Back to School

Today brought back memories of secondary school. First was in Salvation History class, Msgr Vaz was explaining to us how we read Holy Scripture, and how we have to understand the text in it's context, the different literary forms that the writers used - poetry, narrative, parables..., and who the author was, who were the audience, what was the situation of the time. I couldn't but help thinking back to literature back in school. How the teacher kept telling us that we need to know what came before and after the passage, what the author was thinking, what he meant. And I can still remember telling my lit teacher in sec 4 when I happily dropped the subject,

"Sir, I enjoy reading books, but I can't analyse and speculate what the author was thinking/doing/meaning at the time he wrote it."

Well looks like that statment is going to come back and bite me in the ass, just like my other statement of not studying anymore after my degree ;Þ But I guess now I do have an added advantage, the God element. I see purpose in understanding the background of the text, to learn the meaning, and application of God' Word. Hopefully that newfound motivation carries to Greek and Latin. Beginning to have some renewed interest in mandarin, see lots of use for it in the future.

The other thing that brought me back to school days was when I went jogging to 24th Ave (Yes, today is my first day jogging). I lasted only 5 mins, then had to stop and walk. Anyway, I walked to the old MOE campsite at Punggol 24th Ave, and the whole campsite has "disappeared". The buildings, toilets, obstacle course have all been removed, and the campsite, fence and gate have been swallowed back by the jungle. Walking past the place, brought back many fun memories, of my own sec 2 camp, and the many following ones that we came back to help. Wonder where Marists have their sec 2 camp now?

Well for those of you reading this who are still in school, cherish those moments, which reminds me, I have to also remember to cherish these moments here. The fun and the not so fun ones. And oh yah, try to find God in your studies, it helps if you can see how it can help you spread the Good News, and make the world a better place. Especially lit, you never know when God will call you to study scripture ;Þ