A Beautiful Irish Hymn

While I was walking home yesterday, I heard the bells at the St Andrew Cathedral tolled. The Evensong was commencing that very hour and having wanted to go to service for the longest time, I decided to go in. It turned out to be a really wonderful service and for the first time, I felt truly at home in a church. And while I was there, the congregation sang this hymn. I thought the Irish melody was so beautiful..

Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart,
be all else but naught to me, save that thou art;
be thou my best thought in the day and the night,
both waking and sleeping, thy presence my light.

Be thou my wisdom, be thou my true word,
be thou ever with me, and I with thee Lord;
be thou my great Father, and I thy true son;
be thou in me dwelling, and I with thee one.

Be thou my breastplate, my sword for the fight;
be thou my whole armor, be thou my true might;
be thou my soul’s shelter, be thou my strong tower:
O raise thou me heavenward, great Power of my power.

Riches I heed not, nor man’s empty praise:
be thou mine inheritance now and always;
be thou and thou only the first in my heart;
O Sovereign of heaven, my treasure thou art.

High King of heaven, thou heaven’s bright sun,
O grant me its joys after victory is won;
great Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
still be thou my vision, O Ruler of all.

Happy Birthday

I celebrated Joshie’s and Mummie’s birthday today. Although I have a crazy assignment due tomorrow, I’m still glad I took time off to celebrate the day with them because it is a really nice feeling to see someone being really happy because of the small things that you choose to do for them. =)

This afternoon, we threw Joshie’s a surprise birthday party in Chatterbox and one could tell that he was very, very touched! Turned out that it was the first surprise birthday for him and it was something that he had been looking forward too for a long while too! That look on his face when he saw all of us was simply priceless and I thought it’s been a really long while since I last saw such an expression of pure bliss.  The Sino-sing people were just plain angelic too, everyone who got invited and could come came. Even RZ who had already started working took the trouble to come down during his lunch break. And considering how this is week 9 with a crazy amount of deadlines, it is really amazing how everyone came ahead of scheduled time and stayed beyond what was necessary! I guess, sometimes it’s really nice to know that there are a lot of people around us who would take the time, and effort just to make each other’s day.

All of us pointing to the birthday boy!

The Spring onion and I brought my mum to the IMM Crystal Jade restaurant in the evening. She was really excited about it, even notifying my dad in advance that she won’t be making food for him tonight and eating at 2pm so that she won’t starved by the time we get to the restaurant. Although, it was only IMM, you could really tell that she is so happy about everything around her! She even tried to put on this seriously funky slippers while we were shopping around. When we showed her the menu, she just said anything’s fine and told us to order what we liked instead, fortunately all the dishes that came were just delicious.  In the end, the mini-birthday celebration ended with my mum buying a packet of gummy bears from Umeya. The way she held up that small packet of teddy bear was just plain cute. Sigh, sometimes, I really love my mum, she is so easily contented and indefatigably cheerful!

I think all these reminds me that there is no such thing as not having enough time for people around you, it’s always a matter of choice and whether the person means enough for you to go out of the way for him or her. No matter how busy we are in life, let’s all always have time to celebrate the small victories with a small bot of champagne and every birthday with a yummy cake! =)

Fly away

Lest we forget how great our parents’ selfless love for us can be. We all have a limited time with them on this earth, make them happy and cherish them with all your heart while they are around.

 

“When will you be home?” she asks
as we watch the planes take off
We both know we have no clear answer to where my dreams may lead
She’s watched me as i crawled and stumbled
As a child, she was my world
And now to let me go, I know she bleeds
and yet she says to me

You can fly so high
Keep your gaze upon the sky
I’ll be prayin every step along the way
Even though it breaks my heart to know we’ll be so far apart
I love you too much to make you stay
Baby fly away

Autumn leaves fell into spring time and
SIlver-painted hair
Daddy called one evening saying
“We need you. Please come back”
When I saw her laying in her bed
Fragile as a child
Pale just like an angel taking flight
I held her as I cried

You can fly so high
Keep your gaze upon the sky
I’ll be prayin every step along the way
Even though it breaks my heart to know we’ll be so far apart
I love you too much to make you stay
Baby fly away
ohh…
I love you too much to make you stay
Baby fly away

On Hope

Hope is like a road in the country; there was never a road, but when many people walk on it, the road comes into existence. – Lin Yu Tang

Brings to mind the likes of Gandhi and Martin Luther King. Millions have hope for they first dared to hope.

‘Dominant Gene’

Many years ago, I read Desmond Morris’ Naked Ape. In it he pointed out how as part of our obsession with being evolutionary fit, we would strive to attain supremacy over others. He wrote that since not everyone can become the most important individual in the world which is the US president (arguably), the rest of us then move off to create niches for ourselves. This is also partially why people seek to become the very best in businesses, academia, law, medicine, sports etc etc. Nevertheless, such industries are once again limited, hence, the remaining people have to then create other niches such as founding a club in school or starting a recreation activity in the company. All these avails the individual with opportunities of remaining at the apex of something.

As I was pondering about my interaction with certain individuals yesterday, I realised that even in a dyadic relations between any two persons, there might be the conscious/subconscious desire to dominate the other. One can think of many ways through which this is possible. Seen from this perspective, we may all be seeking to dominate one another in a certain way be it socially (emotionally), politically, economically, religiously, intellectually, militarily (force/strength). Whenever one failes to achieve dominion in one of the areas, one would seek to compensate by developing one’s ‘hegemonic’ power in a separate domain. It is like how the lowest administrative personnel tends to be the most particular about irrelevant rules because they may seek to possess the authority expressed in such rules. It is also like how an adult male who have failed to make his mark in career may be more chauvinistic in his household because this is the avenue which affords him some degree of power.

Perhaps, it is not a conniving mechanism, it could well be man’s desire to be able to control his environment and fate. If one fails to achieve dominion in any facet of life, one would be incredibly displaced. That sense of powerlessness would be too overwhelming and hence, we all struggle to break free from it through an assertion of some form. There is perhaps no right or wrong to such an inclination, however, it might do well that we be conscious of it anyway.

Joshua Benjamin Jeyeratnam

“A remark you often hear is, there’s nothing we can do, you can’t do anything in this place, I tell them that’s nonsense.” – JBJ

There is a group of people in Singapore mourning for the late JBJ. Many of these people exclaim what a great opposition leader JBJ had been and how much he had done for Singapore but according to LKY, JBJ is “a poseur, always seeking publicity, good or bad.” Considering how many of these people who grieves for him never come into contact with him, it is somewhat peculiar how Singaporeans are  happy to support an icon of opposition in the country and disregard the remark made by LKY who has sparred with JBJ personally as the grudging remark of a sore adversary. I would think that his role as an opposition icon had been important and deserving of our respect but then and again, how hard is it really to be peddling books and criticising a structure? However, it is perhaps true that anyone who has stood up against such odds should be given his due credits, he was brave and he was the underdog for the people. He chose to fight in flesh as the rest of us choose to fight with our tongues. In addition, he gave up so much for his ideals – his job, his money, and ultimately his life.

Initially I was rather upset that everyone raved about JBJ seemingly just because he opposed PAP as I feel that there is no basis to such sentiments at all, however, after thinking for a while longer, I figure that this is the so-called popular sentiments and there is legitimacy to it. It stems from the populace’s long term dissatisfaction with the way a country is run by the government, hence, any opposition to break the regime’s hold on the country is celebrated as beacons of democracy. The death of such an icon symbolised a sudden break in this ambitious endeavour and it is natural that society grieves for the disappearance of such a symbol. Also, JBJ had while he was alive, fought for the creation of a welfare society and minimum wage, two issues which I feel are close to my heart and I believe should be implemented.

Joshie asked why I was thinking about this issue in the first place. I guess it is due to my initial inclination towards JBJ. I wondered whether i was really justified in thinking that he had done a lot for Singapore. Hence, I feel that there is a need to really go through what he stands for and what he did for the ideals, to think about whether this were really his ideals or just popular rhetorics. Also, I was wondering whether if LKY hadn’t won back then, he would have been in JBJ’s position, trying to crticise the resultant structure. Seen in that perspective, our generation has been less kind to LKY who had done what every politician would have done in consolidating his party’s power and creating a favourable structure.

I am thankful to Joshie who stayed up till 4am trying to explain to me over MSN why JBJ deserves the attention that he is getting.

IHT’s flattering obituary of JBJ – http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/09/30/asia/obits.php?page=1

Economist – http://www.economist.com/obituary/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12376738