Terpelanting

li-shia
Originally uploaded by mincaye.

Meet Li-Shia, again.

The main photo is one I took of her on the morning of Speech Day, Saturday. It's her characteristic terpelanting pose (think Japanese Anime, whenever those characters fall upside down or fly off the page).

In retrospect, I notice the grass and trees give it a rather rustic, country feel. Just imagine the baju kurung is a flowing nun's robe, and voila!, you have Maria from The Sound of Music.

On the other hand, the inset was taken today, on the third floor, outside my classroom. I put it up here because of the object in Li-Shia's hands: a bunch of keys.

Looking at them earlier, I was reminded of something Jesus said in Revelation ("I hold the keys of death and Hades") and of him giving Peter the 'keys of the kingdom.'

C.S. Lewis wrote in The Weight of Glory (and I paraphrase) that while civilisations, art, history and everything else we do will come to pass, yet it is immortals whom we talk, laugh and joke with, regale, insult, hurt and admonish.

Because of this, no one we meet is merely 'normal,' and everything we do (or don't do) to others, is helping them to one of two ends: either to immense glory that would induce worship were it revealed now, or to immense horror, the kind of which is found only in the worst nightmares.

The keys are in our hands; let us pray for wisdom to seek the kingdom in humility and simplicity. The Master says, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and then these [things we need/want] also will be added to you."

And may we always remember to shed our indifference towards the immortals with whom we spend almost all of our waking hours.


(Thanks Li-Shia, for the inspiration that comes so often via madness. This entry is for you.)