who do you think you are

Did you watch that PBS show "Finding Your Roots" last Sunday, where they traced the family origins of 3 religious leaders of the day: Pastor Rick Warren, a Korean-Jewish female rabbi, and a Muslim imam? 

It turns out Pastor Rick's Protestant lineage goes all the way back to his 9th great grand father who landed on the New World in 1630, and was a co-founder of the first church in a New England town (but has nothing to do with a May Flower Compact signer who also named Richard Warren). The Korean-Jewish rabbi is the daughter of an American Jewish man and a Korean Buddhist mother, and the Muslim imam is the the son of Pakistani parents whose genetic graph shows certain Jewish markers. And, interesting enough, through their separate Jewish lineage, both the Korean rabbi and the Pakistani imam come to be relatives of Barbara Walters, the famed blonde TV news anchor woman whose ancestors were East European Jews ("Waremwasser") who emigrated to England (and became "Warmwater"), and then to America (hence "Walters").

It shouldn't be too surprising, though. With today's advanced genetic technology and well documented genealogy records, almost everyone can be proven to be related to everyone else, one way or the other. Case in point:  President Obama and President Bush are shown to be long lost cousins who share the same great-great....-great-grand father back in colonial New England by way of Obama's white mother from Kansas.

As a matter of fact, through extensive research and genetic samples collected over the past 20+ years, scientists have demonstrated that all modern people today came from one same origin. Briefly, the human genes mutate at a predicable rate that in time created distinctly looking subgroups called races. By comparing the genetic "markers" of different racial groups today, scientist can determine how close or far apart they are related to each other and when did the diversions occur. It is concluded, then, all humans today--black, brown, red, white, whatever--are descendants of one same woman (mitochondrial Eve) around 140,000 yeas ago, and one same man (Y-chromosome Adam) around 60,000 years ago, both from Africa.

Probably due to climate change (the desertification of Sahara), our African ancestors had tried venturing out of Africa a couple of times starting about 100,000 years ago. The last breakout happened around 70,000 years ago, when a group of probably no more than a few hundred men and women went across the Red Sea. In the subsequent tens of thousands of years, some descendants of theirs went northeast to Asia, where a subgroup of them went further to the Americas through the Bering land bridges during the ice age when the sea level was low; some went northwest to Europe via Central Asia, and eventually took over the continent from another earlier Homo Sapiens species called Neanderthals; some went along the Arabian peninsula and Indian subcontinental coasts, all the way to Australia through the southeast Asian straits again during the time when the sea level was much lower than today. 

There are books and documentaries explaining how scientists research and collect and put pieces together to come up with such human migration story. For example, the PBS documentary "Journey of Man" details how geneticists collect blood samples of people of a remote village in India and discover them to be the relatives of Australian aborigines and remnants of ancient people who traveled along the Indian subcontinental coast to reach Australia some 50,000 years ago (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0QDrODnN6g); another episode shows how they locate one Central Asian man who is the direct descendant of a man 40,000 years ago who is also the ancestor of all men in Europe and Asia (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QV3Ws7pyJUI&feature=relmfu).

And if you are like me, or most Chinese of my generation, growing up learning from school textbook that we Chinese are a unique ethnicity that came from a unique Homo Erectus origin (the "Peking man"), you may be amused watching this BBC documentary (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZF0JBb6Clo&feature=relmfu) where such old-school myth (and one may say somewhat racially/culturally Chauvinistic idea) was conceded to be false by a young Chinese scientist after seeing the genetic evidence that shows the Chinese are descendants of same African origin just like the rest of the world.

Besides genetics and archaeological finds, another way of tracking human expansion and migration trails is through linguistic study. Take, for example, the group of people scattered around South East Asian islands (the Philippines, Indonesia), Polynesian Islands (Hawaii, Easter Island, New Zealand), and the Madagascar Island off southeastern coast of Africa. They all speak one subgroup of Austronesian languages, while the aborigines of Taiwan--the tiny northern-most tip of this Austronesian sphere of habitats--alone speak 9 subgroups of the Austronesian languages. Which means Taiwan is very likely the place where the Austronesian people stay the longest, therefore developing most diverse ways of speaking the Austronesian language. Or, in other words, Taiwan is the most likely place where all the Austronesian people came from.

   

Take for another example: where did the Indo-Europeans--the so called white people--come from? One way to find this out is through the study of the oldest Indo-European language (called Proto-Indo-European). What Proto-Indo-European scholars find in their study, among other things, are words related to agricultural affairs--such as plant names or tilling tools--do not exist in the language, while a wealth of vocabulary related to wheels, horses, chariots, etc., and the root word for "snow," do. Combining this with other linguistic analyses and archaeological and anthropological finds, it is concluded that the original Indo-Europeans were a group of nomad people living on the southern prairie (of cold weather) of Russia who knew how to maneuver wheeled vehicles and horses and used them to conquer other ancient peoples and forced their language upon them, whose descendants in turn spread the language (or rather, subgroups of the language) along with their colonial expansion during the Great Discovery Age throughout the world, to make it the most dominant language family of the world today.

Conclusions: It is no longer doubt that all humans today come from the same origin, we are all brothers and sisters, literally and biologically. What distinguishes me as an individual, however, has to do with where I was born, the environment I grew up with, the language I use, the culture I immerse in, how I behave, and what I believe, much more than how many different genetic markers I have in the endless DNA strands in billions of cells of my body.

May our species be fruitful and multiply for eons to come.

kids' treats

I received a "soliciting" email from a friendly source asking me to be a volunteer judge for a local youth debate contest. This was a first for me and sounded interesting enough, so I signed up for a couple of time slots that fit my schedule after visiting the website.

Each time slot (contest), according to the schedule, lasts an hour and a half, but a note there suggests the judge be there 45 minutes ahead for the orientation. So I rode my horse there right on time, at the campus of a Christian college in Irvine. Parking was easy, and they even sent out shuttle cart transporting you to the building where the judge orientation took place so you wouldn't get lost. It was a classroomful of about 40 or so volunteers like myself–actually I didn't know how many of them were first-timers like me, and how many were veteran judges, or alum debaters who came back to become judges, or friends or parents of the debaters, etc. The orientation instructor wasted no time explaining the program, the guidelines, the rules and tips on how to be a judge, etc. in a short 45-minute span. It's quite a bundle for a debate novice like me. But I did catch a couple of essentials out of it: Don't let your personal opinion on a subject influence your judging decision, and try to write constructive comments on your ballot so the debaters know what to improve on the next time.

Then off I went to the debate I was assigned to. It was in a library conference room. The debaters, 4 of them, all teen age girls, and one timer, a young boy probably some kid brother of some debater's, were all sitting there waiting for me. The girls smiled at me after I sat down and asked if I wanted to conduct it in any special manner or just let them make things easy for me (??). I smiled back and told them this was my first-time being a debate judge so letting things go easy for me would be just fine. They smiled back again and then the debate began.

The 4 girls were actually separated into two two-member teams. The subject of the debate was "Should the US Government Reform Its Revenue Generation Model", with Team Affirmative arguing for it, and Team Negative against it. Each team member started with a 8 or 10 minute speech that stated her core arguments, followed by a 3-minute questioning and answering session with the opposing team, then another 8 or 10 minutes of rebuttal by an opposing team member, and so on. 

As the debate went, one thing that surprised me or I didn't expect was they all brought their pre-written scripts to the stand and practically read from it, interspersed with their charming stares and smiles at me. I soon realized they probably had to do it this way because the majority of their arguments consisted of statistics and quotations from various sources they collected, and I assumed the debate rules do allow them to bring scripts and read from them. I was impressed, though, by the effort they apparently had spent digging up those info, as well as the logic and arguments they made out of them.

What surprised me even more, and I think demonstrated the merit and purpose of such form of debate, was how intensely and keenly they listened to (and made notes of) their opponent's arguments, collected their thoughts, then quickly came up with defenses or counter attacks to their opponent's questions or arguments.

As instructed, I refrained from making any comments during the debate, except giving them encouraging smiles and an all-inclusive "bravo" congratulation at the end of the debate, then hurried back to the judges' corner to finish up the grading and ranking, then turned in the ballot to the judging committee and left.  

The next judging session came a couple days later. It was a totally different format this time. Instead of debating each other, each participant picked and prepared their own subject of interest to present and speak about by themselves. (It reminded me of the "show-and-tell" session an English instructor from Canada had us do in her class during my college days in Taiwan). There were total of 8 contestants and 3 judges (including myself), along with one timer (again a kid brother of sort from some contestant), and a few audiences in the room. It was a captivating, totally entertaining 90 minutes through and through: From the girl that dramatized and explained the fear of public speaking she had overcome, to a tall handsome boy making cool and fun analyses of all stories in the world, to a short little boy dressed in 3-piece suit demonstrating how a little bugle can play more than 20 different tunes with just 3 notes that dictate the US army's on and off battle ground activities...

Each subject was well picked, well prepared, and well presented, to a fault. Nobody brought or read from notes any more, only their articulate speech, smooth transitions, calm and confident demeanor, rich and interesting content, accompanied by creative artwork and props they made themselves, and in some cases the actual object of the subject matter itself. The audiences--judges included--could not help but erupt into emphatic applause at the end of each presentation. These were not your ordinary 12-to-18-year-olds any more: With skills like these, they could go out and compete with any professional speaker or lecturer head to head. I really had a hard time not giving "Excellent" rating on each category on each contestant's score sheet. 

I didn't sign up for the final rounds or the awarding ceremony so I don't know who the ultimate prize winners were, but my hat goes off to all these young men and women who show passion and efforts in trying to excel on things they love to do, and men and women who organize and keep such debate and speech league going on year after year in communities all over the country! 

happy valentine's

I am probably one of the last hold-outs who don't believe there are that many born differences between men and women that people like to make fun about, given we all hail from the same human stock and share the same fundamental working of body and soul, men or women. Now that I am in my early 50's, however, I am admitting that men and women do behave differently in many ways, manifested and perhaps reinforced by the many different roles we play in years. I'll leave it to my dear wife to tell what roles she perceives me playing, but here are those she impresses on me from day to day:

A Rule Setter 

There might be plenty of good food in the refrigerator, but if you think they are for pleasurable random consumption, you are wrong. "The bbq meat is for dinner, the cake is for breakfast..." Snatch the wrong thing, and you hear that rule repeated over and over again.

A Mother

Remember President George Bush Sr. once said he never likes broccoli and would not have eaten it if his mother did not force him to? One day after I raised my occasional complaint about some vegetables I don't really like to eat and she gave me the usual "eat you should because they are good for you" lecture, I suddenly realized I was in poorer plight than old George, because he finally can eat whatever he likes without his mother's presence, but I still can't.

A Vigilante Environmentalist

"You forget to turn the light switch off again..." even though I only do it once in a hundred times.

  

A Health Alarmist 

One latest piece of health science finding (or hearsay), or a spike in her blood pressure will trigger a new round of health panic and (verbal) commitment to healthful habits again. 

An Absolute Conformist

"Nobody has done it this way before," she'll always object whenever I suggest some innovative way of doing things. If we have children, none of them will grow up to be another Thomas Edison, I don't think.

A Good Citizen 

"Don't drive too fast," she'll say,

with Pragmatic Reasoning

"lest you get caught by the police (and pay a hefty fine)."

Joking aside (one thing I am not sure of is if she's a humorist or not. I'll be in big trouble if she's not), I personally think the following lyrics from the song "She's Always a Woman to Me" by Billy Joel makes the most apt description of what a woman is: (to hear the song, go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNZeGnV43ys&feature=related )

She can kill with a smile, she can wound with her eyes.
And she can ruin your faith with her casual lies.
And she only reveals what she wants you to see.
She hides like a child, but she's always a woman to me.
She can lead you to love, she can take you or leave you.
She can ask for the truth but she'll never believe.
And she'll take what you'll give her as long as it's free.
Yeah, she steals like a thief, but she's always a woman to me.

Oooh, she takes care of herself.
She can wait if she wants, she's ahead of her time.
Oooooh, and she never gives out, and she never gives in,
She just changes her mind.
And she'll promise you more than the Garden of Eden.
And she'll carelesly cut you and laugh while you're bleeding.
But she'll bring out the best and the worst you can be.
Blame it all on yourself, 'cause she's always a woman to me.

Oooh, she takes care of herself.
She can wait if she wants, she's ahead of her time.
Oooooh, and she never gives out, and she never gives in,
She just changes her mind.
She is frequently kind and she's suddenly cruel.
But she can do as she pleases, she's nobody's fool.
And she can't be convicted, she's earned her degree.
And the most she will do is throw shadows at you,
But she's always a woman to me.

Yes my wife is always the ultimate woman to me!!

Happy Valentine's!

rick's tweets iv

Another batch of Pastor Rick's "tweets of wits" to share with you: 

My dad's old cliche for saving money: "Use it up; wear it out; make it do, or do without!"

John Stott's joke on why he never married: "I'd rather want what I don't have, than have what I don't want!"

No one can control your emotions without your permission. Who are you allowing to ruin your day?

Some things must be believed BEFORE you can see them. Ask any architect, artist, entrepreneur, or athlete.

To discover the will of God you don’t know, do the will of God you do know.

If you always feel comfortable reading God's Word, you're either not reading ALL of it, or you aren't letting it sink in.

Just as night conceals earth but reveals the universe, your dark times can reveal truths about God you wouldn't see otherwise.

Heresy is often the over-emphasis of a single truth while ignoring other truths.

As I baptized his parents, a child asked me "When can I get 'advertised' for Jesus?" That's baptism!

You don't have to be a giant to slay one. You just need to shoot straight. Remember David.

Use your head in managing yourself. Use your heart in managing others.

Celebrities, like poor photographs, are usually overexposed and underdeveloped.

If you think God is your co-pilot, you're in the wrong seat.

Being busy proves nothing. It's WHY you're busy that reveals the real you.

More will join a political protest than be a witness since it's far easier to demonstrate FOR Jesus than demonstrate Jesus.

To develop friendships, stop trying to be interesting & just be interested in others.

We are products of our past, but we don't have to be prisoners of it.

You can't fall when you're on your knees.

Blaming God for evil is like blaming the sun for darkness.

To be truly Christian, you must begin with Jesus, not anyone else. Jesus interprets Paul & all theologians, not vice-versa!

My goal has never been to save the world but to make sure everyone in the world knows there is a Savior.

if you are going to san juan capistrano (again)

In memory of a couple of guys I used to hike with, and in celebration of the spotless driving record I have kept since, this is a re-run of a writing I did 3 years ago:

Go down south on Interstate 5, get off at Ortega Highway, turn inland for about 7 and a half miles, you will see the Caspers Wilderness Park. Drive in, park your car, enjoy a great hiking with sunny California blue skies and rocky chaparral hills.

On your way back on Ortega Highway, go past the I-5, the first traffic light you'll meet is at a street named Del Obispo. Make a hurried left turn, drive a couple hundred yards down the road, turn right into a Sizzler Restaurant, enjoy a hearty salad bar lunch for only $6.99, if you call the manager by his name and told him you had called him earlier and he agreed to give you and your pals that special discount. 

Two weeks later you receive a letter from some P.O. Box in North Hollywood. It's an official looking paper with 4 color pictures in the center: 1) A driver with a hiking cap that looks like me; 2) The back sight of car with a license plate that looks like mine; 3) A blue Highlander (that looks like mine) right behind the demarcation line of a traffic intersection, with a left-turn light shining red on the corner; 4) That blue Highlander turning left in the middle of the intersection, with that same left-turn light still shining red. The heading of the letter says: NOTICE OF VIOLATION--Automated Red Light Enforcement System.

And that will cost you $366; $423 if you choose to go to the traffic school to avoid the penalty point.

So, like my wife chastised me with glee: What's the hurry, man. Slow it down, brothers, especially when you are in San Juan Capistrano, near the intersection of Ortega Highway and Del Obispo Street (see Google map: http://bit.ly/w5jYqo).

San Francisco (the song, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehn516SMBzI&feature=related)

If you're going to San Francisco 

Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair 

If you're going to San Francisco 

You're gonna meet some gentle people there 

                         . . .

San Juan Capistrano (Ivan, I am still waiting for you to sing this for me)If you're going to San Juan Capistrano

Be prepared to part some money there

If you're going to San Juan Capistrano

You're gonna meet some hidden camera there 

Time moves ever so stealthily... whiff... another 3 years have just gone by...

While retrieving this old writing of mine, I did some fact checking and found:

* The Sizzler at San Juan Capistrano is no longer--it closed business some time ago

* The San Francisco online video is still there, but preceded/shadowed with advertisement now

* And who would have thought, we just bought a new house in the city of San Juan Capistrano a couple weeks ago!

meditation

I became seriously interested in meditation about 10 years ago after reading the book "Transcendental Meditation" by the Indian guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the founder of the namesake movement world wide and one-time "spiritual mentor" of the Beatles during the 1960's. Though fascinated by what it says–TM is such a wonderful thing it is the cure-all panacea for personal happiness and world peace–I decided to go cautious on it, being aware of the trappings such mythical practice might bring. I reasoned if all roads lead to Rome, as the religious-equal-righters like to say, then there ought to be something similar in Christianity. So I started Googling (back when Google was not a verb yet) the key words "Christian meditation" over the net, and voila! I did find something.

Called "contemplative prayer" or "centering prayer," the contemporary Christian meditation has its roots in Christian mysticism that was practiced by the monks and hermits in the Egyptian desert in the 3rd century AD. It has theological grounding and many practitioners throughout Christian history but somehow got lost or obscured by the Church in the past few hundred years. It was rediscovered and revived by a few modern mystics and Catholic monks such as Thomas Merton, John Main, Thomas Keating et al. since the 1950's and had become movements of their own, with seminars, retreats, publications and meditation groups all over the world today.

Without going through much of the "Spiritualese," Christian meditation, in essence, is a form of prayer. It is the ultimate form of prayer in that after we exhaust our heart and mind seeking and getting acquainted with Christ, the only way left to share and express our love and gratitude with God is through a way of silence. It is the opening of our whole being to God beyond thoughts, words, and emotions, a total self-surrender that frees us from making ourselves or even our relationship with God the center of the universe. 

Unlike Eastern meditation, Christian meditation does not emphasize the technique or methodological part of the practice: No yoga-like sitting or breath counting, for example, though it does not oppose to them either. Neither does it aim at entering the dissociative, "all nothingness" state of mind. The emphasis instead is on the intent to be intimate and rest in the peace of God's presence.    

So here is the simple practice guideline from the World Community for Christian Meditation website I've been following for the past 9 years or so:

Sit down. Sit still with your back straight. Close your eyes lightly. Then interiorly, silently begin to recite a single word – a prayer word or mantra. We recommend the ancient Christian prayer-word "Maranatha". Say it as four equal syllables. Breathe normally and give your full attention to the word as you say it, silently, gently, faithfully and above all - simply. The essence of meditation is simplicity. Stay with the same word during the whole meditation and from day to day. Don't visualise but listen to the word as you say it. Let go of all thoughts (even good thoughts), images and other words. Don’t fight your distractions but let them go by saying your word faithfully, gently and attentively and returning to it immediately that you realise you have stopped saying or it or when your attention is wandering.

I do this for 30 minutes every morning before breakfast, then read my daily devotional, then do a short (voiced) prayer. Then I get on to my daily life.

And I haven't gone insane so far :)

* If you are interested, here are some books related to contemporary Christian meditation:

"Open Mind, Open Heart" by Thomas Keating

"Seeds of Contemplation" by Thomas Merton

"Intimacy with God" by Thomas Keating

"Jesus, the Teacher Within" by Laurence Freeman

"The Cloud of Unknowing" by anonymous 14th century English mystic

halloween fun & tribute

Halloween humor...

Q. What do skeletons say before they begin dining?

A. Bone appetit!

Q. What monster flies his kite in a rain storm?

A. Benjamin Frankenstein.

Q. What do you call a skeleton who won't work?

A. Lazy bones.

Q Why do mummies make good employees?

A. They get all wrapped up in their work.

Q. Why are there fences around cemeteries?

A. Because people are dying to get in.

Q. What's a vampire's favorite fast food?

A. Guy with very high blood pressure.

Q. Why did the vampire subscribe to the Wall Street Journal?

A. He heard it had great circulation. 

Q. How did the priest make holy water?

A. He took some tap water and boiled the hell out of it.

For the more serious minded...

The origin of Halloween can be traced back to a Celtic festival in pre-medieval Europe, as well as a Pope decreed day of remembrance for all the saints that had died for the Church, hence the name "All Hallow's Day," and "All Hallow's Eve," or Halloween. It had since been influenced by various pagan customs and ultimately become a secular and much commercialized party day in North America and around the world. Some Christians avert celebrating it due to its "ghoulish" nature, for one thing. However, the day ought to carry some historic significance for all Christians, if not for the whole Western world: It was on this day, almost 500 years ago, the Protestant Reformation movement that split the Christendom into Catholic and Protestant camps, all got started: 

On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther, a German priest/theologian, posted his famous 95 theses on the door of a church in Wittenberg, a little town in today's eastern Germany, to display his objection to the "indulgences" the Church was selling. An indulgence was a printed permit or coupon with monetary value of personal confession of sin. The idea was sinners could buy indulgences to release them from divine punishment, or "As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs," went the commercial jingle of the day. The Church used such "fund raisers" to collect revenues to help rebuilding St. Peter's basilica in Rome, or as political payback by some local bishops to Rome for their clergical assignments. Though Luther's intention was to dispute and argue the subject within the Church, copies of these theses got spread quickly throughout Europe (making the controversy one of the first in history to be fanned by the printing press) and unleashed a reform movement that would eventually effect all political and social structures of the Western world.

Besides objection to the indulgences, Martin Luther had many other theological differences with the Roman Church of the day. His studies of the Bible, especially the epistles of St. Paul, had led him to the conclusion that Christ was the sole mediator between God and man and that forgiveness of sin and salvation are effected by God's Grace alone and are received by faith alone on the part of man. This point of view turned him against scholastic theology, which had emphasized man's role in his own salvation, and against many church practices that emphasized justification by good works.

Luther also condemned the vow of celibacy and, as a former monk, he married a former nun that he helped escape from a convent in 1525, when he was 42 and she was 26. By all accounts theirs was a happy marriage, with 6 children. One of their descendants was Paul von Hindenburg, President of Germany after World War I and before the Nazi takeover.

Another great accomplishment by Luther is his translation of Bible from Latin to German language. He is not the first one to do such work, but is by far the greatest according to historians and literary scholars. The Luther Bible contributed to the emergence of the modern German language and is regarded as a landmark in German literature.

According to American Lutheran Publicity Bureau, these are Luther's most important theological insights:

1. Humankind is entrapped in the ancient temptation to play God (Genesis 3:5), violating the first of all divine commandments, "You shall have no other gods."

2. Liberation from this original sin comes through faith of at least two people ... one who tells another of Christ as the source of freedom from sin, and one who, so addressed, affirms faith in Christ alone.

3. The Christian life is one in which, though we are sinners by nature, we are at the same time saints by God's grace and love.

4. The Christian life is lived in two realms that belong equally to God ... church and society. This calls for Christian commitment to education, fair economic practices, and a life of mission to the ungodly.