February 10, 2002: Chaos from Creation, Unconditional Love

Hi,

Happy Chinese New Year! I hope you will get a chance to celebrate by going
out to eat some really good Chinese food. This Chinese New Year will be
the year of the horse.

A few of my friends wonder what Cleveland is like. Well, I think it's a
small version of Chicago. It has a symphony and a fairly good art museum.
In fact, I went to this museum with my big sister from Hunter High School,
Irene Chan. We also met up with a friend from Avery who is working on a
project in Cleveland, Alison Lai, for dinner at a Korean restaurant. It
was surprisingly good. So Cleveland has some decent Asian restaurants.

I also watched this movie called "Brotherhood of the Wolf", which is a
French film with subtitles. It's not as good as "Amelie from Montmartre",
but I thought the movie was fairly interesting. The fighting scenes were
choreographed by this Chinese guy, who also helped to choreograph such
fighting films as the Matrix. The plot is unpredictable and gripping.

This week's thought provoking question: "If you had the power to stop time,
would you want to have this power?"

This week's humor and inspirational pieces were forwarded from Anna Man and
Audra Khoo, respectively.

Enjoy!

-Josh.
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Chaos from Creation

Three people, a doctor, an engineer and a politician were arguing over
whose contribution to humankind was greatest. The doctor said, "the Lord
created Eve from Adam; it was a surgical procedure, therefore we doctors
were there from the creation!"

"No way," the engineer interrupted. "Go back a step: the Lord created the
universe from chaos. That was the greatest engineering feat in history! MY
profession was the one that was there at the beginning!"

"Fair enough," the politician piped in. "But who do you think created all
that chaos in the first place?"
_________________________________

UNCONDITIONAL LOVE

A story is told about a soldier who was finally coming home after having
fought in Vietnam. He called his parents from San Francisco.

"Mom and Dad, I'm coming home, but I've a favour to ask. I have a friend
I'd like to bring home with me."

"Sure," they replied, "we'd love to meet him".
"There's something you should know" the son continued, "he was hurt pretty
badly in the fighting. He stepped on a land mind and lost an arm and a leg.
He has nowhere else to go, and I want him to come live with us."

" I'm sorry to hear that, son. Maybe we can help him find somewhere to
live."
"No, Mom and Dad, I want him to live with us." "Son," said the father, "you
don't know what you're asking. Someone with such a handicap would be a
terrible burden on us. We have our own lives to live, and we can't let
something like this interfere with our lives. I think you should just come
home and forget about this guy. He'll find a way to live on his own."

At that point, the son hung up the phone. The parents heard nothing more
from him.

A few days later, however, they received a call from the San Francisco
police.
Their son had died after falling from a building, they were told. The
police believed it was suicide. The grief-stricken parents flew to San
Francisco and were taken to the city morgue to identify the body of their
son. They recognized him, but to their horror they also discovered
something they didn't know, their son had only one arm and one leg.

The parents in this story are like many of us. We find it easy to love
those who are good-looking or fun to have around, but we don't like people
who inconvenience us or make us feel uncomfortable. We would rather stay
away from people who aren't as healthy, beautiful, or smart as we are.

Thankfully, there's someone who won't treat us that way. Someone who loves
us with an unconditional love that welcomes us into the forever family,
regardless of how messed up we are. There's a miracle called Friendship
that dwells in the heart. You don't know how it happens or when it gets
started but you know the special lift it always brings.

Friends are a very rare jewel, indeed. They make you smile and encourage
you to succeed. They lend an ear, they share a word of praise, and they
always want to open their hearts to us.

So tonight, before you tuck yourself in for the night, say a little prayer
to God to give you the strength you need to accept people as they are, and
to help us all be more understanding of those who are different from us!!!

So my friends show a little love and kindness to all around you. Lastly
wishing you and your family "Good Health" and "Happy Lunar New Year"

Thank you and take care.