学习

学如逆水行舟 不进则退
心似平原走马 易放难收

书山有路勤为径
学海无涯苦作舟

方知方仲永、左思之事。当勤为是！

News?

I got this quote from my iGoogle page today.

People everywhere confuse what they read in newspapers with news.
A. J. Liebling (1904 - 1963)

There are also many people who fight tooth and nails to defend the news they "discovered" because to them it's a matter of pride. I am very clever. I found it first. What do you mean it's not true? Be quiet. I will not have a young punk ruin my day.

Fortunately, many of my sisters (it seems men don't like to spread grandmother's stories, perhaps that's why they are not called grandfather's stories) have more sense than that. Most of them upon checking out the evidences and resources are willing to retract the alarming news they shared.

At the grand scheme of things, many of these things matter not anymore. But we Christians claim to have the truth. So, we cannot be take it easy when we quote such and such as true and demand others to take the necessary actions.

Susan Tang wrote a book called the Demand of Love. I say there is also a Demand of Truth. Let's check within ourselves to see are we worthy of the truth that has been given to us once and for all. Are we contending for the truth? Are we confusing truth with fiction? Perhaps in the process of it all, we become as confused as those that are confused by us.

Make no mistake about it. Truth is absolute. There is only one truth. Perception is NOT truth no matter many people believe it to be so.

The next time I received a mail about an urgent plea for me to do something 'if I love Jesus' and I find out it's a hoax, I will still do the same thing, i.e.

1. List the resources
2. Urge the sender to verify before sharing
3. Let her (I don't remember if I ever did it for a he) decide whether she wanted to fix the problem / undo the damage
4. Tell her I think a Christian has a responsibility to remain credible in case we need to share the Gospel (we do NEED to share the Gospel, contrary to popular belief)

As for #3, in my younger days, I once thought to save time, I'd Reply to All with my evidences. The original sender was furious that her mistakes was pointed out without mercy. She complained to all the leaders in the church that I didn't give her face. She stop short of telling me I could not do that to a wife of an important person in the church.

I know don't do that not because I am afraid of such response. I believe one must be responsible for one's actions. You reap, you sow. You caused a problem, you fix it.

Ron said it was George Bush who said Trust and Verify. I found out that Hawk Girl said the same thing in episode 5.13 (season 5, episode 13) of Justice League Unlimited called Destroyer. The episode concluded with this quote.

"Trust half of what you see and none of what you hear."

I'll end a pair of paradoxical quotes from Fox Mulder (another X-Files movie is coming! Are you X-philes ready?)

Trust no one.
I want to believe.

Are you like the weather forecast?

Do people take your words like they take the weather forecast?

The trouble with weather forecasting is that it's right too often for us to ignore it and wrong too often for us to rely on it. - Patric Young.

From the creator of Winnie the Pooh

The third-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the majority. The second-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the minority. The first-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking.

- Alan Alexander Milne