Alex Tang
Articles
- General
- Theology
- Paul
- Karl Barth
- Spiritual Formation
- Christian Education
- Spiritual Direction
- Spirituality
- Worship
- Church
- Parenting
- Medical
- Bioethics
- Books Reviews
- Videos
- Audios
- PhD dissertation
Spiritual writing
- e-Reflections
- Devotions
- The Abba Ah Beng Chronicles
- Bible Lands
- Conversations with my granddaughter
- Conversations with my grandson
- Poems
- Prayers
Nurturing/ Teaching Courses
- Sermons
- Beginning Christian Life Studies
- The Apostles' Creed
- Child Health and Nutrition
- Biomedical Ethics
- Spiritual Direction
- Spiritual Formation
- Spiritual formation communities
- Retreats
Engaging Culture
- Bioethics
- Glocalisation
- Books and Reading
- A Writing Life
- Star Trek
- Science Fiction
- Comics
- Movies
- Gaming
- Photography
- The End is Near
My Notebook
My blogs
- Spiritual Formation on the Run
- Random Musings from a Doctor's Chair
- Random Sermons from a Doctor's Chair
- Random Writings from a Doctor's Chair
- Random Spirituality from a Doctor's Chair
Books Recommendation
---------------------
Medical Students /Paediatric notes
Alex Tang
The notion of dancing has been twirling in my mind. Not that I am a dancer or
anything. It is the notion that that dancing as a celebration of life. God is
also known as Lord of the dance. Perichoresis
or the relationship of the Persons in the Trinity is liken to a dance. So
dancing as a celebration of life and of God.
I was watching the War Prayer episode of
Babylon 5. My daughter and
I have decided to watch the whole series and the movies in the sequence it was
aired. In that episode in the first season, Centaurian ambassador Londo Mollari
said this to Vir, his aide.
Something my father said. He was old, very old at the time. I went into his room, and he was sitting alone in the dark, crying. So I asked him what was wrong, and he said, "My shoes are too tight, but it doesn't matter, because I have forgotten how to dance." I never understood what that meant until now. My shoes are too tight, and I have forgotten how to dance.
This episode deals with the call of duty and traditions in the Centuarian
society. Marriages are arranged and are often used as means for merger of noble
houses to make themselves more powerful. There is no room for love or free will.
The ambassador realised too late for him that "My shoes are too tight,
and I have forgotten how to dance."
Both of us are struck by this scene. Life has a tendency to tie us down and
force us to conform to expectations and the norms of society. Hopefully it has
not bound us so tightly that we are presently "living lives of quiet
desperation." May we live life of moderation and not forget how to dance. May we
not be so tied down by our obligations that we forget how to live, or have a
life.
Then I realized that it is good and proper for a man to eat and drink, and to find satisfaction in his toilsome labor under the sun during the few days of life God has given him—for this is his lot. Moreover, when God gives any man wealth and possessions, and enables him to enjoy them, to accept his lot and be happy in his work—this is a gift of God.(Ecclesiastes 5:18, 19).
There is always this tendency to live for the future and for the time being, we allow ourselves to be molded to whatever necessary to achieve that dream in the future. It is my hope that we will never be so molded that "our shoes are too tight, and we have forgotten how to dance."
|posted 20 January 2010|
