The Illusion of Promotion

We imagine that the word promotion is a positive one, a word that defines success and achievement. But from a small amount of observational experience, when you look at how promotion can affect a person's life- not just the part of it that exists at work- I'm less convinced that it is always so positive.

Within the workplace, promotion is portrayed as a reward, a gift, given to someone with recognised talent. It can be said to be given so that a person has a job best suited to their level of competence, a distinctly flattering description.

However, in the context of a persons entire life, I think that very little may be gained from promotion. In some cases, I think that a person gains nothing at all, and instead they merely trade one benefit for another.

Short Story: The Shriggs

In the year five million and one,

a space monk travelled to Pum.

A planet of green,

he hoped he would meet

some nice aliens he could take home.

His space vessel landed on soil,

and his first impressions were royal,

for the beings called Shriggs

were polite little things

with nice food and big homes and green smiles.

But the monk found his learning was slow,

unable to let the Shriggs know,

that a vow to be silent

actually meant

he could only converse with a show.

Pre-Bible Christianity

Within any debate in Christianity, there is a lot of history. I often feel like I have little background knowledge of an issue that concerns my faith.

I think this is why I love the idea of what Pre-Bible Christianity must have been like. By this, I don't mean I dislike the Bible! I'm referring to the small period in history where the apostles such as Saint Peter and Saint Paul had begun to spread the Gospel by word of mouth, but the letters that would form the New Testament had not yet been written down or collected together. All that believers in the middle-east towns knew about Jesus was what they could remember from conversation.

Sight vs. Sound

Memory hides from me where the inspiration came from, but as a teenager I would enjoy asking friends a certain question. I would say, "If you had to be either deaf or blind, which you rather be?"

Most of my friends usually thought about it for a few seconds, and then they replied that they would rather be deaf. Or, in other words, they valued their sight more than their ability to hear. I began to think of this as a typical response from people in England, because most of us in this country have a desire to be independent.

Out of the five senses in our bodies, the sense of sight is probably the one that gives us most independence. Lose your sight and you can't see in front of yourself, can't read signs, and can't distinguish between colour coded items.You need to ask a helper what is going on around you, and feel which direction a guide-dog is pulling you towards for safety when walking.

Telepathy and Love

When we were dating, I commonly joked with Jenny that I was psychic and could read her thoughts. For some reason, she didn't believe me, but I now think that being psychic could be the best thing in a relationship.

Everyone assumes that you get to know a person better by spending time with them. If you have spent years living with someone, you are expected to know their habits better than someone you have only known for a few days. But when we say something like "he knows her really well,", what do we mean? It seems that we mean he can practically read her mind, or that he can accurately predict what she is thinking at any moment.

Rage Inside the Machine

In an average week, where are you most likely to get angry at other people? You may first think of the workplace, or home. What about, where you are most likely to get angry, and then convince yourself that it was another person's fault? You might still think of the same place. But what about where you are most likely to get angry, convince yourself it was the other person's fault, and then get increasingly angry as you make more mistakes yourself? Maybe your answer has changed now. For me, I think this is a typcial routine for drivers.

In the sealed metal body which we use to transport ourselves from A to B, no-one can hear you scream. Which is a good thing when you are furiously insulting the idiot who just swerved in front of you at that junction where they should have given way and let you go first. Most people won't stop, get out of their car and try to converse with someone who has done them wrong on a journey, so we are forced to sit in our seats and simmer in our own hatred.

Seeking God, Doubting Church

I haven't doubted the existence of God for a long time. The creator of the universe has been too big and too apparent in my life for that to happen. I believe God exists, and that I am in relationship with Him, but I have doubted the western church.

All of the churches that I have gone to in the U.K. have the same format: First, the congregation sings some songs. Then, someone preaches a sermon. The songs and sermon format has been a universal experience for me across both traditional and charismatic churches, but I have found myself wondering if the songs and sermon are at all related to a relationship with the creator of the universe.

Do you remember how big Cars are?

There could be a scale of human inventions, sorted by size and simplicity. Where on this scale will you find the most common vehicle in the western world?

The Small, The Big...

On the small end of the mechanical scale, we have examples like wrist watches, light bulbs, and pens.

These are simple enough that we can use them every day without effort, and also small enough to be replaced without much care if one stops working. If a pen that I was writing with ran dry, it would be more likely that I would reach for a new pen, and less likely that I would burst into tears.

On the large end of the mechanical scale, we have machines which construct skyscrapers, dig tunnels through the earth, and look good in James Bond movies.