understand your soulz

At different stages of our life, friends come and go. Sometimes, even BFF at no longer around even when we wanted to as we move into courtship, marriage and setting up a family.  However, we make new ones along the way.  In my case, I felt the number of friends are almost constant at different stages in life.  A male friend might leave but another will come into your life. Someone passed away and a new character will appear. It is almost like we are programmed or it could be just our nature , personality and the limited time we had each day.  We choose to believe in the latter that the character decides the way we work, make friends and have fun.  Time to recap whomever that is important left and who came into your life. 

I attended a drama performance put up by my youngest and her team last Friday (KNOTS by Dunman High School EDS) We bought tickets and it was a Secondary School English Drama 'live' performance skits. She has been pouring countless days and nights into this whole act and she is the Exco of this English Drama Society (the stress level as a Chairperson, eeeeyyy) To cut things short, we were awed by the standard of the skits and plays. It can easily go into a long running performance schedule. Maybe next time. The quality and standard of the cast, the backstage, sound, lighting, props, dialogue, and coordination were beyond words.  I am really proud of how she and the team manage to stitch all of it together.  Well-Done! Kudos! I am truly blessed that both my girls can study without supervision and performed well under stress. Note to my girls, health is equally important, don't stress out and do what is happiest for yourself. 

In this meritocracy society (pertaining to Singapore), during my study era (about 30 years back), we were taught to be academically driven for the subjects taught. Though my parents didn't enforce the top scores, we were self-driven from the peer pressure and school teachers. I guess the teachers' intention were for our own good cos the next institution that we were going to enrol in depends a lot on how we fared (our results).  Starting from as young as Primary 3, scoring well 'move' us to Gifted Exchange Program (GEP). We need to go through a series of IQ questions on Maths and English, etc. Then we try for PSLE, then GCE 'O' Level (if our grades made it for Secondary School). Even in secondary school enrolment, there are SAP schools, IP schools, IB-schools, etc. Likewise, we move on to GCE 'A' Level or Diploma or NITEC, etc.  Every stage in our life, we need to be assessed academically. We need to fight for those exams that decide our fate.  I saw a l...

We make decisions all the time, good or bad, simple or complex, impromptu or deep thinking. Whatever decisions we made, it leads to certain feelings. Happy when we make it right, sad a bit when wrong. We try to use these experiences as basis for future same or similar situations. We learn.  However, is that decision that we made part of our thought process? Humans are known to be fickle minded, we are known to make mistakes, we are known to let our thoughts run wild (even with similar situations we encountered before). We always wanted to test the boundaries, try new things, new ideas, etc.  Coming back to the question, what if that decision that we made is actually a decision that had been decided. We live by the day thinking that we have the ability to make decisions but in fact, the path of your life has already been laid with all that 'decisions' that you think you made correctly.  Eerie?! Life is much bigger than we think. 

Paradox as it seems. I am convinced by logic. Reason with me and if it is reasonable, I will adhere.  On the flipside, I will be the impatient and angry guy if I know that other party is clearly wrong or has no reason to do what he/she did.  I clearly remembered a Phuket Trip with my big family including my bros and sis.  We were occupying 3 tables inside a boat trip and it was supposed to bring us to different islands.  After the first island hopping, when we were back to the boat, I saw a Chinese family occupying our seats. Our kids' water bottles were clearly on the table.  They simply ignored it. After a long wait, they are not willing to bulge. My elder bro asked them nicely (as we are squeezing to 2 tables) but was totally ignored. I got so heated up. Raising my voice and asking them if they were blind. Words exchanged and the situation almost got into a fight. One of the Chinese guy said "妈的!" (Literally means mother) but is a bit of swearing in Chinese c...

The average human life expectancy has increased tremendously. When we were nomads, it used to be 30 odd years of lifetime. With science , we manage to create medicine or vaccine that prolongs our life and can 'fight' against the bacteria & viruses that are a threat to humankind or that accidents that are supposed to be fatal.  I mean it is great to be curable from TB or measles. Over the many years, our average life expectancy has increased (as far as my knowledge) from 70 to 80 years old. We are going to have major breakthroughs in making human organs (I believe prototypes are on testing) and eliminating cancer should be within these 10 years.  I should be glad that we can live longer. I am able to learn more, see the world more, get to eat more, have more friends.  There's always 2 sides to a coin. At a macro level,  the implications on society and economy proves a huge burden. With more silver hair folks, the population is exploding. We will hit 7 bil to 9 bil...

Buddha is Prince Siddhartha. He wasn't a god, he (to be blunt) found a way to be rid of the material stuff and end all impermanence. He was teaching the students how to achieve it so that we are free from pain and this material world. Nothing last forever, even if you are rich or poor, intelligent or dumb, fast or slow, etc.  A lot of Buddhists thought that believing or praying to Him will help to cleanse their bad doings or debts. The hard truth is that He can't. He is no God, he doesn't take all our sins and ensure you will go to heaven and not hell. See Him as a teacher, like any school subject teacher. He teaches way of life, how to be compassionate and loving, how helping others bring lasting happiness. Nothing to do with race, religion, status or intellilect in this life or next lifetime (if there is).   I do not believe in religion. But I like Buddhism way of life.  Again, it brought back to my topic on Capitalism, dividing the world into countries, not sharin...