Positive Overtones

  Cheesecakes have always been a delight to my taste buds. But, until recently, I never realized the deep meaning it points to. It isn’t about its taste although I prefer the classic strawberry cheesecake over all other variants of cheesecake. It is the cake’s s tructure that really helped me understand a deeper reality. In Christian theology, we have something known as the mysteries of faith. These mysteries have be en revealed by God to us and we believe it by faith since our human reason is not so perfect so as to comprehend it. Nevertheless, we try to explain these mysteries by way of analogies. One of the most challenging mysteries to analogise (don’t bother searching through a Dictionary, because I have just coined it… it means to explain by analogy) is the mystery of the Trinity. There have been many attempts made towards explaining this mystery, the most popular one being St. Patrick’s clover leaf. A more contemporary attempt that I have come across has used th...

When we learn arithmetic and mathematics, the first type of calculation we learn is addition. One plus one makes two; two plus one makes three; three plus one makes four, and so on. It is only when we advance in grades that we learn the so-called ‘complex’ arithmetic calculations like multiplication and division. Now, it is quite ironic that God in his infiniteness and majesty is actually a God of multiplication. David Bentley Hart speaks of God as absolute simplicity. If it is so, then how can we conclude that God is the ‘God of multiplication’? For that, I reflected on key events in scripture that help bring out the ‘multiplication factor’ present in God.   We take the first event that is noted in the book of Genesis. After God had created night and day, the sun and the moon, the stars in the night, the sea and its creatures, land and the animals, He created man and formed him in His own image. Later, as he was looking for a suitable partner for man, he created a woman out of...

  Lemonades are one of the many popular cold-drinks that help beat the scorching summer heat. Its sour-sweet combination makes for a great thirst quencher. In case, you are wondering how to combine the ingredients and what are the ingredients for this tasty mixture it is just mainly water, sugar and lemons. While there are a few variations in making lemonades, the three main ingredients stand out in even the most basic of lemonades. These are water, sugar, and lemon. Interestingly, our whole drama of life can be viewed from a glass of lemonade. Water:  This constitutes a large part of the lemonade drink. Without this, the lemonade mixture is just a concentrated solution. Water, by itself, has no taste. Yet, in the lemonade it determines the quantity and the concentrate of the drink. In our life, we have a bundle of experiences. This is our water. How we look at our experience determines how sour or sweet our life is. It is our bundle of experiences that determine our balance i...

How many times have you made an om e lette ? If you haven’t yet tried it, here is a recipe for you to try it out. https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/basic-omelette  In many places, omlettes are a fun, go-to meal that lets you add vegetables to your egg mixture. However, there is an interesting analogy in an omelette, or in particular in eggs that are beaten? Ordinarily, eggs consist of the yoke and the egg white. If you boil the egg, the two become distinctly separate. You can open up the boiled egg and eat either part first. When it comes to the raw egg, the two are distinct yet this distinction is a bit subtle. It is still possible though because we have to do this separation at times, especially when making pastries. However, when you beat a raw egg to make an omelette, the distinction is negligible. If you ask a person to manually separate the two he would find it difficult as the two would have blended into each other. This very blending depicts our oneness of body and soul...

Bamboo plants have long been multipurpose plants. Their stems are sturdy, hard, and at times thick (depending on the type of bamboo plant). I have noticed the wonder of bamboos for a long time. However, I have also drawn out some ethical lessons from these much used plants. 1.   Leadership and Humility are inter-twined: There is a popular Chinese quote that continues to do the rounds on social media. The quote says that the higher the bamboo grows, the greater the bend. That is a clear and definite analogy on how a leader ought to be. Leadership entails one to bend down to help others. Authority goes best with humility. However, we most often mix things up and equate authority to pride. If you ever notice a bamboo, you will see that it can grow some several meters high. Yet, it does not remain with its tip to the sky. It continues to tilt downwards. The tip of the bamboo points/faces down telling us also to look at the needs of others no matter how high we climb the success...

In our high school, we would often have practical classes in Chemistry. The wonderful thing about the practical classes were the chemical reactions. It would usually be mixing acids and bases together to get a new colour or a new scent. The most basic of all these tests would be the ‘litmus paper’ test. The litmus paper would change colour when dipped into a concoction thus revealing the ph of that substance. But, what interests me is always the chemical reactions involving our olfactory senses or testers. The fragrance or odour that emerged from the chemical reaction determined the salts that were used. This whole idea of chemical reactions was almost forgotten. I was reminded of it when I read a quote by the psychologist Carl Jung. I do not recall the quote word for word but I do remember its essence. Carl Jung compared people as chemicals. He said that when two people interact with each other, a reaction is created which transforms at least one of them. No matter how old we a...

I have always been fascinated by the simple and ordinary matchsticks. As a child I would always wonder how a simple and insignificant wooden stick could spark a fire. It is only as I grew that I studied about the chemical concoction prepared when making the matchsticks. This would create a chemical reaction when the matchstick was struck against the matchbox which resulted in the creation of a flame. Most often we use matchsticks to start a fire. The fire then can be used creatively or destructively. It is quite a common phenomenon to see fire unleash its destructive powers. There are the natural forest fires, the fire at oil-rigs, and the bombing of cities by soldiers or terrorists. The list can go on: from minor damages to devastating destruction. However, when we look at the creative power of fire, we notice many useful things that many of us are unaware of. The most basic of it is that fire is used for cooking. It is also used as a heating system during the cold winter seaso...