Dream, Self, and a Violin

Last night I woke up in the middle of the night with strange feeling about my dream.  It was late evening and the sky was dark.  I was walking in front of a row of houses.  In one of the houses I could look through a big glass window.  I saw my wife trying to store something in a cabinet.  And there was a male figure sitting right in front of the window.  I told myself to look more carefully and focus on the person sitting there.  When I look closer I saw myself when I was a teenager holding a violin while looking out the window.  I was deeply disturbed when I woke up.  Partly because it felt weird partly because I did not know what it means.

For those of you who study dreams, if you have any thought, I would love to hear them.

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Solidary with the People of Myanmar

	Los Angeles 88: In Solidarity with Burmaby Ron Osborn, USC
Description:	The news from Burma is grim. Unknown numbers of Buddhist monks have been killed. Thousands more are being sent to remote prison camps as a punishment for defying the generals. Shocked and dismayed, a group of us students in the Los Angeles region, joined by human rights activists and members of religious communities, have been struggling to think of how we can show our solidarity with these courageous individuals. Here is what we have decided: We hope to stage an event on or near November 10 that will: 1) call attention to the ongoing crisis in Burma; 2) let the people of Burma know they are not forgotten; and 3) shame the Chinese government into taking a more serious stand on human rights atrocities in Burma before the Beijing Olympics. ●The event will be called “LA-88” in honor of those killed not only over the past two weeks but also during the pro-democracy demonstrations of August 8, 1988. ●We will meet in front of the Chinese Consulate General’s Office in Los Angeles since it was China that blocked UN action as the killings unfolded. ●A total of 88 of us will shave our heads in solidarity with Burma’s courageous monks. We are inviting students from other universities, celebrities and public figures, and others from across the country to join us in any way they can, whether with their presence at the event, their support from afar, or their active participation. We realize that LA-88 is not going to change the harsh facts on the ground in Burma, and we are daunted by the challenge of planning and organizing a consciousness-raising event of this kind. We are determined, though, to resist the temptation to despair and apathy and to do whatever we can to focus attention on Burma’s plight. Our hope is that news will leak through to Burmese monks even in remote prison cells that many hundreds of people, in at least one American city, took symbolic action in solidarity with them and are united with them in spirit. If you are willing to be a part of this public event in Los Angeles in any way, please join the group. We need help from people with organizing skills and media connections. We need sponsors. We need hair. Please encourage your friends to join.

Email:	rosborn@usc.edu
City/Town:	Los Angeles, CA

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Sickness, Metaphysics, and the Meaning of Life

When my dad learned of his fatal diagnosis, all the theology he acquired during his entire career of ministry was not sufficient. He found himself in another reality existentially and the effect of the diagnosis on his affective dimension was beyond his grasp. It was real and it was so different. And the incongruency of both realities (his theology and his state of existence) was devastating. My dad evoked the power of God like he had never done before. He told all of us to pray not that God’s will be done but that his (my dad’s) be done. He told us to wrestle like Jacob with the angel and never let go until God promises to bless (to heal). Till the end of his journey, he did not change God’s mind (or the inevitable event, the natural progression of his illness). God was able to change my dad’s mind.

I have come to an experiential recognition of the power of metaphysics in the face of crisis. One of the comical scene from the animation “Mulan” captures this well when the ancestors were evoked in order to assist Mulan in her dangerous and adventurous journey. Somehow in the presence of unexplainable trauma, we human find it necessary to bring in transcendence for possible explanation. Often because we view the unexplainable from the immanent horizontal perspective. From this stand point, the unexplainable remains unexplainable. The only other possible variable for explanation is the vertical/transcendental dimension. I believe this situation takes place because life definition and trauma do not go hand-in-hand. Perhaps its because often within our existential definition of life, there is no room for trauma. Hence when these two elements become conflicted, we have to find an alternative. And the alternative is often the attempt at changing the natural law to fit the definition of life instead of changing the definition of life to fit the law of nature (birth, sickness, and death as the inevitable). So we evoke the metaphysics. The question is, when the Metaphysical is awaken, will the law of nature be changed to fit our definition of life or vice versa?

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