Gregory the Great in a time of crisis

 

Lovely article written last year about how much we can learn and draw inspiration from St Gregory the Great, feast of which celebrate today. 

To think, the Rome in crisis, beset by barbarian...  and how he was called to, and stop forward as their leader... even as he was prepared years ago to walk away from serving as prefect of Rome-- the highest administrative post.. 

I pray to St Gregory to obtain the grace for following God's calling, to serve as "servants of the servants of the Lord", to not despair and to not lose hope... 

https://simplycatholic.com/gregory-the-greats-pastoral-advice-amid-crisis/

Michael Gove's Five Things

I stumbled across this list of 5 Things I Have Learnt by UK's new Education Secretary Michael Gove. I can especially relate to the first and second.

1. You can't spend too much time with your children.

2. Always make time every day to read a book that has nothing to do with your work.

The third, can't say cos I haven't been to Scotland... but I did marry with Scottish blood, and no one else is more beautiful in my eyes...

3. No where in the world is more beautiful than Scotland.

The fourth and fifth are something that I have to remind myself to put into practice everyday.

4. Criticism is a good thing.

If you throw out signals that you find criticism hard to take, that you don't want to hear bad news, then you don't want to learn. Make it clear to people that you want to learn from a mistake. I make mistakes all the time, from my first job as reporter on the Press and Journal when I nearly bankrupted a chicken farm. It's always better to acknowledge your mistakes and learn from them.

5. Never judge by first impressions.

Tristen's just learn to roll

I am happy to report that Tristen's just learn to roll... from resting on his back to resting on his stomach. Okay, maybe not so happy for us, since now, he flips over, but can't flip back, so he crys because he really doesn't like to be resting on his stomach.

We also think that he's going to be a fast walker (not that we would want it that way... its really less work when the baby works faster) since he always wants to practice standing up... He can hold himself up against the rails of his cot. We also help him practice by letting him hold on to our hands so that he can learn how to balance.

Reading Programme

The good thing about going back to school is going back to reading. I have just realised how much I like browsing the shelves of libraries, picking out random books that just catch my fancy... and yes, it's sometimes easy to take for granted the resources that we have at our disposal across our university libraries.

Over the past month, I have read Michael Lewis Blind Side, as well as a history of the development of business schools. From Higher Aims to Hired Guns, HBS professor Rakesh Khurana. I am now reading Walter Kiechel's Lords of Strategy.

Also on my table are various books by Cardinal Avery Dulles. My favourite is his book on Newman, which gives an excellent one chapter biographical summary of his life. Also have two books on "The Catholicity of the Church" and "The Reshaping of Catholicism"

New Redesigned Plug

I think this is really cool...

http://www.iconeye.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3864:rca-student-radically-improves-the-uk-plug

Third Day in Hanoi

Today marks my third day in Vietnam.

Vietnam is such an enigma...
As a ethinic Chinese, I can identify so much of the cultural, language and religious beliefs which are similar with the Vietnamese, yet its so anti-Chinese in a way that the Vietnamese are so fiercely nationalistic that they wouldn't stand for any suggestion that they had borrowed so much of their religion, cultural and language from China.

The layered historical influences are what makes Vietnam so unique... their efforts to escape the yolk of Chinese rule with the fall of the Tang Dynasty, the colonial influence of the French, the US presence and influence of communism. This is epitomised by what our lecturer shared... talking communists, working capitalists, ruling monarchists, and dreaming internationalists.

I think what makes Vietnam so fascinating is what makes SEA as a whole so interesting, a crossroads of cultural infleunces... but the way that it mixes can be so different from country to country.

We have been soaking it in... the cuisine and the cafes (I had this interesting ice cream sundae with a chendol coconut sauce and coffee) The food has been fantastic as well.

Visit to Vietnam

Writing from Hanoi. Currently on a weeklong International Business Fellowship programme organised by International Enterprise Singapore to encourage businessmen to do business in Vietnam.

I spent Sunday afternoon walking around Hanoi. According to my phone pedometer, I walked over 20,000 steps (20km), around town. Walking around really gave me a good feel of the city, its life and its people. What strikes one is the chaos of cars, scooters and bicycles. Not quite sure how I figured how to cross the roads. But managed to do so without being knocked down.

I visited the Temple of Literature, a university set up in 1020 by the earliest emperors in Vietnam. Consisting of 5 courtyards, what was amazing where these stone steles (86 of them) that showed the names of the lauretes that were chosen from these 3-yearly Confucian exams in the 13th to 15th century. The innermost courtyards also had statues of Confucius and his 4 disciples showing the reverance that Vietnamese paid to Confucian ideals.

Also managed to swing by St Joseph's Cathedral-- with its grey-washed and bleak exteriors. The interior however was richly decorated with red and gold. In there, there a group of ladies singing the rosary.

Photography Tips and All

I have been spending my paternity leave just catching up on some reading especially for stuff that I am figuring out to do. Top of the list is photography. I finally splurged on a digital SLR. (In fact, I ran out to buy my Nikon D80 8 hours after Ashlynn was born just to save on the 2% GST hike).

Getting and paying for the camera is the easier part. The tricky part is how to take good pictures with them. I picked up a book " The Joy of Digital Photography" by Jeff Wignall. It's got pretty nice pictures and pretty good tips all presented in a not too intimidating fashion.

I think the crux photography is really observation and timing. Having the patience to look at people's reactions, moods and actions, and willing to spend time with them. I like this quote from the great photographer Edward Steichen that photography's job was "... to explain man to man and eac man to himself"