Tuesday, November 29, 2011

“More is thy due than more than all can pay “

Post 120 Eternally grateful

"More is thy due than more than all can pay" is taken from Macbeth, a play by William Shakespeare about a regicide or the killing of King Duncan, and its aftermath. This is a favourite metaphor of a close relative of mine who studied this during his literature class in a secondary school in the early 1960s. Each time he said to his young listeners, they would automatically ask him to repeat and explain the metaphor. He would then tell them that he owed them too much and that not all combined could pay for it. A person is eternally grateful to the one who has helped him when "more is thy due than more than all can pay".

In a materialistic world, people tend to be more individualistic and less grateful to those who have rendered them help. Some may even go to the extent of returning good for evil. In a society where there is moral disorder, a person who remembers and knows how to repay his benefactors is to be commended. As for children what is of paramount importance is that they should not forsake their parents who are old and weak. What goes around comes around. Children will naturally be old parents one day. How they treat their parents will be how their own children will treat them.

It is more blessed to give than to receive.

29 November 2011

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

It is time to take it slow

Post 119 Senior Citizens

My 70- year-old friend told me that he was in a great deal of pain again when he hurt his muscle in his back a few days ago. As compared to the previous injury, it was really bad this time. He had just put some fruits in the refrigerator, closed the door and turned to walk away when a crippling pain shot right across his lower back. Every step he took after that was agony. He jokingly said that the incident was the joy of old age, never a moment without some ailments tailing. Throughout the night he had to keep a hot water bottle on the affected area to ease the stabbing pain. This is all too familiar to senior citizens who are prone to injury.

As a senior citizen myself, I have learnt to take things at a slower pace. I have scaled down the number of things to be done each day so that I need not have to rush to finish the work. There is no point rushing for time and risk falling. Senior citizens must avoid slip and fall injuries at all cost. I have seen a few seniors who fell and fractured their brittle bones and had to be sidelined for active life.

Let the young ones do the running!

22 November 2011

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Two great pioneer climbers

Post 118 One can be what one wants to be

In 1962 which is almost fifty years ago, I sat for a national examination. In the English language paper was a passage on two pioneer climbers, of which candidates were required to do a summary of it. I liked what I was reading and was impressed by these extraordinary nature lovers: Sir Edmund Hillary, a mountain climber from New Zealand and his Nepalese Sherpa guide Tenzing Norgay.

They were the first humans to reach the highest point on Earth: the summit of Mount Everest in the Himalayas on 29 May 1953. Indeed they are classic examples of people with intra-personal intelligence. They knew what they wanted in life and strived to achieve their goals regardless of obstacles.

I was to be pleasantly surprised many years later to read of another feat by the sons of the great climbers. The son of Sir Edmund Hillary, Peter, also successfully scaled the summit for the first time in 1990. In April 2003, Peter and Jamling Tenzing Norgay, the son of Tenzing, climbed Everest as part of a 50th anniversary celebration. Undoubtedly both of them, together with their fathers, belong to the same category of people who are self-smart.

I took part in the Annual Penang Hill Climb Competition of my former school, Chung Ling High School in 1959 when I was in Form One. The school doctor examined me after I had completed a 400-metre run together with potential participants, and said I could give it a try. I reached the top of the hill just before the prize giving ceremony was to be held.

15 November 2011

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Schooling can be fun

Post 117 Be active in co-curricular activities

When I was in primary school in the 1950s, I was carefree and enjoyed my schooling.There was not much homework because I finished it during school hours.Tuition was alien to me and my classmates.

When I happened to meet up with my friend at a house party recently, I casually asked his grandson, a primary three pupil, whether he liked to go to school. He told me school would be fun if there was no homework. If given a chance, he would have preferred to stay at home and play. As a retired educationist, I believe that pupils should be active in school co-curricular activities to make schooling more interesting. They will turn out to be of better character than 'bookworms'.

What is more important is that the relationship between teachers and pupils and among classmates will also be enhanced through co-curricular activities. The traditional practice of teachers cancelling outdoor activities to give way to revision for tests and examinations on learning subjects ought to be discouraged.

8 November 2011

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

The study of the Thick and the Black

Post 116 The crooked pot mender

I took out one of my favourite books to read the other day and found one paragraph which I thought should be shared here. The book is titled ‘The study of the Thick and the Black’. Li Zongwu (李宗吾1880 -1943) wrote this very popular cynical book in 1912 depicting the historical Chinese heroes as having thick skin and black heart to be successful.

However, there are people who may not subscribe to Li’s statement and consider the reading of this book as an anti-climax to achieving a harmonious society. Nevertheless there are also others who feel that the book actually mirrors the basic instinct of human beings who veneer their ‘thick face and black heart’ with a thin layer of integrity. Lin Yutang (1895 -1976), a Harvard scholar and an authority on China and Chinese culture, commented that scholars who had read Chinese and foreign books widely but had yet to read this book, were to regard this lost opportunity as really a matter for regret.

When the rice pot was leaking, a person was called to mend it. After scrapping the bottom of the pot with an iron scrapper, the man told the owner of the rice pot to go and get fire because he wanted to smoke. As the owner turned his back, the mender used a hammer to knock at the pot lightly to lengthen the existing crack. He then told the returning owner while pointing at the crack, “Your cooking pot has a long crack and it was covered with a layer of oil. The hidden crack could only be seen when the pot is scrapped and more nails are needed for the repair work.” The owner had a closer look at the crack and said surprisingly, “You are right! You are right! If I have not called you today, this pot could have become useless.” When the pot was mended, both the owner and the mender were happy to part each other.

When you send you car for repairs, make sure you go to the mechanics you trust.

1 November 2011