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Random Thoughts April 18, 2009

Posted by David Hiran Watson in Random Thoughts.
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As anyone who knows me offline or has read my previous posts already knows, I tend to contextualize almost everything. I suppose there are moments when the poignancy sought after lies in there being no contextualization taking place, but just the randomness of the moment. Personally, I just find it really, really hard to let a moment be that: random. Anyway, with all of that preamble, I’m going to start a series of posts called “Random Thoughts”. It’ll be my attempt at laying out a random, yet possibly poignant or philosophical, thought that I’m mulling over. I’ll also try to just state the thought, and at the most, add a little bit of post-amble. But please feel free to respond to the thought/post-amble in the comments. So here’s today’s thought:

What do you do with a heavy heart? With a heart that feels like it’s carrying the weight of the world – your life and all its problems, as well as everyone else’s life and all their problems?

DH

Blogging your way into marriage! April 6, 2009

Posted by David Hiran Watson in Marriage, Social Media, Social Networking.
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Check out this article about a blogger who fell in love with one of her commenters, and they are planning to get married.

I’ve heard about couples getting married in MMPORPGs (Massive Multi-Player Online Role Playing Game), such as Everquest or World Of Warcraft. It usually happens along these lines: the two players meet each other through the game and initially chat through the game while having their characters complete game tasks together. Eventually the players decide to meet up offline and love blooms resulting in marriage. Apparently on Everquest there are even couples whose characters are married in the game as well as they – the players themselves – are married in real life!

Coming back to the article, I have to say that this is intriguing.  In one sense, I’m not the least bit surprised this situation arose, but instead perhaps surprised it hasn’t happened sooner. I find it interesting that some other major bloggers have negative reactions to this. In fact, I like the way the article is written – as a modern day peasant-and-bourgeousie situation in the blogosphere. I wonder if these nay-sayers do, even sub-consciously, see themselves as above their commenters?

For me, all of this comes down to one thing we need to remember: people will use whatever they can to meet a life-partner. Let me rephrase that to something more pithy. Love knows no boundaries and will blossom in whatever soil it is given. As long as a medium allows some level of human interaction, that medium can be used to meet your future spouse/partner/significant other. And nobody should be surprised at that. Now I wonder if the various social media and social networking sites have been used as matchmaking tools?

DH

Jazz piano vids on Youtube April 5, 2009

Posted by David Hiran Watson in Music.
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Check out these two great jazz piano videos on Youtube:

Chick Corea & Hiromi Uehara playing “Summertime” (by Gershwin) – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2m4Oy9TWmo
Chick Corea & Hiromi Uehara playing “Spain” (by Chick Corea) – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRU1o-sCnqY

Alright, if you’re scratching your head wondering who these two artists are and what the songs are, let me explain.

Chick Corea is a truly gifted musician who plays jazz. He is really great at improvisation, and to listen or watch him play is an experience you don’t want to miss. He effortlessly flies over the piano like it’s nothing! You know how many of us have areas, especially in the creative arts, where we wish what we thought of in our heads could be instantaneously transferred to whatever medium we’re using for expression? Well, Chick Corea is at that place when it comes to the piano.

Hiromi Uehara I had never actually heard of until I saw the above two videos, but as far as I can tell, she’s just like Chick Corea when it comes to jazz piano. Watching the two of them is like watching a passionate conversation take place using only the piano and non-verbal body language.

Alright, lastly the two songs are jazz pieces; the first is a famous one by George Gershwin as part of his Porgy and Bess opera. The second is an original composition by Chick Corea.

DH

Dear God April 5, 2009

Posted by David Hiran Watson in About Me, Daily Life-Walk, Faith, God.
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I’m going to take a page out of love, devi and style this post as a letter to God:

Dear God,

Tonight was pretty difficult; I’m sitting here at this moment listening to “Courage” by Superchic[k] and I have two questions to ask you. First, for those dealing with hurting and pain and difficulty, what difference does believing in you make? You and I both know that both questions arose in me earlier tonight while traveling home on the TTC. We also chatted about them at that time – well, more like I voiced them to you and then focused on the music coming out of my mp3 player. But I’m recounting them now both for the sake of anyone reading this, and because writing it this way is part of the healing (answering) process.

So back to the first question; if you recall I thought of the Footprints poem, and the line about how when there was one set of footprints, it was you carrying the dreamer. But I realized that both non-Christians and Christians get through hard times. (For those reading, I use those two terms in the traditional sense of the words). For example, a non-Christian, when confronted with losing a loved one, will experience the pain and loss. They will shed tears, go through the whole grieving process, and move on. Eventually the pain from the loss will completely cease, or at least subside to almost ‘background noise’. How is that any different from a Christian who turns to you during the grieving process for help? Alright, I admit that perhaps they will have a shorter grieving period, and there is also the prospect of hope that they will see the loved one in Heaven (should the loved one have been a Christian as well). But, in my eyes, there is no major ‘advantage’ to turning to you during the grieving process.

Or let’s look at another example: someone who is struggling with a difficult time, such as breaking an addiction. There is a lot of pain and hurt and hardship associated with an addiction – whether you’re the addicted one or someone you love is the addicted one – and breaking an addiction. My “church” upbringing tells me the ‘right’ answer to this scenario: my trusting you gives me your strength and invites you into the situation. But many who don’t trust you, who perhaps are not Christians, break addictions. Many who don’t trust you have their families healed and restored back from the damaging effects of an addiction.

Don’t get me wrong God, I’m not saying I don’t trust you or that I don’t want to trust you. Until recently, I struggled with the whole “If God is loving, why does He let us go through difficult times, etc” issue. I finally fully understand why your letting us go through hard times IS an act of love – I understand and believe. Of course it’s only because you broke through and made the intellectual understanding become heart understanding. My current struggle is, therefore, not why are people going through hard times. Rather, it’s whether trusting in you during our struggles makes any major difference? Honestly, I can’t see any major difference on the surface between someone who trusts in you and someone who doesn’t while they are going through a rough patch. Eventually both the person who trusts in you, and the one who doesn’t, gets through the rough patch and does so seemingly victorious and stronger for it. Yes, there are exceptions to the rule. But those exceptions exist, as far as I am aware, in both camps. Perhaps any major difference exists underneath the surface…

DH