Once

Once, there was this little boy who went for an audition for a kids' programme for the Television. It was a simple game, actually. Musical Chairs. But no matter how the boy tried, he just couldn't find a chair to sit on at the end of the music. For once, he was defeated. It just wasn't him. The game went on for two times, and both times, the boy failed. It was a miserable defeat. And that's that, or so everyone thought.

Notice

Can't help but notice how different the work culture is over there. I mean, strangers greet one another, and people say thank you and good morning to bus drivers. Okay, not only them but virtually everyone. We don't even do that at our workplaces, much less to complete strangers.
To us, it's like touch-and-go. You know, you touch, you go. You don't say anything unless you have problems with the ez-link card. Here, heck, I feel weird even when people say thank you for my patronage. It's just weird.

Need

The truth is, I need to do what I want to do. I mean, hey, I need to have a life. I need to exercise, I need to go memorize some foreign words, you know, being me. What fun is there to life if you just pull the carriage all day. I mean, some people really can bear out the monotony. You know, eat, work, sleep, eat, work, sleep ad infinitum. God, that scares me. You need perks. You need to have a little 'woah' in your life. All right. I need to have lots of 'woah's in my life. That's why I can't be a production operator, even if my life depends on it. That's why I can't stay too long in a place too. That's me.

The Prayer

O Lord, give me the strength each day to overcome all odds, all struggles
For the workplace is just one great bloody battlefield
And the only solace is that little nook which reminds you of a squatter place.
O Lord, give me the energy to handle each assignment
As the journey itself is enough to kill twenty elephants
And the work is enough to kill forty
If thou indeed be able to provide such a hefty number of elephants.
O Lord, let me not be bogged down, inundated by that tsunami of worksheets
Teach me to build an ark, if need be
Do not let it zombify me
Let me retain some semblance of sanity
And my personality so that people can still recognize me
When they put me in that nice little box.
Although of course, by that time, nothing matters.

'Duh'

Y'know, if I knew God, I'll probably ask Him for a few million bucks or so. Maybe that's why I don't get to meet Him, notwithstanding the fact that I am an atheist. The ennui becomes me. The idea of 'work' seems so alien, real work, that is, not the kind that I am doing right now, typing. That's a hobby.

Y'see, I am a full subscriber to hedonism. Although probably almost everyone else is too, except for the workaholics. I can even hear the 'duh' from David, as in 'what's new'. The fact is, hedonism requires money. People often earn so as to spend, despite the apparent illogic. Why bother earning only to whittle your account away?

Well, I don't know. Humans work hard and many of them spend harder, as though to offset the misery in working. Examples are everywhere, but I try not to be in that subset. As it is, people now can't live without work. Another 'duh', you may say. True, but people tend to take this fact for granted. And compare this logic with another: People can't live with too much work. They get stressed up and end up killing themselves or others. So there you have it. Humans are one illogical bunch. Can't have none, can't have too much. Work and spend, work and spend. I would be irritated too, if I were God.

A Brief Moment of Lucidity

Reading David's post about the inanity of the KFC staff, I am tickled, although that is probably the wrong response and an affront to David. But the fact is, it is true.

For judging from the impression I have over humanity in general, what he is seeing is probably universal. That is, if Singaporeans are indeed indicative of the world at large.

If Terrorism is not directly on our doorstep, and when I mean 'doorstep', I mean right before their very eyes, people will not be more careful or alert thereafter, if there is a thereafter right after that.

You see, humans are such that the tangible matters more than the intangible. They must see it to believe it and act on it. The baby understands 'papa' and 'mama' before abstract ideas like 'judgment' and 'power'. The conventional (and pragmatic) adult Singaporean wants 'business' and 'money' before 'culture' and for that matter, 'literature' or 'philosophy', which explains why I, foremost, am not particularly in demand by the employers.

In fact, as I appraise the children in my workplace, I have grown to feel that the earmarks of maturity is the capability to apprehend the intangible, that is, planning for the unforseeable future. Children who play all day without regards to their study do not appreciate the merits of education, although, there are occasions when I observe it in adults as well.

But I digress. To return to David's situation, it is a phenomenon of what the Chinese say 'If you don't see the coffin, you won't weep', that is, you will have to experience it up close and personal before you will believe it. People like to cry when it is too late. To do so before, is like being paranoiac or delusional.

Such is the characteristic of humanity. And I am tickled, nevertheless, at his observation.