sumangali.org - Part 5

Feb 19th, 2008

Keyword Haiku

Anyone for a word game (or a nerd game really)? I was just looking at the stats for this blog. I usually only read the top 10 search phrases, but glanced at the top 25 keywords, and noticed they almost make sense if read in order, perhaps the opening credits and scene setting of a [...]

Feb 17th, 2008

Mr Magorium, Pipe Organ Pizza, and the Mighty Wurlitzer

Mr Magorium’s Wonder Emporium The heart in this film is undeniable, and it’s definitely not just for children. As the film’s motto goes: “You have to believe it to see it.” (It’s alone worth watching for a cameo appearance by Kermit the Frog, out shopping, dodging stares from the public). Mr Magorium (Dustin Hoffman) is a 243-year-old [...]

Feb 11th, 2008

Learning To Live

I met my second nephew for the first time last week, eight days after his arrival on earth (that’s me on the right, at a similar age). His expressions changed fast, as if dreaming. What could he dream so soon? Memories of other worlds or other lives perhaps. I wondered what his dreams would be [...]

Jan 27th, 2008

Life’s a Peach, Love is Immortality

When I was little, my mum had a penchant for Chinese antiquities. Along with a glossy rosewood coffee table, my favourite was a painted statue of Shou Lao, the god of longevity. He held a long twisted staff of many twining branches in one hand, and a peach (of unlikely proportions) in the other. Although he [...]

Jan 13th, 2008

John Milton and The Origin Of Space

“With thee conversing I forget all time, All seasons and thir change, all please alike. Sweet is the breath of morn, her rising sweet, With charm of earliest Birds; pleasant the Sun When first on this delightful Land he spreads His orient Beams, on herb, tree, fruit, and flour, Glistring with dew; fragrant the fertil earth After soft showers; and sweet [...]

Dec 10th, 2007

The Seeker-Writer: A Rhyming Play

This is a short play I wrote, based on a story by Sri Chinmoy, called The Seeker-Writer. It’s a humorous story with a spiritual lesson behind it. Hope you enjoy it! [Enter Writer] Narrator: Once there was a seeker who’d developed much sincerity. By writing books he’d also gained considerable prosperity. His first book was a comprehensive study of zoology, His [...]

Nov 25th, 2007

Greyfriar’s Bobby: A Small Scottish Saint

I’d put off visiting Scotland for over a year, even though York is inexcusably close, and even though a very kind open invitation stood since I moved north from Wales. That’s the trouble with open invitations, and things that are close: they hover just below the top of the list of things one may do, [...]

Nov 11th, 2007

A Beginning, an End, and an Eternity

Is there such a thing as a junkophobe? That’s me. I buy the same thing over and over because I keep throwing useful stuff away; I’m ruthless to the point of impracticality. I can’t tolerate anything old, broken, unlovely, unclean, or out of place. Then what is this old Cheese Doodles packet doing here? Cheap crinkly [...]

Nov 4th, 2007

King’s College Chapel, Cambridge

Alleluia: Qui timent Dominum “He healeth those that are broken in heart: and bindeth up their wounds.” This line shines from the page handed to me at the entrance of King’s College Chapel, part of a sung mass I am about to hear. I have been here once before, many years ago, in the company of my Spiritual [...]