Spaced out Rev

For some reason I wasn’t mentally firing on all cylinders this morning. Tash (chaplaincy volunteer) noticed the minute I walked into the Guy’s (Chaplain’s) office. It’s just going to be one of those vague days. Fortunately I’m not a boxer going into a fight because I’d probably miss the starting bell and get KO’d within seconds.

Patience

Welcome to Chris, Woo Min, Brooke and Taryn who were very patient with me as they had to spell out their names for me (more than once). Hopefully I have got them right, let me know if I haven’t.

Intro

We introduced ourselves and shared where we came from or where our families came from. We are definitely an international small group. Laos, Korea, Australia, Australian with Irish and Scottish decent and France.

Interesting question/answers

Each student chose from a list of questions and shared their answers

• “If you could meet anyone (dead or alive), who would you choose to meet?”

John Lennon and the Beatles. To me it’s great that music can cross into successive generations.

• “If you could take a pill that would make you live for a thousand years, would you? Why?”

No because you would have no one left. You would not have purpose to live without your family and friends.

• “If you had a time machine, what time in history would you visit?”

15 years knowing what he does now. In others words the student would know that he was about to fall off his bike. He could avoid falling off and breaking his leg. We didn’t think that was a good idea because our past is what makes us who we are.

• Where would you go for your ideal holiday?

Paris; for the shopping and the atmosphere.

Chinese

Somehow we got talking about languages and one student shared that she enjoys learning Chinese. We all thought that would be a very hard language to learn. I shared that when I prepare my sermons I look at the texts in Ancient Greek. It’s weird because the verb can be placed anywhere in the sentence so that it often sounds like Yoda. Here are three quotes I googled;

• “Already know you that which you need.”

• "Not if anything to say about it I have"

• “Away put your weapon. I mean you no harm.”

Star Wars and Buddhism

All of the students had seen some of the Star Wars films and this was a great way to open a discussion on Buddhism. First it is not a belief in God but an answer to the question of suffering. It is a way of life that seeks to lessen suffering. Losing something that you love hurts so the idea is not to place your affections in worldly objects. The student of Chinese was familiar with Buddhism because of her interest in Chinese culture. Another student became a Monk temporarily to participate in his grandmother’s funeral. He had to learn different chants, shave his head and learn other rituals. We all thought that was fascinating. It was a shame we didn’t have more time to talk about this more.