idea or… Read More Facing Our Illusions
At the end of this week, my soul feels battered. There is a weariness, an attentiveness to pain and grief. Yesterday a good friend and colleague from India, Vijay, was buried in the Indian Christian Cemetery in Pune. He was only in his mid 40’s, and leaves behind his precious wife Baizine and two teenage… Read More Celebrating the Darkness
This is not a blog about politics. It deals with history, especially in Asia, and relations between faiths. But under one definition, politics is fundamentally about how people relate to one another, and how can you avoid writing about that? Whether in India or in the United States, the two nations that I love the most,… Read More The Politics of the Broken-Hearted
What will people say about your life when you’re gone? Will there be vastly different remembrances, or similar? If very different, it may say more about perspectives on the past than even you personally. I saw a TV interview today, with people giving their opinions on a political leader and how they were doing in… Read More What will people say when you’re gone? Different perspectives on history
Some of us think that we can live in denial of problems in our families, nations, or organisations and not face a cost. Wrong. Others of us think that speaking truth to power, or being “whistle-blowers”, will also be able to be done cost-free. Also wrong. Of course of the two, the latter most often… Read More What is the Cost of Denial? Of Speaking Truth to Power?
It must have been a stark and stunning image that September day in 1287: Edward I, the King of England, kneeling to receive communion from Rabban Sauma, an Asian Church of the East leader. Sent from a Mongol ruler named Arghun from the capital near modern day Beijing, (and with overall Mongol Emperor Kublai Khan’s… Read More Power Reversal: A 13th century Asian Christian leader gives Holy Communion to the King of England
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