Hope And Faith This Friday

1) Does your iPhone believe in God?

Here’s some of what Siri had to say:

Whoever writes Siri’s stuff should do standup.

The great Immanuel Kant said there is nothing higher than reason. I wouldn’t profess to improve on that, but it occurred to me that a person’s perception of reason can be powerful. Sometimes I couldn’t understand why Jarringly Obvious Reasons could possibly be rejected, until I realized that it was simply not seen as such.

Siri’s “AI – artificial intelligence-ish” answers are more profound than we know. What you see vs what a camera lens sees is the difference between perception and reality, yet no high resolution picture can flesh out a picture more than a person’s memories and past experiences could possibly do to your eyesight.

Stars don’t really twinkle either. But looking at it through layers and layers of air and a gadzillion light years makes you write nursery rhymes about how they do. 

Which brings me to how coloring our perception is also faith. Without our unique perception our reasoning isn’t human. (Nor is our humanity reasonable sometimes :D) But also – without faith we would see far less beauty. And without faith (or hope) we would be far less beautiful. Thought for the weekend. Thanks, Siri.

Oh, and the better question is whether Guy Who Writes Siri’s Stuff Believes In God.

–

–

2) 14 unexpected responses to hatred that will restore some of your faith in humanity. Highly recommended. It will also give you strength for the following week.

I chose this one above: At a small Ku Klux Klan meeting, counter-protesters outnumber Klan members and one gets a taste of his own intended medicine. People start beating him up. So you thought that was when evil was vanquished? No, that’s when an 18 year old African American student comes to his defense. One of my most regular prayers of protection is that we are kept from evil.

And if you look in the link, do you notice anything in common? Without that something horrible, there is no something noble and strong. You will never know the strength of your convictions until they are tested. That actually sucks because then you have to be tested.

2 Corinthians 4:2 – this is how we show people who we are.

The key to vanquishing hate is to not hate back. It doesn’t have to be about race, religion or sexual orientation; as a former banking mentor once put it, it’s about not becoming what you started off hating.

It wasn’t being preachy, this former mentor used to also say, “Think I’m a nice guy? I’m not. ‘Nice’ people are the ones who hold the door open for you and say ‘after you’ when the building is on fire. I wouldn’t do that.” But really how many of us would? Figured a better 4-letter word would be “hero”. And here are some closer to (our) home:

This is a monument commemorating the SARS Heroes, in a quiet part of Hong Kong Park.

I never saw this until about a week ago, when Little Miss was on playdate and we wandered up into this quiet area of the park.

“How come I don’t get one?” (And that was the Miss shortly after… at the park’s aviary, where you walk on these wooden platforms and watch the birds eating from several feet away)

–

–

3) To see the world in a grain of sand….. magnified up to 300 times.

To hold infinity in the palm of your hand…

–

–

4) Love this because usually people do pics of cute puppies… Isa Leshko’s Elderly Animals project to express her ideas about the treatment of animals.

Not a puppy.

–

–

5) Dad proves there is hope for parents yet…….. on a post-it.

from Huffpost

–

–

–

6) This week The Rockstar’s 5-second skit is Look Out Behind You.

(Little Miss left a lot of marks on Rockstar’s t-shirt with a permanent marker.)

Good weekend dears…