I was reading back on my blog from yesterday and realize how that article didn't flow. But I hope you can catch my drift. :)
Lately, I have been in a musical mode. I need a piano. I had to give up my very first piano when moving to Huntersville (then to Charlotte). It's my very first instrument, my very first musical love. I wouldn't say that without it, I'm nothing. But it is a source of creativeness for me. You know, sometimes when I'm in this mode, I randomly start singing. I guess some people can relate. And there's my guitar. I don't always like to play it because my fingers get calloused. But it sometimes motivates me to try bar chords and to do rifts and strumming patterns.
I rented "High School Musical" and watched it for the very first time. It... was cute. I wouldn't say it's my favorite but I could see how teens and tweens can really like this movie. But they got some good numbers and moves and for a Disney (somewhat) original, it's pretty darn good. Some folks compare it to another modern-day Romeo and Juliet. I would say it's closed to Grease but even Grease is compared to Romeo and Juliet. Or West Side Story. (What is that Santana song with that one R&B guy? Maria Maria! with Wyclef Jean, whoever he is...) :) By theway, does anybody know what musical they were trying out for?
I realize how much I missed musicals and being in one. My high school did a whole bunch, about two a year. One for the big school play and usually a Sr. play. I kept all the programs. I think I was only in two of them: The Music Man (I played flute in "The Pit") and I was an Oompa Loompa in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. I wish I was more energenic because I realize how much I need to express myself and dance and sing. Maybe those days are gone...
I used to sing alto in a church choir for a little while. It actually gets a little old singing the same stuff over and over. Don't get me wrong, I do like Amazing Grace and Come Thou Fount, and some arrangements of other Christian songs. But I guess I'm used to high school choir where we sang like super hard stuff. (I was in a Women's Chorale for a semester. The chorus director said I sang louder than those who have been in chorus for a long time. Good old marching band. Taught me how to suck it up and use my wind!) I mean, the high school chorus wasn't the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir or the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, but we sang some hard stuff.
I was telling my dad that he and mom should have enrolled me into voice and singing lessons. This is something you may not know... In the first grade, I used to sing in the bathroom. My teacher had to call me down a few times. During parent/teacher conference, my teacher told my parents that I was a happy child. I'm still a happy child, for the most part. And I was always singing in the house. Or singing a tune I learned from piano lessons. Ahhh, those were the good old days. :)
Well, enough about my musical rantings. I won't be famous but at least I have an outlet for creativity.
Monday, June 23, 2008
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Spiritual thoughts... (or lack there of...)
Spiritually, I wouldn't say it's good or bad. I must confess, I haven't been to church in over a month. I've been really tired on the weekends, and normally sleep over on both Saturdays and Sundays. I wouldn't say that I'm running away from God either; I mean, I haven't been mad at Him, or felt that things in my life were unfair.
This past month has been a time of inner soul searching. I'm not sure if it's an experience I had in Hong Kong. My mom's family are mostly Christians and to experience Christ in another culture has been very encouraging to me. I also wonder if God is calling me to a place that is totally different from Charlotte or NC. This area (The Bible Belt) is mostly made up of people who have gone to Protestants churches or people who are surrounded by Protestants. (I do realize, a lot of people of my generation have never been to church, but still, they are surrounded by us.) Hong Kong is very secular but I found Christians, without really trying. Or maybe God has set it up that way.
I wonder what could be my next move. I realize I can't stay in one location forever. Then again, it's better to stay somewhere for a good 5 years to build relationships in the area and build experience at work. So, it could be a while before I really decide on moving to a new place and have a new job. I should check out a few cities in the meantime, during a vacation.
In my spiritual journey, I usually have curiosities of other religions. I go through these phases where I want to learn about other religions and at the end, I will be enlightened. I think it goes back to my childhood where my parents weren't really religious, so I wasn't grounded on any religion. But I was always curious about why people go to church or temple and about Muslims or the Indians who seem to worship all kinds of things. Even now, even though I'm a Christian, I still tend to go off the beaten path to explore other things.
For example, and you might think I'm so juvenile, this is the very first season, ever, that I really paid attention to American Idol. (Yeah, I mean, I'm sort of behind the times. At least I know that first season, Kelly Clarkson won, 2nd season, Clay Aiken was second... I'm not sure what follows, and last year was Jordin Sparks.) As you may know, David Cook won the thing, while David Archuleta was second place. So, David Cook, I thought he was nice looking but after a while, he didn't really appeal to me all that much.
Then, I look at little David Archuleta. And doing some research on him, I come to find out he's LDS (Latter-day Saint; this link goes to a PDF excerpt of the 1st chapter of "Mormons for Dummies" on the Dummies website. It explains the main basics of the LDS. So how credible is it, I'm not sure but if "Dummies" wrote it, the people there should have done a pretty good job at the research in order for the stuff to be in the book). And then, doing some more research on "Mormons", I come to find this sect of Christianity is pretty interesting. (Well, I guess there is an argument whether they are true Christians, but that could be another topic and discussion later.) To be honest, some of it is good for deep thoughts, some of it is pretty goofy and some of it I flat-out don't agree with, but I do want to give kudos to their ethics, them helping the needy and poor (not just give them stuff, but to actually teach them life skills and to pick their feet off the ground), and their amazing abstinence from coffee, tea, alcohol, and recreational drugs (later, some added colas but it's not written in stone, as I've been told).
So, at the end of this little study on the Latter-day Saints, it just brings more questions than any answers I'm looking for. Well, for starters, if there is this book called The Book of Mormons written about the Native Americans, then it wouldn't be quite fair to not have a book on the Chinese after Babel or Africans that somehow relates back to God's plan of Salvation. I think the story about the Tower of Babel takes care of the other cultures around the world. So, why have such a book called The Book of Mormons? I dunno.
I'm also not quite sold on their pre-mortal views, where the LDS believe that people's spirit have existed before the beginning of earth and that at a given time, their spirit enters a physical body at birth. After birth, humans can't remember what their spirit's did before, so God puts them through trials to bring them back to God. It's an interesting thing to think about. It kind of goes back to another philosophy of question and that is if God has existed before the beginning of time. (I think I wrote a paper on that in my Philosophy of Science class. I need to dig it up.) The idea of humans having a pre-mortal spirit kind of suggest about reincarnation, which is something most Protestant Christians don't agree with. Well, not exactly, since I think LDS didn't say that these spirits were in another being before they entered humans.
There's more... three heavens? Us being Heavenly Parents like God? The LDS have a view on the Trinity too, that I think they regard God, Jesus, and Holy Spirit somewhat different, in that they are 3 distinct and separate beings with the same purpose, unlike Protestants who believe they are all one and the same, but have 3 different roles and all have the same purpose (like the ice, water, and steam analysis. Sames structure, different states). I don't know, there is a lot of stuff about LDS that differs greatly from the mainstream Protestant churches.
I think some of this stuff is pretty good to think about. Some of it, as I've said, I don't agree with. However, I do know quite a few LDS. They are some of the nicest people on earth. Seriously. I don't see anything strange or weird about them at all. They act like humans just like the rest of us.
I guess that leads to my other one-thing-that-leads-to-another thought... I never really liked cold weather. I always enjoyed the weather down south except for August. But I guess my next curiosity is, "What is Utah like?" About 40% of the people there are Mormons (or is it "others"). It's one thing to see LDS here in the Carolinas but to be out in Utah must be really different because a religion can influence the culture. Like, do they serve coffee at restaurants? Where in the South, at the drink fountain, there's sometimes 2 spouts for Coke, are their two spouts for Sprite?
I guess in one sense, I'm tired of the South and want to go West. Utah is probably the most interesting place I could think of right now because it's not in the Bible Belt and it's not quite the Wild West (where most of California, Oregon and Washington state do not really seem all the religious) and the LDS are a Christian group but not quite like the Protestant churches, and not Catholic. I heard Colorado is nice too but it might be too much snow for me. :)
But first... I have to stay here a few more years... then possibly investigate my options out there in the mean time.
This past month has been a time of inner soul searching. I'm not sure if it's an experience I had in Hong Kong. My mom's family are mostly Christians and to experience Christ in another culture has been very encouraging to me. I also wonder if God is calling me to a place that is totally different from Charlotte or NC. This area (The Bible Belt) is mostly made up of people who have gone to Protestants churches or people who are surrounded by Protestants. (I do realize, a lot of people of my generation have never been to church, but still, they are surrounded by us.) Hong Kong is very secular but I found Christians, without really trying. Or maybe God has set it up that way.
I wonder what could be my next move. I realize I can't stay in one location forever. Then again, it's better to stay somewhere for a good 5 years to build relationships in the area and build experience at work. So, it could be a while before I really decide on moving to a new place and have a new job. I should check out a few cities in the meantime, during a vacation.
In my spiritual journey, I usually have curiosities of other religions. I go through these phases where I want to learn about other religions and at the end, I will be enlightened. I think it goes back to my childhood where my parents weren't really religious, so I wasn't grounded on any religion. But I was always curious about why people go to church or temple and about Muslims or the Indians who seem to worship all kinds of things. Even now, even though I'm a Christian, I still tend to go off the beaten path to explore other things.
For example, and you might think I'm so juvenile, this is the very first season, ever, that I really paid attention to American Idol. (Yeah, I mean, I'm sort of behind the times. At least I know that first season, Kelly Clarkson won, 2nd season, Clay Aiken was second... I'm not sure what follows, and last year was Jordin Sparks.) As you may know, David Cook won the thing, while David Archuleta was second place. So, David Cook, I thought he was nice looking but after a while, he didn't really appeal to me all that much.
Then, I look at little David Archuleta. And doing some research on him, I come to find out he's LDS (Latter-day Saint; this link goes to a PDF excerpt of the 1st chapter of "Mormons for Dummies" on the Dummies website. It explains the main basics of the LDS. So how credible is it, I'm not sure but if "Dummies" wrote it, the people there should have done a pretty good job at the research in order for the stuff to be in the book). And then, doing some more research on "Mormons", I come to find this sect of Christianity is pretty interesting. (Well, I guess there is an argument whether they are true Christians, but that could be another topic and discussion later.) To be honest, some of it is good for deep thoughts, some of it is pretty goofy and some of it I flat-out don't agree with, but I do want to give kudos to their ethics, them helping the needy and poor (not just give them stuff, but to actually teach them life skills and to pick their feet off the ground), and their amazing abstinence from coffee, tea, alcohol, and recreational drugs (later, some added colas but it's not written in stone, as I've been told).
So, at the end of this little study on the Latter-day Saints, it just brings more questions than any answers I'm looking for. Well, for starters, if there is this book called The Book of Mormons written about the Native Americans, then it wouldn't be quite fair to not have a book on the Chinese after Babel or Africans that somehow relates back to God's plan of Salvation. I think the story about the Tower of Babel takes care of the other cultures around the world. So, why have such a book called The Book of Mormons? I dunno.
I'm also not quite sold on their pre-mortal views, where the LDS believe that people's spirit have existed before the beginning of earth and that at a given time, their spirit enters a physical body at birth. After birth, humans can't remember what their spirit's did before, so God puts them through trials to bring them back to God. It's an interesting thing to think about. It kind of goes back to another philosophy of question and that is if God has existed before the beginning of time. (I think I wrote a paper on that in my Philosophy of Science class. I need to dig it up.) The idea of humans having a pre-mortal spirit kind of suggest about reincarnation, which is something most Protestant Christians don't agree with. Well, not exactly, since I think LDS didn't say that these spirits were in another being before they entered humans.
There's more... three heavens? Us being Heavenly Parents like God? The LDS have a view on the Trinity too, that I think they regard God, Jesus, and Holy Spirit somewhat different, in that they are 3 distinct and separate beings with the same purpose, unlike Protestants who believe they are all one and the same, but have 3 different roles and all have the same purpose (like the ice, water, and steam analysis. Sames structure, different states). I don't know, there is a lot of stuff about LDS that differs greatly from the mainstream Protestant churches.
I think some of this stuff is pretty good to think about. Some of it, as I've said, I don't agree with. However, I do know quite a few LDS. They are some of the nicest people on earth. Seriously. I don't see anything strange or weird about them at all. They act like humans just like the rest of us.
I guess that leads to my other one-thing-that-leads-to-another thought... I never really liked cold weather. I always enjoyed the weather down south except for August. But I guess my next curiosity is, "What is Utah like?" About 40% of the people there are Mormons (or is it "others"). It's one thing to see LDS here in the Carolinas but to be out in Utah must be really different because a religion can influence the culture. Like, do they serve coffee at restaurants? Where in the South, at the drink fountain, there's sometimes 2 spouts for Coke, are their two spouts for Sprite?
I guess in one sense, I'm tired of the South and want to go West. Utah is probably the most interesting place I could think of right now because it's not in the Bible Belt and it's not quite the Wild West (where most of California, Oregon and Washington state do not really seem all the religious) and the LDS are a Christian group but not quite like the Protestant churches, and not Catholic. I heard Colorado is nice too but it might be too much snow for me. :)
But first... I have to stay here a few more years... then possibly investigate my options out there in the mean time.
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