Tag: Identity

Translation Involves More Than Words

Translation usually implies the rendering from one language into another of something written or spoken. Fair enough!
   But, something written or spoken centuries ago—in the same language—can mean something entirely different today.
   For example, “varlet” could refer to an attendant; a youth serving as a knight’s page; a scoundrel; or a knave—depending on when and where the word was used.
   Another example: “bitch” could refer to the female of the dog, wolf, fox, etc.; a woman, especially a bad tempered, malicious, or promiscuous woman; a course term of contempt or hostility; anything especially unpleasant or difficult; or a complaint—also depending on when and where the word was used.
   Still another example: “damn” could refer to condemn as guilty; to condemn to an unhappy fate; to condemn to endless punishment; to condemn as bad, inferior, etc. (often used in the imperative as a curse); to criticize adversely; to cause the ruin of or make fail; to swear at by saying “damn”; to express anger, annoyance, disappointment, etc.—also depending on when and where the word was used.
   Reading the Bible has some challenges of this nature also. First, because the translation we are using may have words that used to be in common usage and may sound odd or perplexing to us today.
   Also, because the mentality of the particular author—for the Bible is a collection of writings by many inspired authors over a period of many centuries—may be somewhat foreign to ours or concern matters, places, and people that we do not understand or accept.
   That’s why there is always a need for new translations of the same ancient texts, since the meaning of our words is constantly changing as well as our worldview.

   The understanding of the universe and the world we live in was very different in most Biblical days from the way it is now.
   We face a similar situation when we read, reflect, and pray using the Divine Office (the Breviary). We’re reading Biblical selections and reflections by ancient scholars and saints over a period of more than two thousand years. The meaning of words may have changed and evolved over the centuries as well as rules, regulations, laws, customs, and traditions.
   Some people are somewhat offended by what they consider to be annoying changes in translations and in rules, regulations, laws, customs, and traditions. But, for better or worse, there’s no escaping it. We always face a challenge of translation and adaptation, tiresome though it may be.
   The answer is not to criticize, condemn, and correct all changes but to adopt and understand the best and necessary of them.
   We each continually grow and develop—and so does the world we live in as well as everyone in it.
   It’s not just the Bible and the Breviary that constantly need updating and improved translations and interpretations—it’s everything, everywhere, and everyone.
   It’s okay to get tired of change and be reluctant to constantly modify and update your life—but, it’s not good to become a critic and opponent of all change.
   Each of us transitions from childhood to teenage to young adulthood and beyond—sometimes making mistakes and having regrets as our lives move on.
   Living involves constantly reacting to changes and challenges!



25 June 2023

Fool of a Tool

   “When did you arrive?”
   “I flew in yesterday.”
   No, you didn’t exactly fly in yesterday. You traveled on an airplane that arrived yesterday.
   If a bird could talk, it might well say, and exactly say, “I flew in yesterday.”
   If an elevator cab could talk, it might well say, “I carried five people up six floors.” But it didn’t actually. The elevator cab itself was lifted up six floors along with the five people in it.
   A pen in a museum might boast that “I signed the Declaration of Independence.” No, dear pen, you were but the tool in the hand of the person signing.
   A nail might claim credit for holding up the picture on the wall. But, actually it was driven into place with someone with a hammer. It has a function, but it needs to be empowered to function by the one hammering—and, of course, sustained by the wall, too.
   What right does the projector have to boast that “I entertained. I showed the movie”?
   Can the stove claim credit for cooking the dinner? Should the piano pride itself on the music you played on it?
   Is the family doctor the reason for the health of the family? Is the pastor the reason for the saint in his congregation? Should a president claim credit for the well-being of the country?
   One could go on and on with similar examples. The point is that having a role to play, large or small, is not the same as being responsible for the success or failure of the entire enterprise or construction.
   But, to be perfectly honest, that’s not what usually happens. Whether it’s delusion, vanity, outright deceit, or naïve ignorance, usually the leader claims credit for the victories and successes and attributes the failures to other people or things.

   It’s odd, we’re much more likely to say “The devil made me do it!” then “God made me do it”. Which, implicitly, is sort of attributing more power and influence over the course of our lives to the devil!
   Hell, no! That’s not the way our lives are supposed to be lived.
   Should the screw be claiming credit when it was the screwdriver that drove it in—or the screwdriver be claiming credit when it was worker who was wielding it? (Or the worker be claiming credit who really was empowered by God!)
   Shakespeare has Macbeth give a bleak sort of answer to this type of questions, more or less giving credit to none:
   Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player,
   That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
   And then is heard no more. It is a tale,
   Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
   Signifying nothing.”
   David, in Psalm 138, has a better, more true response:
   I thank you, Lord, with all my heart;
      in the presence of the angels to you I sing….
   Though I walk in the midst of dangers,
      you guard my life when my enemies rage.
   You stretch out your hand;
      your right hand saves me.
   The Lord is with me to the end.
      Lord, your mercy endures forever.
      Never forsake the work of your hands!
   Tools can’t claim all credit for what a higher power achieves, using them.
   Don’t be fool and forget that you’re a tool in the hands of God!


19 March 2023

I’m No Angel

What are angels? Some might turn the question around and ask, are there angels? And, should we aspire to be angels or at least angelic? Or, is that as strange, and as impossible, as a fish aspiring to be a bird?
   The word “angel” is rooted in the Greek word angelos, meaning a messenger.
   In the Jewish Scriptures, in several places—e.g., Genesis 18—a mysterious, apparently human visitor turns out to be not only a messenger from God but a manifestation, an appearance of God. In some other places—e.g., Daniel 10—an angel messenger from God is also described as distinct, powerful, functioning person.
   When talking about angels, we also speak of “fallen angels”—that is, about angels who fail to remain the servants of God that they were meant to be. In fact, we often make this our definition of devils: fallen, in the sense of failed, angels.
   Is “angel” a superior being of God’s creation, yet a superior being that is capable of sin, disobedience, and inordinate pride? Some of our religious traditions describe them this way.
   In common speech, we tend to think of angels as perfect beings. We even call a very good child or person an “angel”. But, who is without sin, perfect in every way and always? Only by the special grace of God is it possible.
   Anyway, even though we may say to a child that “you’re a little angel” or that “you’re a little devil”, we mean no more than “you’re very good” or “you’re very bad”.
   The best of angels, according to scripture and tradition, are the ones who serve as the direct messengers of God and the protectors of his chosen people.
   This is a pretty good description of what we often aspire to be: bespeaking God by our words and deeds and seeking to aid and protect others.

   I’m no angel. I mean in the sense that I unfailingly let all my words and deeds reflect and communicate the love and mercy of God.
   I do try, though, to be an angel in this sense—and probably you do, too! Do we succeed always, usually, sometimes, rarely, or never?
   The best that is attainable, short of a special intervention of God, is usually—and that probably needs a lot of support from God, too!
   I’m no devil, either. I mean in the sense that I unfailingly refuse to let my words and deeds reflect and communicate the love and mercy of God.
   Whether we’re devilishly clever or not, the whole trajectory of our lives is a constant struggle to be less devilish and more angelic.
   But, have no delusions! You are not, and never will be, perfect.
   Even so, the fundamental measure of your life, and mine, is how hard and how often we do successfully succeed in obeying the will of God and witnessing to it, letting God speak through our lives to others.
   I don’t want to be devilishly clever, but it’s awkward to say I want to be angelically clever. I just want to be good—that is, ever to strive to be what God intends me to be and to do what God wants, as best as I can understand it.
   I don’t aspire to be an angel—or a devil.
   I’m just one more imperfect, human being struggling always to discern who I am, what God asks of me, and how best to achieve it and to have the grace and courage to let my life, for better or for worse, bespeak the love and mercy of God.  

  


22 January 2023

Actor vs. Spectator

Is it something like Do or Don’t?
   I mean, some people’s lives are busy with living, loving, helping, working, making, or building and others are busy at waiting, watching, judging, applauding, or criticizing.
   Alas, busy doesn’t necessarily mean good. There are busy people whose lives are all about lying, cheating, hurting, harming, or taking advantage of others.
   There are some people who tend to be imaginative, creative, or unconventional, but lead, while others may be inclined to react, praise, or criticize, but follow.
   Some people say all the right things, but don’t necessarily do all the right things. Vice-versa, other people don’t say much or even seem to get it wrong when they do, but are always doing good, helping others, or trying to do what’s right.
   Similarly, there are people highly active and very busy at doing selfish things even harmful to others, while saying all the right things and professing values that they do not put into practice.
   Which is better? To be totally a spectator of life or to be an actor, a player? And, what of bad actors and bad players—are they better than spectators of life or worse?
   In many ways, our culture is filled with “spectator sports”. When we listen to or watch the “news” on radio or television, we are overwhelmed with scattered facts and an abundance of opinion and judgements.
   What are we, sometimes, but no more than spectators of other spectators?
   We may argue about the merits of political, religious, or other popular leaders and their proposals and deeds, but we rarely move from “spectator” to “actor”—that is, we rarely do much more that argue about the relative merits of what other people do!
   Did you ever wonder how could people once cheer to see wild animals tear apart innocent people in the colosseum? Be careful, we have our modern equivalents!

   Better to have fought and lost than not to have fought at all! Better to have tried and failed than not to have tried at all! Better to have lived and died than not to have lived at all! But, of course, it’s far better to win, succeed, and live.
   It’s curious, but actually no one is a player or even a spectator all by themselves. Player usually presumes a team, others who assist at the moment of play or before it and whose experience is valuable. Spectators, too, are affected and at times guided by others. Think of how many times you were guided by another’s “Look at that!”
   In a way, all this is not so very different from a warning and counsel Jesus gave to his followers and disciples:
   “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.” (Mathew 7:21)
   You may decide to follow Jesus, “no turning back, no turning back,” but it’s not merely a matter of words, of saying, affirming, or advising the “right” things—it’s a matter of doing them.
   Actions speak louder than words!
   Are you afraid to make a choice and implement it because you’re not sure you’ve gotten it just right, because you’re afraid of making a mistake?
   Welcome to the human race! We’re all like that! They may call you a “perfectionist,” but that’s not what human beings are, even though they may aspire to be one.
   Only by the grace and help of God can we approach and do our best to do the right thing, the good thing, the holy thing—and with God’s help we may get close to getting it right. By ourselves, alone, no way!


4 December 2022

Persevering

It’s thing you ought to do! It’s a thing that’s hard to do! It’s a thing you have to do! It’s a thing that you’re sometimes criticized for doing! What is it, really?
   Let’s start with some dictionary definitions:
   Persevere – to continue in some effort, course of action, etc. in spite of difficulty, opposition, etc.; to be steadfast in purpose; to persist.
   Does this mean to be stubborn?
   Stubborn – 1. refusing to yield, obey, or comply; resisting doggedly or unreasonably; resolute or obstinate.  2. done or carried out in an obstinate or doggedly persistent manner.  3. hard to handle, treat, or deal with; intractable.
   But, in a good sense it could almost mean:
   Heroic – 1. of or characterized by persons of godlike strength and courage.  2. like or characteristic of a hero/heroine or his/her deeds; strong, brave, noble, powerful, etc.  3. of or about a hero/heroine and his/her deeds; epic.  4. Exalted, eloquent; high-flown.  5. daring and risky, but used as a last resort.
   Okay, it’s clear that perseverance is a more or less neutral word; it can refer to behaviors, right or wrong, ranging on a scale from stubborn to heroic.
   Perseverance can be a matter of:
   – Persistence – in a favorable sense, implying steadfast perseverance; in an unfavorable sense, annoyingly stubborn continuance.
   – Tenacity and Pertinacity – imply firm adherence to some purpose, action, belief, etc., tenacity in a favorable sense, and pertinacity, with the unfavorable connotation of annoying obstinacy.
   (There is a related Latin root word, severus, that also has a range of meanings, favorable and unfavorable:
   Grave, serious, strict, rigid, stern, austere.)

   Persevering requires knowledge, determination, courage, strength, endurance, and sacrifice.
   Persevering in a good sense also involves maturity, life experience, generosity, insight, humility, and faith!
   One way of describing a saint is a person who perseveres in doing the will of God until life’s end.
   The will of God includes things like:
   – “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”
   – I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another.
   – Do to others as you would have them do to you.
   – Then Peter approaching asked him, “Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus answered, “I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times.
   – Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the gospel will save it.
   This kind of perseverance is paradoxical.
   From one point of view, it describes a loser, someone stubborn, inflexible, imprudent, spineless, and naïve.
   From another, more meaningful, point of view, it describes a winner, someone courageous, generous, strong, and loving.
   The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
   Persevere!


9 October 2022

Male – Female

Male: a person bearing an X and Y chromosome pair in the cell nuclei and normally having a penis, scrotum, and testicles, and developing hair on the face at adolescence; a boy or man.

Female: a person bearing two X chromosomes in the cell nuclei and normally having a vagina, uterus, and ovaries, and developing at puberty a relatively rounded body and enlarged breasts, and retaining a beardless face; a girl or woman.

    These biological definitions are the fundamental meaning of the two words—and, based on these definitions, it’s hard to imagine changing from one to another.

Masculine: having qualities traditionally ascribed to men, such as strength and boldness.

Feminine: having qualities traditionally ascribed to women, such as sensitivity and gentleness.

    These behavioral definitions are not so clear and fixed as the biological—there are men with some “feminine” qualities and women with some “masculine” qualities.
    Remember when you were just a child? In my time (long ago!), if you fell, hurt yourself, and began to cry, usually it was your mother who held and consoled you. Dads usually didn’t do that sort of thing.
    If you wanted to use hammers and nails and other tools, usually it was your father who showed you. Moms usually didn’t do that sort of thing.
    Gentleness was considered feminine behavior and toughness, male behavior.
    Girls could play “house’” and have dolls, but not boys. Boys could have bats and balls to play with, but, traditionally, girls didn’t.

    In those days, a girl who had behaviors associated with boys was called a “tomboy”; a boy who had behaviors associated with girls was called a “fairy”.
    Now we have a far more varied and elaborate vocabulary to describe sexual behaviors and identities.
    It’s like shopping in a paint store. You may want blue paint, but you still need to choose what shade of blue you want from a color chart with far more possibilities than you may have expected.
    There are far more possibilities on the “Male – Female” chart or range, too, and some of the labels or names we use for them are pejorative and some are not.
    The behaviors associated with “man” or “woman” can vary from culture to culture, ethnic group to ethnic group, country to country, and age to age.
    In spite of biological, behavioral, and historical, and other differences, it’s clear that we are all human beings. It’s also clear that we may have different sexual identities, relationships, behaviors and moralities.
    Once, being questioned about divorce, Jesus said, “…Have you not read that from the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female’…” (Mathew 19:4)
    This was a reference to biological difference, not behavior, in answer to a provocative question about the Mosaic law, about husbands divorcing their wives.
    Years ago, the Heinz company had a popular advertising slogan on its ketchup bottle about its “57 varieties”.
    I don’t know if human beings are that diverse, but we’re all God’s children and, in spite of differences, belong to that one and the same variety!


28 August 2022

Imperfection

If someone accused you of being imperfect, would you consider it to be an insult and be offended?
   On the other hand, if someone called you perfect, would you consider it to be a sort of complement and appreciate it?
   Both words come from the Latin verb perficio, especially its past participle form perfectus meaning brought to an end, completed, finished.
   They’re not judgmental words. It doesn’t mean, e.g., that you won, but simply that you persevered to the end.
   Forgive me, then, for stating the obvious: you’re an imperfect person, not a perfect one—after all, you’re not dead yet!
   Sometimes “imperfect” is taken to mean relating to or characterized by defects or weaknesses, but that may be unfair. Imperfect basically means that it’s not over yet, it’s a work in progress.
   We all are meant to be perfectionists—we all are meant to persevere, despite the challenges and setbacks, and to continue to run life’s race until it is completed, for better or for worse.
   If you were selected to race in the Olympics, that selection itself would be a great honor and recognition whether or not you later got a special medal for outstanding performance.
   No matter what, nor where, nor when, each of us is imperfect—and we continue to be imperfect every day of our life until it’s over; that’s when we become perfect.
   The judgement of our lives is not comparative; we’re not competing in a contest—we’re just striving to make it through, as best we can, to the end.
   But . . . not anything goes. We’re not monkeys, birds, sloths, or antelope, we’re human beings. We must persevere as human beings until our end. We must live our lives according to God’s design and will until our end.

   It’s possible to make it through till the end in the basic sense of surviving, but we may not when it comes to the quality of our lives and the realization of our potential.
   Remember, Jesus said (cf. Luke 9:23-24):

 . . . If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.

   Regarding this, the quality of our lives and Jesus’ challenging standards, we also are imperfect and living imperfect lives.
   All our life, spiritually too, is a work in progress. Fumbling, bungling, or not, we’re all engaged in a daily struggle involving self-denial and perseverance in imitating the Lord as best we can.
   You may be an imperfect follower of Jesus right now, in the sense of having defects or weaknesses. But, your life’s journey is not yet ended.
   If you persevere until the end trying to live as he teaches, your life is a success story, whether or not you get some recognition and award for outstanding performance.
   Everyone who gets to heaven is a saint, a holy person, whether canonized a saint and held up as a model to be imitated or not!
   Men or women who enter a religious order and take vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience used to be considered “in a State of Perfection”. More accurately they are in a state of seeking perfection, seeking to be poor, chaste, and obedient until the end of their lives.
   But, like all of us, they really are in a state of imperfection until their lives are done!


14 August 2022

Why Did God Make Me?

Q. Why did God make you?
A. God made me to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him forever in the next.

   If you’re old enough to have been taught “catechism” as a child, you may remember this question and answer from the Baltimore Catechism.
   It’s about our purposes—and their priority is important:
   Our first purpose is knowledge, not distilled, abstract knowledge but practical, functional knowledge. The first challenge of our lives is to get to know God, to really get to know God, as best we can.
   This means clear thinking about God all during our lives—it’s a never-ending task. As a child, we think about God in a childish way; as a mature adult, we think about God in a mature, adult way. It’s a life-long practice and challenge for each of us.
   Our second purpose is love, not necessarily a passionate or deeply emotional feeling but definitely a persevering choice to seek to know and trust God better and better.
   This means subordinating our will to God’s will, constantly seeking to enjoy God, and striving to make God the center of our lives—another life-long practice and challenge for each of us.
   Our third purpose is service, a total and deep commitment to obey the will of God as best we understand it, especially in expending ourselves for others.
   This means, as St. Ignatius of Loyola said, “. . . to give and not to count the cost, to fight and not to heed the wounds, to toil and not to seek for rest, to labor and not to ask for any reward, save that of knowing that we do your [i.e., God’s] will.”
   Just as our knowing gradually changes and develops as we grow older and are more experienced, so does our loving and serving.

   It’s okay that our understanding of our purposes changes as we age. We gradually lose some of the dynamism and spontaneity of our earlier years—but no matter what, we still are called to know, love, and serve God as best we can.
   Our report card about how we live our lives may not be all stars, but it’s important that, no matter what stage of life we’re at, we’re still getting an “A” for effort!
   In all this, beware of comparing yourself to others. Every person is unique. You’re not exactly the same as anybody else. God gives different gifts to different people, and different challenges as well, and has different expectations for each one of us.
   St. Francis de Sales, in his “Introduction to the Devout Life” explained all this well:

   When God the Creator made all things, he commanded the plants to bring forth fruit each according to its own kind; he has likewise commanded Christians, who are the living plants of his Church, to bring forth the fruits of devotion, each one in accord with his character, his station and his calling.
   . . . devotion must be practiced in different ways by the nobleman and by the working man, by the servant and by the prince, by the widow, by the unmarried girl and by the married woman.
   . . . devotion must be adapted to the strength, to the occupation and to the duties of each one in particular.

   God made you to know, to love, and to serve, and you have to do it as best you can—your way, not mine!


31 July 2022

Guinea Kids

Guinea pig: 1. A short-eared, tailless rodent often used in scientific experiments or kept as a pet.  2. The subject of any sort of experiment.

   You know, you’re a sort of guinea pig yourself. Don’t be offended. It’s not a put-down. I am, too. Everybody is.
   Isn’t every child born a kind of subject of an experiment? The experimenters—the mother and the father—are not well-trained professionals with extensive schooling and training in the fine art of having and raising children.
   The experimenters range from historically, socially, educationally, culturally similar people to widely diverse.
   This means that the newborn child often may be similar to his/her extended family members and easily welcomed. On the other hand, the newborn child sometimes may bear little resemblance to most of his/her extended family members and perhaps be hesitatingly welcomed.
   In every case, every child born is unique and a blend, a combination of many diverse genes, cultures, and personal traits. Every newborn child is a kind of subject of an experiment on the part of his/her parents.
   First of all, every newborn child is part woman (mother) and part man (father). Also, every newborn child learns what it means to grow up not only from these two diverse parents but also from diverse others in his/her immediate and extended family as well as friends, neighbors, acquaintances, and still others—who may be somewhat similar or widely diverse.
   In view of the inexperience of parents, the diversity of positive and negative influences, and the vicissitudes of early life, it’s amazing that each one of us survived, not to mention flourished.
   (Of course, thanks be to God, our birth and development did involve God, too!)

   If your parents were very different from one another and others in your neighborhood as well, you probably grew up being comfortable and at home with a high degree of diversity—and vice-versa!
   The experiencing of diversity and the challenges of understanding are not confined to childhood alone. They usually continue all through our lives.
   Thanks be to God for the diversity of our contemporary world and the different languages, traditions, cultural mores, and people that are part of our daily life!
   We all were used to diversity all the time in our early life. Whatever happened to us that we often seem to have lost our ability to live with and accommodate ourselves to it?
   Remember, we’re all “guinea kids”. We’re all subjects of a great and never-ending experiment. We’re all different from one another to one degree or another.
   We’re all special and unique with special and unique talents and gifts, special and unique capacities and abilities, and special and unique roles to play in life.
   What’s really dumb, wasteful, and deadly is for us to seek to avoid diversity, change, and challenge and to cling to what was instead of dealing with what is and what’s next.
   Each one of us is an experimental model, each one of us is constantly changing, each one of us lives by observing, studying, and experimenting.
   If a guinea pig were asked, “Aren’t you tired of being tested and experimented with? Don’t you want to be left in peace?”
   The pig might well reply, “Are you crazy? You want me dead? That’s who I am and what I do! My nature is to be experimental.”
   Yours and mine, too!


17 July 2022

To Be or Not to Be . . .

Hamlet’s reflection about suicide and death, at least the first words of his soliloquy, are very familiar to most English speakers. But, it’s not just a reflection about death and dying—it’s also a reflection about life and living.
   Notice, it’s not about “to live” or “to do” or “to work” or “to endure” and the like—it’s about “to be”.
   You and I, we did not choose “to be”. For better or for worse, we are. Although we can choose to die, we cannot, literally, chose “not to be”; it’s too late for that.
  “To be” is more or less a way of saying “to exist”. It’s a fact, It cannot be totally undone, although it seems as though it can be ended.
   It’s understandable that sometimes our life can seem unbearable. At times, we may feel lost, bewildered, confused, overwhelmed. We may suffer loneliness, misunderstanding, helplessness, failure.
   We can succumb to wishing and seeking not to live any more, but we can’t erase our history to date.
   If we haven’t become famous, important, popular, powerful, beautiful, wealthy, or the like, it makes no difference. We’re not called upon to be this or that. We’re fundamentally meant “to be”. It’s alluded to in a popular hymn:

     “Glory to God, Glory,
     O praise Him, alleluia.
     Glory to God, Glory,
     O praise the name of the Lord.”

   In a society where achievement is an important value, it’s important to realize that the most important value of all is simply to be the person God made us to be and wants us to be.
   There’s no competition to be the tallest mountain, the brightest sunrise, the sweetest flower, the swiftest river. Why should we compete with any other rather than be glad to be who and what we are?

   My challenge is to be me, not to be you. Each of us is a unique creation, a unique collection of gifts and talents, meant to make a unique contribution to the world in which we live.
   I have to strive to be the person God wants me to be, not who anybody else wants me to be. I have to sing my song, whether anyone else hears it or not. I have to blossom and bloom, whether anyone else sees me or not.
   I have a role to play in the world, whether noticed or unnoticed. There are things that, if I don’t do them, they will never be done. There are people who, if I don’t love them, may never know love.
   Every single one of us has a purpose, a destiny, a mission that is unique and irreplaceable. The choice is not so much “to be or not to be” in the sense of living or dying—it’s more to be what each of us is meant to be, to fulfill the unique destiny that each of us is challenged with.
   Poor confused, bewildered, torn, and frustrated Hamlet, the dead king’s son. Just because you are a king’s son doesn’t necessarily mean that you will inherit his kingdom. Just because you are a victim of others’ greed and passion doesn’t necessarily mean that you must avenge their victims and right their wrongs.
   Shakespeare’s play is entitled “The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark”. It’s a tragedy because it deals with a serious and sad theme about a person destined to experience downfall and destruction through a character flaw or conflict with the overpowering force of fate.
   Be! Live out your life story. But, be careful! Don’t let your story become a tragedy!


19 June 2022