Love Actually.. is all around..

Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. General opinion's starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don't see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often, it's not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it's always there - fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. When the planes hit the Twin Towers, as far as I know, none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge - they were all messages of love. If you look for it, I've got a sneaking suspicion... love actually is all around. 

The above quote from the movie "Love Actually" is so true. Today, I went to the airport to pick up one of our senior pastors, Ravi Raj who had come to visit our ailing pastor Christopher. I always loved visiting the airport. I love the whole atmosphere in an airport.. with so many people greeting each other. Some bidding goodbye's and some welcoming other back home. Young students returning from overseas, businessmen talking on their phones and chalking out their next move, grandparents visiting their grand kids, young couples excited about their honeymoon and their time they look forward to spend together.... you find all kinds of people. And so true to the above quote, not once do you see an air of hate in the atmosphere. I really think if you ever feel life sucks, or not worth living, take a walk to the nearest airport and that will change your perspective towards it.

il·lu·sion

Image Courtesy : Might Optical Illusions

il·lu·sion

[ih-loo-zhuhn]

–noun

1. something that deceives by producing a false or misleadingimpression of reality.

2. the state or condition of being deceived; misapprehension.

3. an instance of being deceived.

Being an IT Geek it sometimes irritates me when I find people are so ignorant about Technology and how are not easy to a change. A simple example would be, how about 80% of the world's population is still stuck onto windows when there are Open Source Operating Systems like Linux available for free of cost. Linux for most of the times was known as a Geek's Operating Systems, but of recent (since 2004) has developed and launched Desktop versions of it, which are more easy to operate than Windows Operating Systems. But yet many choose to purchase it for a price. So then I began to study the human behavior and this is what I found.

Our human brain likes anything that is appealing to the eyes. It could be colorful, smooth, shining, glittering, flashing... etc.. And that's what exactly Microsoft provided the world with.. here is a screenshot from the last decade - popular Windows XP Operating System.

Windows XP Professional

Image Courtesy: Open Book Project

And here is a Linux Screenshots from the last decade...

Mandrake Linux - Circa 1998

Image Courtesy - Maximum PC

If you look closely you will see that the Windows XP screenshot looks more appealing than the Mandrake Linux screenshot. But not many people understand the importance of an Open Source Program. Microsoft's windows is a closed source program, which means first of all its not free of cost, secondly you have no right to modify the software to suit your requirement. You have to be satisfied with what you have purchased. On the contrary with a Linux OS, you have the right to add/remove/modify anything in the OS to suit your requirement and its free of Cost, Cos the Linux community believes that every person has the right to access Technology, and they should not be charged a price to do so.

Now, as I was thinking bout it, I realized its not different in the spiritual realm. We all know a Christian walk is a walk through the narrow path, while the world provides us with quite a wider path with lot of choices. But it's pretty much the same as the above example of the Operating Systems. Our Christian walk might look quite boring and bland but that's the real free world we are living in. The broader path definitely looks greener but its full of bondages. We don't realize that we are under the bondage as we are blinded by the glitters of the world.

Image Courtesy - Robert Donsker Photograhy