The Spirit of Christmas

Walking through the shopping malls and business districts during Christmas is quite an experience. Maybe it's the booming economy this year, but somehow, the usual orgiastic shopping experience that cumulates around Christmas seems to be especially pronounced this year. Being at St. John's on Christmas Eve was especially revealing -- it's always glam at St. John's, but somehow this year seems especially so -- almost everybody is dressed up to the nines, more as if they were going to a party or a dance than going to church.

I wonder -- where is Christ in all of this? It seems that the more blessed we are, the less likely we are to remember God. Maybe it's a hazy memory biased by the nostalgia of childhood, but I remember when I was growing up, and the society as a whole was less prosperous, every Christmas brought hope and joy. Maybe it's because now I am older and more cynical, but I find it hard to recapture those feelings nowadays. Christmas almost seems to bring more pressure than relief.

On a personal level, the closest I felt to God this Christmas was not at a church service, but among the mentally disabled children that we spent Christmas Eve with.

(BTW, this picture above was taken at the Central escalator. I was surprised to see such a strong religious statement in the midst of the business district. It's a good reminder of what Christmas is all about.)

In the Image of God

For Christmas Eve this year, we brought a group of our students to a home for the mentally disabled to throw a Christmas party for their kids. This is mainly due to the efforts of one of my colleagues, for whom this has been a family event for many years -- and made the extra effort last year to extend it into a school event for our students.

Spending several hours with the kids at the Home is quite an experience. It is challenging -- children with mental disabilities also often have physical disabilities and emotional/behavioral handicaps mixed in with it. Some of these children are so severely underdeveloped that they have trouble holding their own heads up, or they do self-destructive things like putting their hands so far back into their throats that they choke themselves, or even go about running into things and hurting themselves.

A friend and I went to midnight mass at St. John's the same night. The service started with the traditional hymn, "Once in Royal David's City". Listening to the choir sing the words "with the poor, the scorned, the lowly", and "he was little, weak and helpless", images of the children kept on popping up in my head, and I was so overwhelmed that I broke down in tears. Indeed, each of them were made in His own image, and He obviously loves them as much as He loves each of us. And we can be thankful for the hope that He promises for all of us:

we shall see him; but in heaven,
set at God's right hand on high;
when like stars his children crowned,
all in white shall wait around.

Those children will be at His feet, healed of the afflictions that handicap them here on earth.

Multiple Choice: Expected Value

When we discuss how our students answer exam questions, a common comment is that since they seem to just pick multiple choice answers at random, they might be better off just picking the same choice for all the answers, and get the same expected value outcome. However reasonable this seems, none of us had ever seen a student actually try this tactic, until this year, when a student tried it in StephenC's class.

When StephenC showed me that exam paper, I commented that maybe the usual practice of giving points for correct answers but not taking off points for incorrect ones actually encouraged students to try such a tactic. To try and preempt that, I set my exam to give 2 points for a correct multiple choice answer, and -0.5 points for an incorrect one.

I spoke too soon. Take a look at this exam paper. Apparently the possibility of getting points deducted isn't strong enough. And yes, the result is right at the expected value.

Relationships for a season

A friend and I were discussing recently how some friends tend to be friends for a while, and then they kind of drift out of our lives. She was rather hurt by this, and I was trying to tell her that sometimes, people come into our lives for a reason, and when that reason is over, they leave, and we shouldn't try to hold on and make them stay.

Anyway, today, I received a chain email from another friend. Normally, I really hate chain emails, but this one was actually quite coherent, so I'm sharing it here:

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People come into your life for a reason, a season or a lifetime.
When you know which one it is, you will know what to do for that person.

When someone is in your life for a REASON, it is usually to meet a need you have expressed.
They have come to assist you through a difficulty, to provide you with guidance and support, to aid you physically, emotionally or spiritually. They may seem like a godsend and they are.
They are there for the reason you need them to be.
Then, without any wrongdoing on your part or at an inconvenient time, this person will say or do something to bring the relationship to an end.

Sometimes they die. Sometimes they walk away.
Sometimes they act up and force you to take a stand.
What we must realize is that our need has been met, our desire fulfilled, their work is done.
The prayer you sent up has been answered and now it is time to move on.

Some people come into your life for a SEASON, because your turn has come to share, grow or learn.
They bring you an experience of peace or make you laugh.

They may teach you something you have never done.
They usually give you an unbelievable amount of joy.
Believe it, it is real. But only for a season.

LIFETIME relationships teach you lifetime lessons, things you must build upon in order to have a solid emotional foundation.
Your job is to accept the lesson, love the person and put what you have learned to use in all other relationships and areas of your life.
It is said that love is blind but friendship is clairvoyant.

Thank you for being a part of my life, whether you were a reason, a season or a lifetime.
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