Labor Day is upon us, and if you still haven’t seen the best reviewed movie of the summer— go now during the holiday. ‘Blinded by the Light’ featuring the classic rock music of Bruce Springsteen is about an immigrant family from Pakistan who live in Luton in the U.K. and their struggles to make a living, and survive anti-immigrant racism, particularly white nationalist racism. While you might think the story is ripped from today’s headlines, actually it ripped from the... Read more
THE AGE OF ARTIFICE Seeking transcendence without commitment Or intimacy without relationship, The threefold cord is severed, Between I and Thou and the other. Pleasure without purpose Without the personal Is but a fleeting spasm of feeling, A willow of the wisp one chases But never catches. In the internet age, The medium sends a message That connection without commitment Is fine. No need to have more than a screen name, No need to treat the other as a person,... Read more
It takes a lot for a concert to move into my Top Ten of all time, after having seen hundreds of rock concerts over the last 50 years, but this one deserves that billing. And on top of that, it took 2 rock groups off my short bucket list that I had never seen before but really wanted to see. The concert began at 7.15, and was still going on at 10.30 at night. The customers sure got their money’s... Read more
One needs a sign in the central park in Bangkok warning of giant lizards, or komodo dragons! One thing about the Thais, they get up very early and do their exercising in the park, Thai Chi, jogging etc. And the komodo dragons just watch them go by around the lake. Read more
One of the things that has dawned on me gradually in working on my Biblical theology, is that God works with his people according to where they are in their development as people of God, and thus necessarily differing arrangements apply to differing covenantal situations. Jesus, in his comment about Moses’ permitting divorce, says this was allowed due to the hardness of human hearts at that juncture. Mutatis Mutandis, to whom more is given, for instance the Holy Spirit as... Read more
I had time to visit the botanical garden, but it was blisteringly hot. Everywhere you look there are images and shrines to the King, including in the garden. After awhile one needs to go indoors, and hopes suddenly rise for some comfort food of an American sort….so I went to a good ole North Carolina franchise store in the Bangkok mall— Krispy Kreme Doughnuts. Only to discover—- sorts of doughnuts I had never seen even in my wildest dreams. I... Read more
A more interesting museum is the Jim Thompson house museum, which has many facets to it. Jim was an American architect who moved to Bangkok, due to his great love for Oriental culture and art. He built a house out of antique parts, a door from here, a floor from there, and filled his house with Chinese art of various sorts in 1959. He went on an exploration trip to Malaysia in 1967, and completely disappeared. What happened to him... Read more
Bangkok has a large Museum of Art and Culture, and in structure it looks a lot like the Met in NY, except much larger. It is a museum of modern art, and I’m not much impressed with most of that. There are also shops in the museum selling art and artifacts. And after all that art one needs one’s just desserts— sticky rice mango ice cream…… what?????? Read more
Right in the middle of Bangkok is a huge Christian school, originally started by missionaries in the 19th century. It is called Bangkok Christian College, but it is not a college in the American sense– it is a K-12 school with, wait for it, 60,000 students. Yes you heard me right. The vast majority of them are not Christians, but apparently the education at this private and rather pricy school is so good that people send their students there… as... Read more
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