Flags of white

"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep, to gain that which he cannot lose"

comparisons

-received this forwarded mail from JC.

Units of measurement

Today at Theories of the Media class, Mr Abraham (sweat machine) jolted me out of my reverie with a question.

“ABEL. How do you measure love?”
To which I answered without a blink, “You can’t”.

Now, we all know, theoretically speaking, you can’t measure something as abstract as love. There won’t be units to gauge its volume or depth. But if we are honest with ourselves enough, we do ‘measure’ it, don’t we?

Unconsciously, the person who spends more time with you, shoots more sms-es to your phone, buys you more gifts is perceived to have more love for you than the one who did all that but less. You reason that these actions do indicate in some way their level of affection and are by-products of their care.

Picture with me, if the subconscious mind could speak…

“Is this person your friend?”
“Urm… let me see. 3 hours of love, 4 presents of care, 2 and a quarter smses of affection, half a pat on the back, one sentence of encouragement… I’m not sure, because I didn’t receive 5 seconds of smiles, man.”

That’s how we gauge who are our friends and not. Suddenly the one who sends one sms short of the quota doesn’t love you. You then question why people love certain things because they seem to fall short based on the standards you have set.

“People should love dogs instead of cats because they are more useful, guard the home and are loyal.”
“I like that person because he knows how to play the flute with his nose and can dance on his toes while eating jelly. I don’t like the other person because he can only play the flute with his mouth and not with all the other parts of the human anatomy that can release air.”
“You’re not my close friend because you bought me two things only so far. When you buy 1 more, you would be my half friend-half close friend ok?”

Impossible and immature! You say.

But you do it nonetheless. People are guilty of measuring love eventhough they know it can't be measured. Think about it.

Breakthrough

Today, I finally overcame a great childhood trauma

"If"

"If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;

Or watch the things you gave your life to b r o k e n ,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!"

-my favourite poem in the english syllabus, by Rudyard Kipling. I remember having to recite the entire thing for an English oral presentation in F3 (the above is not the complete poem) and it probably left some kind of impact on me.

"Be a man"

We all have our own interpretations of what a real man is. We all want to be who we ought to be. But what makes a man? The deep voice? The gargantuan ego? The enormous strength? The leg hair(and other hairy sections of the human anatomy)? This poem taught me a valuable lesson, that while a man is always a male, a male need not necessarily be a MAN.

And how, personally, there is still much to learn.

Abby

Once, the doctors said she wouldn't walk until the age of 11.

Now...she runs wherever there is space to.

Once, her existence brought tears and sorrow to the people around her.

Now...she makes us laugh so much with her antics.

Once, many thought she wouldn't amount to much.

Now...she sings the loudest in church.

Once, I would be irritated when people stared at her in the restaurants.

Now...I have learnt to thank God she is around to be stared at.

Once, I wondered what others would think of her.

Now...I'm proud to walk alongside her.

My sister turns 15 today. I love her.

;)

"Listen...you wrote that the world doesn't need a savior. But every day I hear people crying for one." - Superman Returns
From left: Christopher, Meng yoe, Jonathan and myself.

Oh well it was cool seeing baby Joshua so amused. =P