Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Long Distance

Long distance parenting means interpreting one's child's mood via Facebook, & the emoticons used in his/her status.

Example - ...beijing :( means he is missing Beijing, more specifically Beijing food. I guess mid-western US cuisine does become monotonous after a while. And I inferred correctly that this feeling of woe has been triggered by the increasing work load of college and the realization that being in college does not mean one continuous party without supervision from the parental units.

After a month and a half, the honeymoon is finally over.

Saturday, September 11, 2010

Metamorphosis

Once upon a time, I wished there were more hours in the day because I had to
  • work
  • supervise my children's homework
  • make sure the household was running smoothly
  • make sure we had meals on the dinner table
  • sleep
  • have some kind of leisure time/activity (if at all)
Now, I find myself wishing there were more hours in the day because I
  • preside over the parent organization in my son's school
  • quilt
  • get body/foot massages
  • have lunch with my friends
  • shop
  • play mahjong
  • watch the latest movies & TV series on DVD
  • volunteer in school
  • and soon, take painting lessons
If the Me of today could go back in time and tell the Me of yesterday about my current lifestyle, I am sure my previous Me would scoff & say,"Ha! If that ever happens, I will eat my hat!"

I am thankful for what I have had the chance to experience, and for what I have.

Tuesday, September 07, 2010

Labels

People need to remember that behind the labels of "Doctor", "Lawyer", "President", "Engineer", "Captain" etc, lies a human being who does the best he/she can in what he/she has been tasked to do, sometimes makes mistakes despite the best of intentions and has real emotions & real feelings which oftentimes get hurt by thoughtless words and false assumptions.

Peace.

Thursday, September 02, 2010

Three Cups of Tea

This is a must-read for everyone - the story of this amazing man who made a difference to thousands of children in one of the poorest parts of the world.

Greg Mortensen, ex-mountaineer turned humanitarian, is an eccentric character, to say the least. The book is written (by Mortensen together with David Relin) in a captivating narrative which captures the reader & refuses to let him/her go till the last page is read.

The roadblocks faced by this man as he tried to build schools for the voiceless in Pakistan & Afghanistan would have stopped the average person. But (I think) because of his eccentricity, and a huge amount of persistence, with perhaps a bit of recklessness (or stupidity, depending on whom you are talking to), he literally built his first school stone by stone.

His achievements are inspirational. This should be mandatory reading for The Powers That Be who sit on the governments which send troops to the Middle East or Afghanistan.

This paragraph sums up quite neatly why the war on terror is not being won by the politicians:

"We only stayed a minute, while I was introduced," Mortensen says. "And I wish I could tell you I said something amazing to Donald Rumsfeld, the kind of thing that made him question the whole conduct of the war on terror, but mostly what I did was stare at his shoes.

"I don't know much about that kind of thing, but even I could tell they were really nice shoes. They looked expensive and they were perfectly shined. I remember also that Rumsfeld had on a fancy-looking gray suit, and he smelled like cologne. And I remember thinking, even though I knew that the Pentagon had been hit by a hijacked plane, that we were very far away from the fighting, from the heat and dust I'd come from in Kabul."

His work has inspired me.

This book has made me see that in the greater scheme of things, we need to appreciate what we have instead of focusing on what we don't, and yes, it is cliched, but there are always others MUCH less fortunate than us. Oh, I have known it all along, but reading about the people in Pakistan & Afghanistan & how the live has made me appreciate this so much more.

It has also shown me that sometimes, we need to take small steps at the beginning to reach a seemingly unreachable destination.

I think I will take my first step now.