In children there is no guile

Post 8 Children speak their minds

Children have sweet and guileless nature and they are not deceitful or cunning. It is a joy talking to them because they are naïve and call a spade a spade. Generally children do not twist and turn their words nor add inflammatory details to a story.

A kindergarten teacher asked those who had stayed in a hotel before to put up their hands. A boy quickly raised his hand and proudly said that he had stayed in a hotel near his house. When asked why the need to stay in a hotel so near the house, the boy said, “You see my father quarrelled with my mother that night. After that my father asked me to pack my clothes and follow him to…”

A friend of mine was born two years before the Japanese occupation in the then Malaya (now Malaysia) in the 1940s. Life during the three-and-a-half years of the Japanese rule was tough and food was scarce. Many people had to live on wild roots and sweet potatoes. One day my friend related to his two pre-school children, who were enjoying their fried chicken at an eating outlet, how difficult life was when he was a boy. When the children heard that their father had to eat rice served only with sauce at times, they said with one voice, “Daddy, don’t bluff.”

My five-year-old granddaughter saw her mother reading a book and wanted to have a look at it. When told that the book was written by her grandfather, she asked to have a look at it and excitedly flipped through the book before commenting, “Is this book written by grandpa? It is not grandpa’s handwriting! How does he know how to spell so many words?”

Children indeed speak their minds and do not mince their words. They are unpretentious.


25 August 2009

Lessons from the dog and the frogs

Post 7 There is always something special in a person


A trader was selling a pile of tiger bones by the road side surrounded by curious bystanders. There was an endless discussion on whether the bones were really that of a tiger. The trader was trying his best to convince the crowd. At that time, an old man came and inspected the bones. He then told the trader that he had to go back to his house a stone’s throw away, and call his teacher to come and check the bones.

When the old man came back to the scene, the crowd was surprised that a dog was brought along. The dog with its keen sense of smell scented about the bones. Suddenly the dog shuddered and urinated. The crowd was very surprised at the reaction of the dog towards the bones.

The old man immediately told the amazing crowd that the bones were those of a tiger. The involuntary urination occurred because the dog was frightened of the tiger bones. The dog had the instinct and ability to differentiate the tiger bones from other bones. It had the special gift which its master, the old man, did not have. In this case, no DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) test was needed to find out the authenticity of the tiger bones. The dog could do it just by smelling them. This also explains why many wild animals hunt by scent.


In another instance, we may remember the gigantic earthquake that struck Sichuan province in China on Monday, 12 May 2008 and killed tens of thousands of people. A few days before the earthquake, unusual swarms of frogs could be seen roaming the streets of cities in the area. This prompted many people to believe that the abnormal behaviour of the frogs had signified an imminent major natural disaster. Unfortunately, this omen was not taken seriously by the authority concerned to forewarn the public. The frogs had sent a very clear signal of an imminent disaster.

Thus, the lesson which we can learn from the dog and the frogs is that they have inborn talents. Similarly there is always an innate ability in a person which makes him or her special, be it the innate sense of fun, innate kindness or a special talent.


18 August 2009

Methods Matter

Post 6 To collect firewood, look at the terrains of the mountain;
To cut firewood, look at its features.

When a woodcutter wants to collect firewood, he needs to survey the terrains of the mountain to see whether the mountain is rough, smooth, easy or difficult to move across. He has to find out how best to collect the firewood from the mountain with minimum effort. He looks at the whole picture first. When he is about to cut the firewood, he has to look at its features to figure out the correct way to cut it. He now has to look at the parts of the firewood.

An emperor was amazed at the way a master butcher slaughtered an ox, and wanted to know how he could do so with such excellent skills. The master butcher explained that his skills were acquired through many years of observation and hard work. Initially when he worked, he only saw before him individual oxen. After three years of practice, however, he saw no more whole oxen but just the sum total of their muscles, tendons and bones.

In a delicate situation where tendons and bones meet, the master butcher said that he would just gently apply his blade on the key joint and the part would then fall like crumbling earth. This Chinese idiom, Seeing no ox as whole, inspires us to study and work efficiently. Excellence in performance comes from hard work, and knowing how best things can be done.

Learn from the woodcutter who looks at the holistic view in collecting firewood and the details in cutting it. He looks at whole and at parts. Learn also from the master butcher whose skills come from observation and diligent work. Both the woodcutter and the master butcher have methods in doing things.

11 August 2009

Waste not, want not

Post 5 Be thrifty even in days of abundance

If you avoid extravagance, you will avoid poverty. Waste not, want not, therefore advises us to be thrifty. Unfinished food is often either discarded after meals or kept in the refrigerator sometimes only to be forgotten and to be thrown away. This is a waste of money. It also does not justify the use of valuable resources in producing the food. Ironically there are still billion of people around the world, who are undernourished and go to sleep hungry. Always count your blessings that you are not in want.

There is a Chinese saying, Behind the vermilion gates meat and wine go to waste while out on the road lie the bones of those frozen to death. The vermilion gates are red-lacquered doors of wealthy homes. Can you visualise the contrast between extravagance and poverty within and without the large, impressive and luxurious house. The rich and the poor are living in two different worlds and lifestyles.

An emperor was informed by his prime minister that there were demonstrations all over the country. The people were hungry because of famine. The emperor then asked the prime minister, “If they are hungry and have no rice to eat, why don’t they eat meat?” The emperor was divorced from the reality of life.

A person who is born into a well-to-do family is said to have been born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Financially he is better off than his peers whose parents are not as wealthy as his. Nevertheless, his character must still be nurtured through diligence, perseverance, and life experiences. His well-to-do social-economic background can be a double-edged sword. It may be an added advantage to him because he has the means to do many things; or it may be a hindrance to him because he may be too dependent on others and would not be able to stand on his own two feet. What he needs to do is to make good use of his slight edge to further improve what he already has.

If a person happens to be born into a poor family, he must remember what Benjamin Franklin, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States of America had said, “Having been poor is no shame, but being ashamed of it, is.” There is nothing to be ashamed of if a person is poor. He can reverse that situation by having an attitudinal change. When he studies and works diligently, blames no one for the situation he is in, and believes that there is no free lunch in the world, he can also be rich one day. Since he has been poor before, he will truly understand the value of money and hard work. Waste not, want not, will then become more meaningful to him.

In modern days people like to frequent food outlets with delightfully peaceful ambiences. They have the means to enjoy and relax with their friends there. However, there were times that I noticed some customers who left without finishing a considerable portion of their orders. They had shown in public the weakness in their character. In contrast my 83 year-old brother-in-law who is a believer of ‘waste not, want not’, eats up every grain of rice in his bowl. This is frugality personified.

The following adage which I learnt in the primary school is now translated from Chinese into English for you to ponder on:

“Who would have thought that the meal on a plate,
Has each grain the fruit of arduous labour?”

4 August 2009