http://www.rohanwickramaratne.wordpress.com/

Food for Thought, Colombo, Colombo (2025)

14/07/2024

🔴Get Rid of the Weight, Will You?💚

It’s a Sin - Song by Pet Shop Boys

When I look back upon my life
It's always with a sense of shame
I've always been the one to blame
For everything I long to do

No matter when or where or who
Has one thing in common too
It's a, it's a, it's a, it's a sin
It's a sin

Everything I've ever done
Everything I ever do
Every place I've ever been
Everywhere I'm going to

It's a sin
At school they taught me how to be
So pure in thought and word and deed
They didn't quite succeed

Father forgive me
I tried not to do it
Turned over a new leaf
Then tore right through it
Whatever you taught me

I didn't believe it
Father, you fought me
'Cause I didn't care
And I still don't understand

So I look back upon my life
Forever with a sense of shame
I've always been the one to blame
For everything I long to do

It's a sin

Listening to this song , I could not help but wonder, how forthright they were/are about the weight we carry with us in this short period of life we have to live, if we are honest with ourselves., when the realization strike us – its our fault, that we are in this mess. Others have tried to make us keep to straight paths , but we have meandered away from the same.

Saint Paul in his writing to the Romans ,7 resonates this assessment of his own life when he says, to quote - So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? ‘ ………….So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature[d] a slave to the law of sin. Unquote.

There it is. A man who has examined his own life, measured it with the “Goodness” that is evident outside of him, assess himself.

Oh-oh, yes, I'm the great pretender
Pretending that I'm doing well
My need is such, I pretend too much
I'm lonely, but no one can tell

Oh-oh, yes, I'm the great pretender
Adrift in a world of my own
I played the game but to my real shame
You've left me to grieve all alone

Too real is this feeling of make-believe
Too real when I feel what my heart can't conceal
(Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh)

Yes, I'm the great pretender
Just laughin' and gay like a clown
I seem to be what I'm not, you see
I'm wearing my heart like a crown
Pretending that you're still around –

The Platters in the song “The Great Pretender’ say the above, reflecting our true selves at times when we look in.

Or Listen to Joni Mitchell sing Both Sides now.

Rows and floes of angel hair
And ice cream castles in the air
And feather canyons everywhere
Looked at clouds that way

… But now they only block the sun
They rain and they snow on everyone
So many things I would have done
But clouds got in my way

… I've looked at clouds from both sides now
From up and down and still somehow
It's cloud illusions I recall
I really don't know clouds at all

… Moons and Junes and Ferris wheels
The dizzy dancing way that you feel
As every fairy tale comes real
I've looked at love that way

… But now it's just another show
And you leave 'em laughing when you go
And if you care, don't let them know
Don't give yourself away

… I've looked at love from both sides now
From give and take and still somehow
It's love's illusions that I recall
I really don't know love
I really don't know love at all

… Tears and fears and feeling proud
To say, "I love you, " right out loud
Dreams and schemes and circus crowds
I've looked at life that way

… Oh, but now old friends, they're acting strange
And they shake their heads and they tell me that I've changed
Well, something's lost, but something's gained
In living every day

… I've looked at life from both sides now
From win and lose and still somehow
It's life's illusions I recall
I really don't know life at all

… It's life's illusions that I recall
I really don't know life
I really don't know life at all

Then Apostle Paul gives us the solution in Roman 7 itself!!!

Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!

Continuing in Romans 8. Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” I may be a fool, but not a damn fool, not to accept this gift noh?!!!!!

14/07/2024

Temple S*x Workers

“What do you think that mothers do to ensure that their child is a member of the sports team of their school?” she asked.

Oh no! Here it comes I thought…..So I said “You tell, will you?”

“You will not believe this. The mothers sleep with the sports teachers in order to for this to happen!!

“What?” I exploded. “You must be joking.”

“I certainly am not” she said, her face red and twisted in disgust. “Ask around. You will be shocked as I was. And this is in the so called ‘Religious ’schools. Imagine, what they would do for their children so that they can boast about them oin society. I heard too that recently, because of this happening, a school brought in a rule that parents can come into the premises of the school only during a specific hour. These are the famous schools, those that were established before the international school craze kicked in – created mostly to send their kids abroad.

They pay money to their fellow students to perform s*x during school hours too.” she said.

One parent said this out loud, something that had happened to her child and sheepishly quite a few joined in agreeing. They were to meet the heads of these schools in the very near future they said.

“But hear this too. It was shocking to hear about the behaviour of the children in the international schools recently. Yesterday an undergraduate came to us and he told us things that made us see red. He said his brother who studies in one of these schools had told him about the wild parties these children/adults have with drugs galore, drink, sensuous music, girls boys having free s*x, single, double treble, …..putting the Roman or**es to shame. It was so sad to hear that this is what children are doing because of the access to internet, the lots of free time that exposes them to this ‘Americanized’ lifestyle as it was put.”

“Children in a well-known school, are ‘Forced’ to ‘observe’ other religious ‘Practices’ to give the message of acceptance and tolerance. And information about LGBTQ community etc. has been included in the teaching curriculum for even small kids. These are all things I have heard.

While some would think that it is a way to make our kids – key word for me is kids – to be able to bite on things which they need to know when they are adults, others will differ. Yesterday a girl was asked whether she went through failure in school and she said “Yes, failing the grade five scholarship exam!!!. They don’t know about real life.”

Someone else said, ”They appoint school prefects – (the parents dream for their children to become prefects)- who are half-baked students who discipline their fellow students, with sadistic pleasure, unmercifully harassing their fellow students according to their whims and fancies – I should know because I was a school prefect – whilst the principals/headmasters/Wardens lead cushy lives in their plush offices”

So, whilst pointing fingers to the happenings in international schools, we should be aware that the well-known private schools are the same or worse noh? Whose fault is it anyway?

Education sans Ethics is the problem.

14/07/2024

Arousal

“What would he know about my situation?”

“What on earth are you talking about?”

“About feelings for each other in a boy and girl relationship.”

“Who would not know?”

“Your Champion who you say, walked this earth, and who you follow, implicitly.”

“Why would he not?”

“He had no girlfriend. He walked with men and women without having the feelings we have – boy and girl.”

“Oi. Why this topic suddenly?”

“This is not sudden. You rub in the fact that you have been called to this institution to follow a certain course of study for four years and in these years, you should concentrate only on finishing that without having affairs noh? You say because, your reason to be here is to live out the Characteristics of your so-called ‘God’ you believe in, am I right?”

“Yes, I believe so. I believe that my Champion, as you put him, has asked me here to test whether the foundations that I have in Him, stands the test of time; has logic to my faith and if I am called to, to share this message with those of you who are my friends, because knowing this ‘Champion’ has given me a reason to live and to die in this temporary time called ‘Life’.”

“There you go. All these grandiose words about you and your champion. But unfortunately, he does know about broken hearts in love affairs, the pain and the sorrow we go through when broken or the longing with which we wait until we are together in marriage, and its bliss, noh? Thirty-three years he lived but what did he know, eh? “

“This where you are wrong my friend. To be “Fully-Man” means he would have felt our feelings one hundred percent, much more than what we are facing. He would have feelings, felt totally the let’s say the pain of a broken relationship or a longing for a perfect partner, would he have not? To put crudely, yes, certainly, He would have been aroused in the presence of women. But He must have had absolute control of himself in spite of the totality of feelings he had.”

“So why the hell did he not have one? “

“Oh! The reason was simple. He had a mission in his life. He lived to fulfil it. It is said that he set his face like flint**, to finish the work he came to do. He had a mission and, I am in this institution to do the same, not worrying about my future wants – higher studies, perfect marriage partner, going abroad as all others do, for ‘betterment’ of life, and so on. I believe he cries when I am crying, joyful when I am joyful, and knowing this I am truly freed. So, tell him about your state, even in your disbelief in my Champion, at least because you know me noh, warts and all, because He understands you?

**Isaiah 50, Luke 9:51

14/07/2024

In All Its Glory!!!

“Aloneness is different to loneliness, is it?”

“A good word for aloneness is solitude. You can never miss the implications that come with it.”

“What implications?”

“A photographer and I had a chat, about linear actions. “

“Linear?”

“Yes. Let’s say you see a beautiful flower. The automatic response of this generation is to pull out your phone and ‘shoot’ it and send to people for “Ooohs” and “Aaaahs” noh?”

“Yes.”

“That action I call ‘linear.’ In doing so, you miss a whole world of the flower.”

“Miss the world of the flower? What nonsense! How do I miss?”

“You put the glory of the world of the flower inside a linear frame and then miss the wood for the trees; you do not notice what is important about the thing as a whole. You miss seeing the glory behind it; miss the reality and the blessing that comes by observing, seeing, looking, pondering, ‘wasting time ‘looking at the flower.”

“What?”

“Yes. You miss the blessing you can get from it by missing seeing the flower as you should, mouthing your scriptures, wanting desperately for me to follow your God.”

“Er…..”

“How do you add the blessing that your God gives you, commanded you to do, by looking at a wildflower, let’s say through a lens of a camera, when what he desires is that you, to sit down and view the flower as He Himself sees it, created for Himself, but including you by His grace to teach you a valuable lesson eh? He does it when you behold the flower in its surroundings, with you dwelling on it in SOLITUDE.”

“Oh, I get it. Solitude is the time I have when I stop messing around with screens, distracted by people, from things that ‘un-quiet’ me and meditate with my eyes upon the flower, remembering the words of the command “Look at the flowers ….etc. etc. noh? So, solitude is different to being lonely. Loneliness would only lead me to depression noh!, and that’s what you were getting me to do, Behold a moment in all its glory with the greatest pieces of equipment God has given me, ‘ each ‘instrument’ is so wonderful – my technicolour eyes, my dynamic sound ears, my super-taster tongue, my super-sensitive skin, and my houndlike nose….heh! heh!”

“Dead right. Be non-linear and think whole just like a woman does, as against what most men do….heh! heh!”

08/07/2024

The End Game

‘What sort of miserable excuse of a man are you, to have done such thing?’

…..and any son of any father would have likely reacted to his own father in much the same manner at much the same age; You talk about man, I’ll give you man”

Page 78 Careless in Red, by Elizabeth George

An unaired conversation between a father and a son. The son had fallen off a cliff and dies, and the father has this conversation with himself about why his son would have climbed the cliff in wet weather – to prove to his father that he was man?

“Subconsciously, unconsciously or deliberately putting on pressure, to exhibit their child or children as successful, powerful, rich well connected, prosperous ideal offsprings exist in my family” said he in an attitude of a resigned demeanor.”

“Oh, do they? Why do you think that way?”

“Because they always talk about other people’s children especially about the children from our own relations. ‘Look at him or her? We need you to become like they or more, so that we can be proud. We spend so much on you for your studies, etc., etc.’ I am fearful of failure because if I do not get straight A’s they frown on me and make me look like s**t. Somedays I don’t remember to eat three meals a day, forego sleep, and just strive to make the top grade, to make my parents proud of me. They complain to others that I do not s spend my holidays relaxing, but it is because I struggle not to waste any time and instead further myself in order to please them.”

“What happens if you fail an exam?”

“Oh. I will never let that happen. I shudder to think about that because they are spending so much on me to study at this private university where I have to pay if I have to re-sit an exam. I dare not ask for this money. If I think I am not ready for an exam I go to a doctor and beg, I mean literally beg for a medical certificate (I hate to do, but I am compelled to do that, my dignity in pieces) I have become so obsessive about passing exams that I do not want anything or anyone to disturb me. My phone is broken but I do not intend in getting it repaired because it is a distraction for my studies.

I have become so obsessive that I hate to be a part of group project because I always feel they are the second best, and what I usually do is I do my personal thing and add the names of the group to make it look a group project, and I think my fellows won’t mind that also, because I am meticulous in my work.

I have actually become a zombie, and I cannot seem to escape this trap that my parents put me into “he sighed. “They believe in God and actually it seems like God is just a crutch to help me along to achieve their ends through me.”

This describes you? Describes anyone you know who is going through this situation? Seek help; ask others to intervene before it is too late noh?”

02/07/2024

A Canine Tale!!

“People are friendly towards me out of pity, not from wanting to be my friends, in spite of who I am, warts and all” she sobbed.

“What?”

“Yes” she reiterated. “They take pity on me, and show me they are my friends, because of my different appearance”

“I don’t think so.”

“No. I think they only feel sympathy.”

“Why do you feel like that?”

“Because they will hush their tones, stop their heated conversations to accommodate me and talk of nicer subjects, whether I want anything to eat or drink or a hug, and perhaps to say in other words, that I am someone to be mollycoddled, encouraged, comforted, cooed over etc. and I hate that.”

“Yes, I agree you must be feeling that…”

“Yes, yes I do. Why do they not have the same heated argument in front of me? Why do they think that just because I wear a collar to distinguish me from you all, and I am made different too you all, I need to be treated differently? Is it because I do not speak your lingo, or not having the same features as you do?”

“No, but it is important to show your true feelings for the other one to understand you, isn’t it?”

“But when I do, you try to quieten me down, and push my need to converse on that subject to a later hour or date? For example, I want to go out but, you try to hush me and put it for a later time, when you feel like. Don’t you? Do you know how I feel then eh?”

“I think I do, but sometimes, it is not the moment to listen to you, because IF we stop our conversations when you, you also might think that we do that out of a sympathetic feeling too, and then where are we? If we are only acknowledge your presence and continue as we were, then we are treating you as one of us noh? You also need to have the patience to wait your turn, IF we accept you as you are and not feel sorry because of your collar, which by the way shows that we love you and want you and claim you as our friend, an exclusive friend. Does that not make you feel loved and wanted eh?”

“You mean to say that this collar gives me all that? I do not need to be rid of this to be accepted by you, warts and all? It is a love band?”

“Yes! Yes! It is! Please remember, we keep you at our place because we love and care for you just as you are. We play games with you whenever we have time, or sometimes make time for you. Especially after dinner we play with you before you go to sleep, don’t we? We buy things for you to keep you happy. We take you to the doctor’s when we detect you need medication. We de-worm you along with us. We never raise our hand to you in anger. We do that, despite the fact that you don’t share our own features nor speak our lingo. Do you know that collar spells out all that eh?”

“Please, then never take my collar away.” she said and gave all of us a wet lick, wagging her tail nineteen to dozen!!

30/06/2024

A World of Our Own

Quote

He took some wine and thought about this. She worked on the salmon for a moment. He watched her. He finally said “That hardly sounds healthy. No one actually wants a parasite. I used to think that it’s only in films that we get the ideal men and women we are supposed to find- what do they call it? – soul mates with whom they march into the future, blissfully joined at the hip.”

She smiled. It seemed in spite of herself. “You know what I mean. You deserve someone who is willing and able to be one hundred per cent for you, open to you, accepting of you…..whatever you want to call it. I am not that person, and I don’t think I could be.”

Her declaration felt like the thinnest of rapier. It slid without effort under his skin, barely felt until the bleeding began.

Unquote From Just One Evil Act – Elizabeth George

One hundred percent is what caught my attention. The first paragraph of the quote, contains the word ‘Parasite’ and what the girl describes is a parasite, does she not?

How could any man or woman be to each other – one hundred percent, for, to and of, another? - I wondered. Is this the ideal marriage that one sees in films as the quotation, and is it real? Is this the dream world that boys ang girls have for themselves, and then run behind each other like starving people, - the boy and the girl tumbling into bed, enjoy the pleasuring of each other, and the next morning continue in this bliss for ever and ever – and suddenly when reality strikes them – life is not like that- they …….– I don’t =know what they will do?

Are we to be like this for each other? Blending ourselves fully into the life of the other or, do we agree to share our own worlds – our worlds that we have for ourselves, - our character, our pleasures, our habits, our dreams, our understanding of the world, and so on – to share with another to become partners? My world intersecting your world, NOT one hundred percent so that my uniqueness disappears. If so, we are describing a parasite, are we not?

So first and foremost, our task is to build a world of our own where we, most importantly, find who we are in the sight of, something or someone who gives us our true identity. For some of us we are nothing but – developed chimpanzees – and so we act like that in our society. Just like chimps. (This is called the” theory of ‘Nothing But- tery’, meaning we are nothing but…..)

I was discussing this with someone and she said “For me, someone gives me the identity of being a princess because I, with evidence to support my belief, believe in God, who is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

Thus, having my true identity established, I move onto build a world of my own. What about your own?”

In reply he said “I have five worlds of my own”. The first is my world with my spouse, the second with my cooking, the third with my reading, the fourth with birds – the feathered kind”!!! and the fifth is my world in my work-shed. “

He continued “In marriage, I agree to share these worlds with my spouse, as she does with hers. As you can understand it is impossible to share these worlds one hundred percent with her and vice versa. BUT because we have agreed on what is important – when my world impinges on hers, both our lives will sharpen each other – flesh sharpens flesh, to become like our Champion. God hears our cries to him saying I Love You Lord ‘and then he provides a partner, provides is a key word, and asks us to prove it in loving our partner, as He did for His enemies (John Chapter 3, Vese 16).

So, in a way, if that is marriage, better to have someone who understands God’s love noh? Easy to communicate ideas, live His values and exhibit His character as a couple, noh?”

27/06/2024

One Life; Is of Worth?

Quote
Finally, Hunter turned to him. “Do you recall what I said to you that day on my estate? Jobs are at risk. Jobs are at risk, lives are at risk.” He sounded Grotesquely sincere.

“It’s all policy to you, isn’t it?” Rebus said.” No right and wrong, legal and illegal, no fair and corrupt, just politics”

“Listen to yourself man” Sir Iain Hunter spat Who are you, some Old Testament prophet? What
gives you the right to hold the scales? He dug the tip of his umbrella into the ground, and waited for his breathing to ease. “If you’d look into your heart, you’d see we’re not on opposite sides.”

“But we are” Rebus said determinedly.

“If this ever became public. there’d be more than scandal- there’d be a crisis. Trust would be lost, overseas investors and corporations would turn away from Scotland. Don’t tell me you want that”

Rebus thought of Aiden Dalgety, busying himself with an endless wall- his only answer
to frustration and anger.” None of It’s worth a single human life” he said quietly.

“I think it is “Hunter said. “I really do think it is”

Rebus turned to walk away. Unquote

(Let It Bleed -Ian Rankin, Orion Fiction, Pages 318-319)

“Why are people so worried about one man? Who is he? He was a just another person. There are murders happening everywhere. I mean in the whole world? Why are you asking
about Lasantha? Who is Lasantha? What’s so important about him? He was just another person who wrote to the tabloids. Who is he? Why should I be concerned about that? Why are people worried about one man? Why should I be concerned about one man? He was criticizing all the past presidents and therefore any one of them could have killed him because he was criticizing more than just the present government.”

Quoting Gotabaya Rajapakse (former Defense Sec. of the Sri Lankan government under Mahinda Rajapakse.)

It may or may not be true about the affair but what matters is that the answer of the Defense Sec. is just as the same as what the government of the United States says about Jamal Khashoggi murdered by the Saudi rulers. All fingers point at the Saudi prince Muhammad bin Salman, but it seems the world has forgotten the murder. I think, such is our world and us, human beings. Tragedy strikes and we are shaken but after a while we are unsettled no more. It is a blessing too, especially to overcome grief over a loved one. For me, it is a blessing from God being able to overcome grief as time passes. Otherwise, we too may succumb to grief and never be whole again.

If this is so, why should we bother about one man or a woman? He or she may not have prominence at all in society, and perhaps treated as a dog in the streets, and still do they matter? Better off if they were got rid of, one might say, and of course it is just one person, whereas we need to think about the vast majority in the world, should we not?

Is the life of ONE important? Especially if he or she is your enemy?

So, I ask, is it worth asking our enemies who they think we truly are?

For me, an overwhelming “Yes”, even though I would run away from this as fast as I can because I do not want to see my real self, known by another, except for my Creator. The thing is this; unless we accept our real selves – stand entirely naked in front of the Creator – we will never attain “Release” from this earthly life when we meet death, when that day comes.

But most of all, the perpetrators of murder should realize that it is for one man or one woman that all religious teachers came and come about, because finally whether we accept or not our faith dictates our future as well as our present day living.

So beware, all who put aside human beings as just numbers, because if the greatest of religious teachers came for even one human being, and, if his or her departure from this world was caused by you, you will answer to Him, the Creator of humans, made in His image and likeness, the God of Justice and not just to the courts of Law and to those around you.

26/06/2024

Call Yours a Sacrifice? B******t

“And so what do you sacrifice? “ he asks the leader of the rebellion where they are fighting against a regime who makes slaves of their own people, to their own gain.

The reply: “Calm. Kindness. Kinship. Love. I’ve given up all chances at inner peace. I’ve made my mind a sunless space. I share my dreams with ghosts. I wake up every day to an equation I wrote fifteen years ago, for which there is one conclusion, I am damned for what I do. My anger, my ego, my unwillingness to yield, my eagerness to fight, they’ve set me on a path from which there is no escape I yearned to be a Saviour against injustice without contemplating the cost and by the time I looked down there was no longer any ground beneath my feet. What is my sacrifice? I am condemned to use the tools of my enemies to defeat them. I burn my decency for someone else’s future. I burn my life to make a sunrise that I know I’ll never see.”

(From the film Andor)

“Why do you attend your so called ‘church’ Sunday after Sunday?” he asked me. “To go back home feeling an inner calm, inner peace, after having a meaningful service inside?”

“Yes. What’s wrong in that? “There is nothing wrong in that at all” he said. We need that. But as a gathering of followers of your so called “Jesus” who fought against, I hear, Injustice, oppression, unfairness, rejection of the poor, the lonely ….etc. etc and your famous mantra about you are called to look after the widow, the homeless, the dregs of society, how could you go back to society, not feeling the same as the leader’s saying in the film,; in anger, in sadness, boiling in anger at the regime who has r***d your country eh?”

“What?”

“Yes. Is not your God wanting you, together, to fight for ‘Freedom” for the slaves? Breakdown evil structures and be replaced with the Godly? Not thinking of how with the aid of your so-called God to line your own pockets and get his help in moving our own family towards comfortable, easy environment, escape this ruination of this land and head for economically rich countries? Or vie for places of power in your own Christian community? I know you fellows. There is no difference between you people who seem to profess your champion’s downward mobility in becoming everyone’s slave wanting to be the first in your so-called heaven, and the upward mobility to be revered by people eh?”

“Stop shouting at me. Why do you always see the negative side of us? Do you not see the good we do eh?”

“ Huh. What good! Remember the day when you ‘forced ‘me to come to your ‘church’ and after the long torture of flipping through your mantra book, page after page, listening to a boring verbal tirade, all of you leaving me alone when you people went to taste your weekly dose of wine, I came out, and smiled at your people? Did anyone at least smile back? Nope. What an unfriendly crowd of babblers I told you noh?”

“Yerrs, but….”

“Yep. If you fellows can’t smile at a stranger, how do you think you can change the world eh? Or utter the words of that leader in the film? Have you sacrificed your Calmness. Kindness. Kinship. Love? Have you given up all chances at inner peace? Have you made your mind a sunless space? Do you share your dreams with ghosts? Do you wake up every day to an equation for which there is one conclusion, that you are damned for what you do? Does your anger, your unwillingness to yield, your eagerness to fight, set you on a path from which there is no escape? Do you yearn to be a saviour against injustice without contemplating the cost and when you look down there is no longer any ground beneath your feet? What is your sacrifice? Are you condemned to use the tools of this enemy to defeat them? Do you burn your decency for someone else’s future; burn your life to make a sunrise that you know you might never see

I am sorry to blast this at you but then you are the one who waxes eloquent about your God being in control and you have his power within you and a hope of everlasting life, and that is what He desires for all mankind noh?”

“Phew!!”

Food for Thought

14/07/2024

14/07/2024

14/07/2024

14/07/2024

08/07/2024

02/07/2024

30/06/2024

27/06/2024

26/06/2024

Address

Website

Alerts

Shortcuts

Share

Category