Leslie J.B.

When a song catches my attention, I am usually left speechless. In moment like these, I can’t help but stand in awe with what beauty can do to a person.

I always hope that I can make or produce such fine work of art (especially songs), but then I have to be realistic that somehow it is beyond my ability. I am only an admirer but seldom a creator of beauty. Beauty usually make my heart yearns for the finest but usually unreachable in life (at least for me).

I have spent some time reflecting this and perhaps there is a purpose in all these.

As a man of faith, I usually relate this to my faith experience. I want to relate my experience standing face to face with beauty with my relation to God. God’s faithfulness to us is something beyond our comprehension. We are usually left speechless at how God is faithful to us despite our misdeeds, again and again. In front of God, I am made “useless”, weak and small. Not that I am beyond salvation, but God’s greatness surpasses me. It is only in weakness and uselessness that I am made aware of my dependence on God. I can only stand in awe of God’s greatness for I can never produce such greatness, not even a fraction of that amount.

And so, be still my heart, my weakness is a mirror of God’s greatness.

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It’s amazing how technology has shaped the world today. This morning, I spent almost an hour receiving updates on my sister’s engagement ceremony through the internet. Here I am, hundreds of mile away sharing the joy of my family back home.

It cannot be denied that technology has helped human in their daily life. The quality of life has become higher. The advances in technology have helped many fields like medicine, transportation and communication in offering better services to human. What we are enjoying today better car, computers, handphones, internet and houses are results of technology. Take for example the internet and communication. These two fields have made the world “smaller”. Contact and news can be made in counts of seconds.

But despite all the good things that technology offers, we can’t deny the dark side of technology. These are very obvious, especially in wars. Moreover, there are still things that technology can’t solve like AIDS.

We accept that technology made the world “smaller”, brought people closer. But, technology also causes great distances between people. Personal contact somehow affected by the advances especially in mass communication. People seem more absorbed in their handphones and online chatting services than spending moment together like the old days.

In the end, it all depends on us on how to make use of technology. To me, technology is very neutral. It is we, human, who gives values to technology. Good or bad, it is us who decide.

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Why ask about truth? Does truth matters?

I am tempted to say it doesn’t matter. All that is needed is whether we get to job done or not. To paraphrase Nietzsche, “The truth may be good, but why not sometimes take untruth if it gets you where you want to go?” And also, if it doesn’t cause harm, why not?

I think that is more concrete and practical. I think many people will turn more toward practicality. To many (I may be wrong here) truth is more about values and virtues. Nowadays, not so many people talk seriously about value and virtues anymore. To them, value and virtues is what bring towards the end, as long as the means doesn’t cause harm.

So, does truth matters? Well, perhaps, perhaps, perhaps …

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