Thursday, January 11, 2007
education is better than silver & gold

Yesterday, a man in his early sixties walked in to get a divorce.

He talked to me a little about his family, about life in general, about the society and about cultures. His children are quite well-educated with at least a Diploma. His son is now a teacher but he doesn't know what his daughters are doing. It seems none of his children are exactly close to him.

I've only met him once and he seems like a nice man but I really do not know him. Maybe he was not that good a father or maybe his children were just too busy with their own lives to bother about their old man.

This man spoke to me about education and stressed on the importance of it. He asked about my educational background and my qualifications. Things I would usually not want to reveal to my applicants but I felt comfortable talking to this old man(ok i know he's not exactly old old but I still like calling him old man). He told me that I should further my studies while I'm still young and that I should be doing what I love and enjoy what I do. That, he feels is the most important thing in life.

he said, and i quote...
"What's most important is you do what you love.
No point sitting in the office if you are not happy with what you do."

"Study now that you're not old
Education is better than silver and gold
Silver and gold will fade away
but a good education will never decay." --- he kept repeating this one.

I've heard that one before. My grandpa used to say it a lot. but I have somehow forgotten about it. Now that he mentioned it again, I remember. It felt as if he dug deep into my head and pulled that long misplaced memory out of the little dark corner. I almost teared remembering how my grandpa used to say it. It didn't help that he kept repeating the entire verse over and over again. I appreciate the reminder though.

[If there is no silver and gold though then how do you get education? And don't everyone nowadays pursue a higher education so they can have more silver and gold?]

This man is now living at his friend's beach resort in Malaysia. He would only return to Singapore every now and then. He likes the life he's leading there, spending his days by the beach and catching his own fish to feed himself. He does odd-jobs for his friends whenever they need someone to do technical and electrical stuffs, earning about $500 every month. It's not a lot of money but he enjoys himself, telling me that all one needs to survive is food. All else is just luxury. It's nice to be able to lead such a carefree life and enjoying the simple things but if everyone is to be like him, what will happen to the world? What will happen to the economy and the advancement of the country? Then again, if the whole world is like that, then there probably ain't gonna be competition. Not everyone is happy with just that. People want more than others and others want to be better than other others... it goes on. Noone is satisfied. This man just can't stand walking down Orchard Road because everybody appears to be so materialistic with their branded goods and nice cars. "Is there a need for all that?" he asked and I wonder.

In the world that we live in now, you really can't stop to think, to sniff the flowers on the streets, to enjoy the blue sky above and play in the rain. Everyone else is going to run ahead of you. You'll eventually fall behind if you don't hurry and you don't stuggle. We have been put into a world where things are moving so rapidly, it's hard to stop with the current pace. You can't stop as an individual, but what if everyone else decides "Okay, we shall stop fighting and should all slow down and enjoy life." and sticks to it instead of taking advantage of this opportunity for their own personal benefit and backstab everyone else. Do you think that's possible?

Now back to the old man. He triggered a certain something in me. I enjoyed listening to him talk and I have not let my applicants talk more than they should for a pretty long time. This old man even had really horrible smoker's breath, something I totally cannot tahan and I actually still let him talk. Now that's really something.