if i have to read one more line of foucault, i’m going to have to invoke his chinese name.

the thesis presentation went pretty swimmingly. i’m pleased as punch about it. i realised that chatting with others about it and getting them excited about it too helps to open research avenues and overcome methodological concerns.

we had a good discussion in class today. about the intersections between env and religion. which had conceptual linkages with my proposed thesis topic. more importantly, A. was talking about how back in his hometown, they would sacrifice animals to their gods for their wrongdoings. and subsequently i didn’t pay attention to the class because I was just thinking of Isa 53 and how the concept of sacrifice is so different across religions. and how Jesus, in all His love and mercy, was willing to be the sacrifice for us all. Sacrifice is a word i think we’ve all taken too lightly. A.’s anecdoctal sharing showed how the concept of sacrifice resonates across all religions. and perhaps we need to rethink our understanding of it.

Isaiah 53: 1-7
1 Who has believed our message
and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?

2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.

3 He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.
Like one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

4 Surely he took up our infirmities
and carried our sorrows,
yet we considered him stricken by God,
smitten by him, and afflicted.

5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed.

6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.

7 He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before her shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.

and i was reading the Bible and how when Jesus healed the blind men, He sternly told them not to tell anyone but they still did. and i was thinking, siao ah, if someone healed me of my blindness, of course i would go around and tell everyone la! and then it struck me, that not only can Jesus heal physical blindness, but spiritual blindness as well. and His death on the cross, the ultimate sacrifice on our behalf that Isa 53 talks about, saved us from eternal death. and hell really is no joke.

My Lord, what love is this
That pays so dearly
That I, the guilty one
May go free!

Amazing love, O what sacrifice
The Son of God given for me
My debt He pays, and my death He dies
That I might live, that I might live!

And so they watched Him die
Despised, rejected
But oh, the blood He shed
Flowed for me!

And now, this love of Christ
Shall flow like rivers
Come wash your guilt away
Live again!
(Graham Kendrick, Amazing Love)

i rarely talk about this in real life, much less write about it. But as a geography major who studies about place and space, when I read this passage last night (from a non-chicklit anthology), all i could think of was, perfect.

“On one level, I didn’t expect to fall in love. I saw this other future version of myself, a merciless, lonesome writer, banged up, brooding, bullying her way through life. But honestly, I also felt like this was the person I’d been waiting for. There was a feeling of relief – a feeling of Oh, here you are, finally. And this is what you look like. And this is what your voice sounds like. And this is the set of your childhood memories. I’d thought I’d been looking, but really, I was just waiting for him withouth knowing that i was waiting, without knowing that I missed him. I thought the ache was a restless lonesomeness, but it was more like homesickness for a place you haven’t yet come to.” (Baggott, J.)