Life's lessons

Never pass up the chance to pee, especially before a long journey or a committee meeting. (italics mine)
- I believe this was first uttered by a famous politician.

Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.
- John Lennon, from his hit song "Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)".

The first taste of a freshly made hot cup of tea should be a sip, not a gulp.
- Me

The Bible simplified

A thought popped into my head this morning while I was running errands. A person can live his whole life trying to understand the Bible. He can interpret it, argue it, dissect it and perhaps get lost in all the "Who begat whom". What occurred to me was that the whole Bible and all Christian beliefs can be summed up in just three verses of the Holy Book, Mark 12:29-31:

12:29 And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord:

12:30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.

12:31 And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.

If a person spends his life living these two commandments on a daily basis, then it is my opinion that he need not know or understand the Bible. If he spends his whole life loving God and loving others, he won't have time to do anything else.

I believe that everything in the Bible, from Genesis 1:1, "In the beginning ..." to Revelations 22:21 "... Amen.", is summed up in those two great commandments.

Artificial light

The concept of artificial light is alien to a culture that has never experienced darkness, e.g. Isaac Asimov's "Nightfall".

Who's Radiohead?

My 15 seconds of fame.

I was mentioned on the news (back in 1987) for scoring the winning try in a rugby tournament.

Peter's denial, as told in the film Jesus Christ, Superstar

Jesus Christ, Superstar

When the rock opera Jesus Christ, Superstar was first performed on stage in 1971, certain Christian groups condemned it as blasphemous.  However, the film version which came out in 1973 taught me more about the Bible than all my previous years sitting in a church.  Here's a clip.

Information and knowledge

There are people who want to learn more about everything but they can't get their hands on books.  There are those who thirst for knowledge but are restricted by their circumstances.  There are the curious thousands who believe in their heart that there is a wide world beyond their valley but are unable to explore to their heart's desire.

And there are millions of people who have access to the Information Superhighway, with all the knowledge they could ever dream of at their fingertips, but spend their time playing games or arguing with strangers.