Truth-seekers

Believe those who seek the truth, doubt those who find it.

Andre Gide, Ainsi-soit-il (1952)

Eggs and colour

Only yesterday did I come to know that only the coloured hens in the UK lay brown eggs.  Always thought that the hens laying brown eggs are a special breed.  However, the brown coloured eggs  are laid by a special breed whose beaks are trimmed using infrared laser beams, when they are small, in order to prevent them from pecking one another as they grow up.  Being aggressive and competitive, they tend to peck on one another and hence the blunting of their beaks when they are small (Also learnt that, that procedure is painful).  In contrast, the meek white feathered ones lay white shelled eggs.  Apart from the colour of the shell, the eggs are the same.  The same nutritional value and the taste.  And the white egg market here in the UK is merely 0.5% of the total number of eggs sold.  Unlike in the US and India, where 90% of the eggs sold are white in colour. 

Moral of the story: I think the coloured hens in India don't know - yet - that they are to lay brown-shelled eggs! 

Lenten penance

Unlike years past, this Lent, I'm following a different strategy: doing something different everyday, rather than giving up something.  The past 10 days have been much of a success and a good enterprise.  Though, there have been a couple of days when I've totally forgotten, what I decided to do in the morning.  No matter how hard I tried to recollect my decision of the morning, I could not remember it at the end of the day - neither did I think/remember it during the day! 

Nonetheless, this procedure of constantly reminding myself of what to do for the day, is helping me do something concretely for others around me - my confreres and mostly my students.  Most of all, it is making me conscious of my own style of relationships and attitudes towards different aspects of life. 

Today's decision was to be kind to a couple of my students (names thought of in my mind) who are particularly getting on my nerves.  Succeeded with 2 of them, failed (quite badly) with a third one!  Well 2/3 is a good score!  At least I did make a conscious effort.  

Kids and puddles

There's something about children and water, especially if it is in the form of a puddle!  Walking to school every morning and it has been raining practically every day, I almost tip-toe to school.  Carefully avoiding the water or even the soggy patches of fallen leaves.  But right beside and before me are students who are literally wading through water.  The only path they see is through the puddle - however dry the rest of the road is.  And if there is a stream of water or a large puddle, that's it!  There has to be a splash, and a wade through.  All this is even before they have reached school.  I wonder how they manage to sit through the lessons with their soaking shoes, socks and trousers! 

But that's children - that's childhood...

Two rules

Words of a wise man to someone who really is busy with his or her work:
Just two rules:

1. Do not do today what you can do tomorrow. 
2. Do not work alone; that what can be shared with others, or something others are willing and happy to do with you, share. 

The Last Supper

A man from Jerusalem went to meet Pope Francis.  After much difficulty he did manage a 5-minute slot with the Pope.  Once with Pope Francis, the man said, "I am a chef from Jerusalem."  The Pope acknowledged him and said he was happy to meet him. "What can I do for you?" asked the Pope. 

The man went on, "Even my father was a chef" he said.  The Pope smiled.  "Even my grandparents were chefs," continued the man.  Pope Francis expressed his happiness and asked what he could do for him.  The man said, "My family and ancestors have been chefs for ages."  The Pope, by now wondering where this is all going, asked again, "What is it that you want?"  The man finally said, "I'm waiting for you to clear the bill of the last supper." 

Washing hands

One of the newspaper articles today has the following title:

Johnson has spent his entire life washing his hands. 

The article is a scathing attack on the UK's Prime Minister and the choice of words could not have been better or more hitting - given the context of the almost pandemic Covid-19 and the recommended preventive measure of the government to wash hands regularly!  Interestingly the event is of Johnson speaking about the emergency plans in the light of Covid-19.

So, that's one person less who'd contact coronavirus!  

Typing and coronavirus

At school today, I saw a student of mine in class typing with two pens, instead of her fingers.  I laughed presuming she is 'safeguarding' herself from contracting the coronavirus.  And when I asked her what is she doing, she replied, "I cannot type with my fingers, because of my nails!"  And then she showed me her nails... each of them long and neatly coated with nailpolish. 

So much for coronavirus! 

I then told her, "For want of a nail, a battle was lost!" Of course, she did not have a clue of what I was talking.  As I walked around the class, observing the students go about their research work, I was wondering what all she would be willing to give up or amend, just to keep her nails intact!

Nonetheless, I could not fault her, because she certainly was really fast typing with the pens in hand!  

Lenten fast

Only yesterday did I hear for the first time that many years ago, there was a stipulation as to how much to eat during Lent.  Though no one really counted, it was said that a person was to eat not more than 8 ounces for the full meal and two lighter meals not more than 6 ounces each. 

Just to get an idea of how much would 8 ounces weigh, we weighed an apple and it came to 7 ounces.  Two plantains together weighed 10 ounces!! 

Though this was not strictly measured, nonetheless it was a standard set out by the Church officials for meal quantities during Lent.  Then there were farmers and others who engaged in hard manual labour, who would approach the Parish priest for an exception to this limit rule! 

That certainly was some fasting! 

Be inspired or object

When a mighty tree falls, it falls heavily.  The news report of the abuse carried out by Jean Vanier, the founder of the L'Arche, has truly hurt very many who looked up to him as a modern saint. 

On the one hand, there is the importance and value we attach the person rather than the work one does.  In that sense, Vanier's personality and credibility was one of the chief reasons for substantiating the work carried out through the L'Arche movement.  On the other hand, there is the undeniable motivational impulse and ripple effect carried on through the works of L'Arche and its members.  Can these two be disengaged from one another?  Perhaps not! 

So what's the option left:  Reject and disassociate with everything related to Vanier? Or continue as before, discounting what Vanier actually did besides the good he initiated?  Extol public virtues vs condemn private vices? (The roots of the latter lie in the ancient Greek philosophers who spoke of the unity of virtues - if a person has one, he'd have it all!).

I personally have read some of Vanier's writings and honestly recommended the same to others some formators in our Salesian houses.  So I choose to look at the goodness, beauty and the truth of what is before me, rather than blot out everything out of anger and hatred for one, based purely on what he did to 6 people, in comparison to the thousands who did and continue to do amazing work, taking inspiration from the same source. 

I choose to be inspired by the good and beautiful, rather than resist doing anything at all, out of anger and hatred.  So what of Jean Vanier?  I think his name descends from the list of inspirers and saints to being an anonymous footnote to the great works carried out in his name.