Building Thoughts

Over the three years of my life in the University of Malaya, the theme 'build' has pervasively underscored my experiences in and out of campus.


God is the Master Builder
He is building me
He builds with stuff that comes from heaven
And tools we cannot see.


From the 'Rebuild' adventure in which we sought to restore the PKV Booth, to the PKV theme of 2008/2009, 'Coming Together, Building Each Other'; from the Duplo gifts at the PKV Convo 2008 to the Experimental Theatre project -- it's always been about building.


Old stone to new building, old timber to new fires,
Old fires to ashes, and ashes to the earth
Which is already flesh, fur and faeces,
Bone of man and beast, cornstalk and leaf.
Houses live and die: there is a time for building
And a time for living and for generation [...]

-- T.S. Eliot, 'East Coker'


Brewing these storms in our teacups
Rebuilding the booth of the Lord;
Recovering, discovering
The truths we forgot.

Paint on the walls
Of cracked roadside stalls;
Man raises a building,
He praises the gilding
Of stones drawn grey and white
In tones strung day and night.

At the chimes we sat and stared
Out rhymeless windows at whitewashed walls,
Behind which truth still could ring true.
Processional -- it could be me or you
Stirred by stirrings deep below, of a voice which calls
At times when we are but too scared.

Building and building, but what's next?