The Searchlight of Insight

The Red Ball

Reminder: there are more Phuket pictures in my last post in case people missed them.

I am currently flying from Toronto to Hong Kong. Yes, while Hong Kong endured torrential downpours, I've been in Toronto, Canada enjoying gorgeous, late spring, Southern Ontario, weather. I arrived Friday night and left Tuesday night. While in Toronto my sister Penny asked me, "what did you do on the flight here?"

"Well, I didn't write. I just didn't have the energy," was my reply. "The bug tried to take me but I fought it hard."

Penny knows, as may some readers, that being on a plane unleashes a tornado of creativity in me. Something about being cut off from all input (such as e-mails, phone calls etc.) uncaps my creative side. Lord, help me now, though... I am on the plane back to Hong Kong and the creative tornado has me by the throat courtesy of a fantastic introspective Toronto visit and some new music on CX.. so it's time to finally write about The Red Ball.

Last summer after the Toronto Camp Comok visit, I left the island a day ahead of everyone else to return to Toronto and then Hong Kong. Keith (bro-in-law) and I drove down together and Keith dropped me off at my Dad's house where Dad has lived for 44 years (and where I grew up.) My sister Carolyn has been helping Dad clear out the house in preparation for an eventual move. A whole bunch of my stuff had been placed in the basement to be either claimed or thrown out by yours truly. It was one of those Catch-22 situations... if nothing was claimed it would be thrown out. If too much was claimed it would be downsized. If only a few small boxes remained, I'd be home free. I ended up with a few small boxes and was in the clear.

But none of this is the point. The point of all this was what happened to me while alone in the house. This was the first time I'd been alone in the house for any length of time since my mother passed away four years earlier. That was a challenge, not for emotional reasons, but because I was very aware of my past and the passage of time in an eerie way. That afternoon two things happened.

First, while going through one of my boxes I found something that had been missing for 14 years: my piano sheet music. Prior to living in HK I lived in Vancouver for several years. When I made the move out there two things went missing... a large pot roast container and my music. The pot I couldn't care less about but I searched high and low for the music. Gone. I reported back to Toronto about the missing music. My family searched everywhere to no avail. I filed a report with the moving company who came up empty handed. I failed to comprehend how this bag went missing and each time I visited Toronto used to sift through what few things I had in my parent's home, again without success.

The missing music deflated my motivation to play the piano. I'd picked up a few pieces of music since then but it was still not the same. Access to a piano was easy through church when no one was listening, but I sort of gave-up. Then there I was last summer on the floor of our basement when I popped open a box, removed a few items only to find Nat King Cole, Pink Floyd and Elton John staring me in the face. I was gobsmacked. Part of my logical mind believed it physically impossible for the music to be in the house but at this point I wasn't about to turn away this gift after thinking it missing for so long. I quickly extracted my favourite books, setting them aside to return to HK with me. (Unfortunately, I still haven't spent much time in front of the TV, but that's another story.)

I was under a time constraint that afternoon... I had to pack everything up, including items into boxes that Tess and I had bought prior to heading north to Comak with the family. All this had to be done in time to meet a very good lifelong friend of mine, Anne (Sebastian's 'darling') and also a good friend of Tess. Anne and I were having dinner prior to my catching the midnight flight back to Hong Kong.

In the middle of the packing commotion, the awareness of being in the house alone, the creepy but welcomed discovery of my piano music, another old friend passed in front of my eye to say "hello." I remember this friend from the beginning of my time... it has been around the house since I was at least two or three years old and family members claim longer than that. The story was that this friend had lost his bounce and for a long time I thought that possible. Now of course, I know this just means add more air.

Yes, the old friend was The Red Ball. I held the ball in my hands, not only had the ball not found its bounce, but was even softer forty years on. "Wow, my friend," I said to it, "there is an organizational hurricane coming up behind me and you're not going to survive that storm."

"Then blog about me," it replied, "and take a picture, too." Okay, I thought, I will do that for you. Into the garden I went to find a sunny spot for The Red Ball's pose. A few minutes later The Red Ball was immortalised in digital form. I returned into the house, placing the ball somewhere inobtruse but prominent. I stood there for a moment remembering the years when, despite the lack of bounce, the ball could still be tossed back and forth between little hands or kicked by little feet.

Eventually the heaviness of the afternoon became too much for me... but not from an emotional perspective. I just get so melancholy and don't know why... why do you suppose that is, lurkers? I quickly packed up the remaining items - including two dozen boxes of Kraft Dinner that is 3X more costly in HK and harder to find. Around about the time I was finishing up Anne arrived. We had a fabulous bottle of red wine with dinner at her place and then Anne dropped me off at the airport. My sheet music sat in my checked luggage destined for Asia while The Red Ball sat in the silent darkness of my parents' home.

What's in your hand?

In July after returning to Hong Kong from Canada, I had the opportunity to meet Rick Warren, author of the book “The Purpose Driven Life.” Gail Hudson, Editorial Reviewer at Amazon.com, described as follows: The spiritual premise in The Purpose-Driven Life is that there are no accidents---God planned everything and everyone. Therefore, every human has a divine purpose, according to God's master plan. Like a twist on John F. Kennedy's famous inaugural address, this book could be summed up like this: "So my fellow Christians, ask not what God can do for your life plan, ask what your life can do for God's plan." The book is about purposeful devotion to a Christian God. The book is set up to be a 40-day immersion plan, recognizing that the Bible favors the number 40 as a "spiritually significant time," according to author Rick Warren, the founding pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California, touted as one of the United States largest congregations. Warren's hope is that readers will "interact" with the 40 chapters, reading them one day at a time, with extensive underlining and writing in the margins. As an inspirational manifesto for creating a more worshipful, church-driven life, this book delivers. Every page is laden with references to scripture or dogma.... This is probably an excellent resource for devout Christians who crave a jumpstart back to worshipfulness.

On Friday, July 21st, roughly 80 Hong Kong business people met at the posh Hong Kong Club to have dinner with Rick Warren and hear him speak. The setting was intimate and ideal for a restorative discussion. The Rick Warren team was excited. The dinner – and their trip to Hong Kong in general – coincided with the completion of The Purpose Driven Life’s translation into simplified Chinese text, and a full endorsement of the book by mainland China officials. In other words, you can now legally buy this book in China. One of the Saddleback team sat at each table, and I had the good fortune of sitting next to Dave Arnold, one of Rick Warren's top leaders who helps him run the business side of Saddleback. We had a fascinating discussion about many things, but one of them was Christianity in China. Watch this space!

For the one hour that Rick Warren spoke he focused on Affluence. His message was very clear… business people are given three things – but not necessarily limited to three – by God: Income, Influence and Identity.

Warren gave a brief scriptural exegesis on a passage from Exodus, where God asks Moses: “What’s that in your hand?” Moses, holding a staff throws it on the ground. Once on the ground and out of Moses’ hand, God turns the staff into a serpent and then back again into a staff when picked up by Moses. The staff, Warren tells us, signifies Moses’s identity, income and influence. When Moses lays it down, God makes it come alive, makes the impossible possible. When Moses keeps the staff to himself, nothing happens.

The staff represents Moses’ income – how he makes his living. His money is not wrapped up in a bank account or gold coins but in his flock. The staff represents Moses’ influence – how he gets things done and helps, protects others. In this case sheep – moving them from one place to another. The staff represents Moses’ identity – who he is in the world and how he relates to himself.

God said to Moses, “I want you to lay down your identity, your income and your influence. If you do, I will make it come alive in a miraculous way. If you pick it back up, it will be a dirty stick.” After this, it is referred to as the Rod of God. It is this rod that parts the sea, makes water come out of the rock, turns the river to blood. The staff had power when laid down – God made it come alive and did miracles that Moses never dreamed of.

Rick Warren challenged business people to ask themselves the same question, “What’s in your hand and what will you do with it? What is your identity, your influence, your income? Will you lay it down?”

I left with several copies of The Purpose Driven Life, written in Cantonese, in my hand… I gave them all away to people who I felt would benefit from reading the book. (I have my own English copies!) As I walked back to my office to pick up my car I snapped some pics of affluent Hong Kong and contemplated Rick Warren’s comments. For me it's what is in my head… a book waiting to be written and given away that perhaps could cause miracles beyond my wildest dreams.
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