A friend was planning a visit to Japan. lt would be his first visit, and he was a little anxious because he couldn't speak Japanese. How would he communicate with the people he came in contact with?
Since most taxi drivers do not speak English, someone suggested that it might be a good idea to carry with him something bearing the name of the hotel at which he would be staying written in Japanese.
There is a wonderful story about a group of military leaders who succeeded in building a super computer that was able to solve any problem--large or small, strategic or tactical. These military leaders assembled in front of the new machine for a demonstration. The engineer conducting the demonstration instructed these officers to feed a difficult tactical problem into it. The military leaders proceeded to describe a hypothetical situation to the computer and then asked the pivotal question: attack or retreat? This enormous super computer hummed away for an hour and then printed out its one-word answer . . . YES.
The generals looked at each other, some what stupefied. Finally one of them submits a second request to the computer: YES WHAT? Instantly the computer responded: YES, SIR.
We remember today Saints Peter and Paul who guided the early church just after the time of Jesus. Both died as martyrs for the faith in Rome, in the early 60’s, just thirty years after the death of Jesus.
Who among us has not experienced spiritual blindness in one form or another?
When we put ourselves before others, we are blind.
When we hold grudges and refuse to forgive, we are blind.
When we do what is easy instead of what is right, we are blind.
As children we all had to study for and take a "vocabulary tests" - learning a new list of words, their spelling and definitions, every week. As we continued on in school, read more books and studied more subjects, our vocabulary naturally expanded.
The great thing and the hard thing about a truly "living language"; like English, is that it is always changing, adopting, adapting, and adding new words, new concepts, new elements.
How many words do you use in everyday discussions in 2014 that a few years ago would have had no meaning whatsoever? When did you first learn to speak "coffee"; so that you could communicate your beverage choice with the barista. Phrases such as "venti, black-eye, half-cap, mocha frappuchino"; that would have been complete gibberish a couple decades ago now come tripping off the tongue without need for an interpreter.
