Category: people

Connectedness

[photo from istock.com]
Sometimes, no matter how you avoid it, it will still happen. ‘It’ can be anything. Human connections, for example. You don’t get to choose who you meet, who your parents are, who your siblings are. Those are already pre-arranged for you, whether you like it or not. You can choose who to be friends with, but you can’t help being acquainted with people who come along your way. Some acquaintances can be brief and temporary, but once you know someone, you can’t undo that (unless you forget them in time, that is). Which brings me to this point: whatever you do or say to others, there will be consequences, regardless of it being significant or otherwise. It may be a few encouraging words, but it may be life-transforming to the person on the receiving end. Or it may be some hurtful words that came out unintentionally, yet was taken seriously and forever scarred the person listening to it. Every day we say and/or do thousands of things to countless people around us, but we don’t know what impact it has on them. Dispose the banana skin on the floor after you ate it, and some construction worker may step on it and break his back, causing him to be paralyzed and be forever bed-bound, and consequently causes him to lose his job. And who knows what may happen after that? Without insurance, his family may starve. Wife may leave him; daughter left school to take care of him, etc. etc. All this because of a reckless behavior of a person who didn’t put much thought in his/her action. Not that this will inevitably happen everytime someone tosses a banana skin on the ground, but point is, there is always a cascade effect to everything we do. It’s just not always obvious or visible. 
There’s a Chinese saying that goes, “Think thrice before you do anything”. It’s definitely good advice that everyone should heed.

The Pricetag of A Human Life

Yesterday afternoon during lunch with colleague, she pointed out there’s been quite a number of bodies found in water (here in Singapore). There’s the maid in the water tank of a HDB flat; there’s the half-body found in Bedok reservoir; and there’s the body floating in Singapore River. Are there any others? I can’t remember.

Unless someone invented an immortal pill, death is something everyone has to go through. It’s nothing new, but there is something about it that bothers me — it’s how the living regards the dead that bemuses me, to a certain extent. I say “to a certain extent” because I can understand the “why”, but I question the validity of it.

That which bemuses me, is this: why do people feel so deeply for a celebrity’s death (like MJ, Princess D, etc. you get the drift) and yet can feel so much lesser, comparatively, if it’s “just” an unknown person that they somewhat knew but weren’t close with? Is this person “just” another person because he or she wasn’t famous enough to be known and remembered by a large enough group? Suppose all things are equal, the difference of reactions towards the two dead due to their status/level of fame (or the lack thereof) is what gets under my skin (albeit just a tiny bit, it’s there nonetheless).

So what? You may ask. Yes, indeed. So what if people react to the two dead people differently? Why did it irk me? They’re dead anyway, it wouldn’t make any difference to them.

Perhaps, you’re right. But I guess, to me, this indirectly reflects how we regard life, how we give different people a label of how much they’re worth – both in general, as in the case of celebrities; and to us, in the case of our daily lives. In fact, how we view the dead is not too far of from how we treat the living.

Observe your surroundings, and you’ll know what I mean. We’re all biased. That’s usually fine, because we’re all imperfect, but that doesn’t give us an excuse to mistreat or disrespect others.

Just something to think about. Maybe, just maybe, it may change how you behave to the stranger next to you.

Labor Day Weekend in Baltimore

ask me now and i’ll tell you i seriously have no recall of how my July and August passed by. the conscious mind of course will tell you it was all work work work. FDA audit at work gave all of us loads of stress but we couldn’t really do “real” work. after the audit is when the real suffering began- we had to catch up with clients’ orders; all the testings were backlogged and everyone worked over time for as much as we’re allowed to. even now, and we’re still sort of behind. not as bad, but still. that is my official excuse of not blogging for the past few months hahaha. but no, really, it was a lot of work, and when i had free time, all i want to do is just sleep. or hang out with friends.

so on labor day weekend, first weekend of September, S invited me to her sis’ house in the east coast and i took it without much thought. i decided i deserved a break from this hectic work-life. it was well worth the trip, for i met the cutest little princess with almond eyes and am forever smitten by her. :))

look at her! so cute i wanna bite her. 😛

good genes run in the family. 😉
K and princess.

princess’ brother, smartest boy i’ve ever met. 
first day he saw us he told us all about dinosaurs and bombarded us with big names. i felt so stupid after! 😛

mr. cho, aka our seanie boy, who’s studying in my dream school right now. 🙂
oh and of course- the good food. Ethiopian.
barbeque-ing satay! 🙂
hehe.
ze dream school’s hospital.
quack.
where politicians congregate and decide how we should live our lives.
where the commander in chief resides. the oh-so-famous 1600 pennsylvania ave.
world war II memorial. where a bird shat on me. -____-||

didn’t do much over there, but it was fun to play with kids, and not having to worry if i’ll be late for work the next day. will need to go back to Washington DC cuz i barely got to see anything. some other time, definitely.