It was Sunday, having just finished dinner with Anabel, her sister in law, I stepped out into the streets. Walking on foot from Marine Parade to Paya Lebar, I contemplated on what she said. It seems irregardless of the stations in life one occupies, rich or poor, successful or down , smart or dull, the central idea to happiness is always a challenge.
The concept of happiness it seems involves many if not infinite factors. Hence the coefficient of each factor contributing to the general level of happiness one experiences though in the short run is significant, fast becomes negligible due to the short saturation cycle.
Each of us has 24 hrs per day and only so much resources at hand. To fulfill each factor that contributes to happiness demands for time and resources. Scarity is a very real thing.
Alrity ,so it seems being constantly happy is a myth, we should pretty much forget about it. So what about being happy in the short run? That it seems is the norm around us. We have this today, we are happy. Soon we are not. We need next to find something else to fill the gap. Thus we did. We become happy again, until of course we hit the next cycle. Examined from a bird’s eye view level, It is a seemingly endless and meaningless cycle that stops only at the end of each of our life cycle.
Then Eureka! I suddenly recalled a monk’s invitation to enter into monkhood in a monastry in Thailand many years ago. Perhaps monks do lead a happy life… Perhaps I should really attempt to find sometime off these next few months to enter into monkhood. Hopefully, Alena will be patient with my absense during this phase of my life journey. If not AiYaiYAi!!! there goes my peace from life in monkhood. Once during a filming session, I met Kah Keong. He was a former monk for two years before returning back to Singapore. Truth is I got pretty fascinated with the whole idea after the conversation ended.
I finally arrived at Paya Lebar, and hopped onto bus 7 heading over to Glen Eagles Hospital to visit my Mom. All seems well I felt at peace. I could already imagine myself meditating in some Thai monastery, unit The bus stopped somewhere along Geylang Lorong 20plus. A lady in her 50s came on the bus. Interestingly off all the free seats available on the bus, she choose to squeeze in one of the most uncomfortable one, the inner seat beside mine. Just in case you had no idea, I am a big man, I occupy lots of space.
Then all of a sudden she struck a conversation, which took the most crazy of turns. So she has visions… she believes in God and Jesus, the Jewish branch. She wears the Star of David instead of the traditional cross. She condemns Buddhism, Taoism, Christianity, Catholicism and Islam-ism as Paganism and bullshit. After much conversation it seems she also made it her business to sell some obscure versions of the Bible through the internet. (Check out these URLS if you will http://goldendoves.com/, http://cgbconline.org/ , http://www.dpmchina.com/) Then she went on to commit an inverse logical error by attempting to link the cause of my moms health to her and dad’s religion.
An example of an inverse logical error : Given a 3 why assume it is a 1+ 2 when so many other combinations including 4 – 1 can fit the criteria?
So what can I do? Smile my most patronizing million dollar smile at her of course.
Hey I don’t mind, just the other day I was toying around with this sentence in my head “I believe in the church but not in God…” But mind you, no offense, it was just pure experimental speculations no harm intended. I was just wondering how willing this society of ours might accept this phrase which happened to pop into my head from God knows where. Fortunately or unfortunately whichever way you might want to take it, I only arrived at nothing conclusive.
However this lady… Wow, she is the REAL THING! From her intonation it seems less a mere statement than an official declaration against the freedom of religion.Make her the Prime Minister and I think all religions will be banned really soon.
Still from my point of view, it is important for her to have her views. after all I am a great fan of Voltair, the classical “I might not agree with what you say, but I will fight to the deaths for you to have your say”. In my case being less violence inclined, I modify that space to be “I might not agree with what you say, but I will give you your space to say it”.
What an irony it seems. Here I am contemplating about entering into the monastary and then suddenly out of no where this radical agent pops up and propose strongly that I betray my intended cause and switch to hers.
So what is happening to the world nowadays? Has all businesses been so hard hit by the recent recession that even Omni Potent Entities through religions are fighting for followers?
Suddenly I got reminded of this humorous author Terry Prachet of which one of his books I read years ago. Check him out, if you will it is cool stuff. Warning for the more staunchly religious minded, take it with a pinch of salt, if not avoid it at all cost.