REFLECTIONS ON LIFE

1 Kings 3:16-28   Contemporary English Version (CEV) Solomon Makes a Difficult Decision 16  One day two women came to King Solomon,  17  and one of them said: Your Majesty, this woman and I live in the same house. Not long ago my baby was born at home,  18  and three days later her baby was born. Nobody else was there with us. 19  One night while we were all asleep, she rolled over on her baby, and he died.  20  Then while I was still asleep, she got up and took my son out of my bed. She put him in her bed, then she put her dead baby next to me. 21  In the morning when I got up to feed my son, I saw that he was dead. But when I looked at him in the light, I knew he wasn’t my son. 22  “No!” the other woman shouted. “He was your son. My baby is alive!” “The dead baby is yours,” the first woman yelled. “Mine is alive!” They argued back and forth in front of Solomon,  23  until finally he said, “Both ...

I got home one night and, as my wife served dinner, I held her hand and said,  “I want a divorce.”  She didn’t seem to be annoyed by my words. Instead, she softly asked me why. I avoided the question, and this made her angry. She threw down the chopsticks and shouted, “You are not a man!” We didn’t talk to each other that night. She was weeping. I knew she wanted to find out what had happened to our marriage, but I could hardly give her a satisfactory answer; I had lost my heart to my lover. I didn’t love her anymore. I just pitied her! With a deep sense of guilt, I drafted a divorce agreement stating that she could keep the house, the car, and a 30% share of my company. She glanced at it and tore it to pieces. The woman who had spent ten years of her life with me had become a stranger. I felt sorry for her wasted time, resources and energy, but I could not take back what I had said. She finally cried loudly in front of me, which was what I had expected to see in the fi...

A long time ago, before the world was created and humans set foot on it for the first time, virtues and vices floated around and were bored, not knowing what to do. One day, all the vices and virtues were gathered together and were more bored than ever.  Suddenly, Ingenious came up with an idea: "Let's play hide and seek!" All of them liked the idea and immediately Madness shouted: "I want to count, I want to count!" And since nobody was crazy enough to want to seek Madness, all the others agreed. Madness leaned against a tree and started to count: "One, two, three..."  As Madness counted, the vices and virtues went hiding. Tenderness hung itself on the horn of the moon, Treason hid in a pile of garbage. Fondness curled up between the clouds and Passion went to the centre of the earth. Lie said that it would hide under a stone, but hid at the bottom of the lake, whilst Avarice entered a sack that he ended up breaking. And Madness continued to co...

One afternoon, Socrates was standing outside the gates of Athens when he noticed a traveller who had been staring at him for a long time. Socrates asked the man why he had come to Athens. “I am thinking of moving to Athens”, the man said. “What is it like to live here?” He added. Socrates looked at him. “First, would you tell me what it was like in your home city?” The man replied: “Oh, it was awful. Everyone stabs you in the back and wants to steal money from you” Frowning, Socrates told him: “Well, you will find the same thing here. I suggest you go somewhere else” Socrates was standing there a few hours more when another man approached him. This man too had just arrived in Athens and was considering moving to the city. He also asked Socrates, “Can you tell me what it is like to live here?” Socrates asked, “First, would you tell me what it was like to live there where you come from?” “Where I come from, all the people work together and help each other”...