Friday, March 23, 2007
THIN KING on vacation.
The THIN KING OF RON veers off to an other vocation.
It has been fun and enriching roaming freely,
gathering, learning and sharing my THIN KINGs.
It has definitely enlarged my scope of knowledge
and improved my level of the English language.
Thank you one and all for your appreciation,
various comments and encouragement.
I have thus surprised myself by reaching 230.
Have a nice day,
Ronald
Monday, March 19, 2007
Paradise ?
Wishing for paradise on earth ?
The world is paradise when we find it to our full satisfaction.
If it is not, why not change it ? It is that easy, huh ?
To change the world, nations must change
To change nations, societies must change
To change societies, communities must change
To change communities, families must change
To change a family, I must change
And that is the easiest part, yes ?
When I can change, my family will improve
When my family improves, the community will be better
When the community becomes better, the society will be great
When the society gains greatness, the nation lives like people
When the nations live like people, there lies paradise
I am only one, and everybody is I and one too
And all the Is or ones make the world
But ha ha ha ha ha, we all do not like to change
That is why we are what we are, no ?
And the world remains what it is
So this is just an outlandish churning of the mind
For how ever can there be paradise on earth !
Have a nice day,
Ronald
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Life cycle
From ashes to ashes, dirt to dirt, what is in between ?
When a person is seven years old, he has reached the age of reasoning. How wonderful, he can distinguish right from wrong, run errands and learn and acquire things fast. And he grows.
When a person reaches twenty one years of age, he has attained adulthood. He is mature, he can look after his own welfare, ready to procreate, and contribute to the family and the nation. He is what that makes the world go round.
When a person lives to sixty years old or the prevailing golden age, he has acquired what his life set for him. It is time for him to retire and set out for the pasture.
When he is at pasture what does he do, he may have a dilemma. Initially he enjoys life of course, because he has sacrificed and toiled for this phase of his life. But he cannot be enjoying life all the time because this really lacks the full meaning of life, and usually boredom sets in. So, does he teach others or just play along with the grandchildren ? Does he have a say in the behavior of society or just let the young have their way ? Does he contribute to improve the machinery of the nation or just watch the world go by ? Does he take part in the problem solving or contribute to the problem ? Does he exercise his presence or just fade away ? He has lived or has he lived ?
Man came totally naked and man will go nicely made up, attired and boxed, disappearing in smoke and leaving some ashes. What does man lose and what can man gain to take away ? What is beyond ?
Have a nice day
Ronald
Sunday, March 11, 2007
Borrower / Lender
Neither a borrower nor a lender be;
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
So said William Shakespeare through Lord Polonius in the play Hamlet.
That being so, this advice has been passed along with time. It has served many who abided by it from getting into trouble too. Tales of people who suffered no end through borrowing from loan sharks abound, although there are laws prohibiting loansharking. And it is painful to lose both the loan and the friend too through lending.
On the other hand there are banks. A bank's main business is borrowing and lending, and what would the commercial world do without banks. And banks will not sustain and survive when there are no people borrowing and lending. And there are finance companies whose businesses help people to own things and then pay up slowly, and also rental shops where people can use things for a fee without owning them.
Borrowing requires trustworthiness and the means to return the loan, and lending suggests helpfulness and perhaps kindness. When these are in place would there be problem with borrowing and lending ?
It is easy to shut the gates of borrowing and lending when one is self-sufficient. Yet there are people who had to borrow out of being on the edge of life or in urgency, and people who like to lend out of helpfulness and wanting to share. And it is rare to know of people who never borrowed nor lent. How hard or dull life would have been for them.
What does one do after reading a good book. There are people who would recommend the book or lend it to a friend. There is a chance that the book would not be returned, and another chance that it would move on to another person. Their reasoning is that good things are better being shared with good friends, and good friends will withstand the trust. Perhaps this explains why some circle of friends enjoy good beer and cheers while others do not.
Cases of people who parted with their things forever through lending are many, but these did not bothered the lenders much because they had already exacted their usefulness, rather than keeping and having to get rid of them at a much later date when housekeeping.
Of course people ought to be cautious about lending precious items. Borrowing and lending serve good purposes when properly managed.
Have a nice day,
Ronald
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
Sticks and stones
"Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me."
I have been looking for the person who said this, never mind if he or she is not the one who said it originally, because I would like to be his disciple. Analysing the statement it is easy to understand what it means, and it is easier to agree when the person is someone else, because one can never feel how hurt that person could be when insulted. And people may keep their cool and not show hurt, but then may break the bones of the one who insulted him.
Most of us may not have had our bones broken, but some wordy retaliation might have hurt us more than mere broken bones. How do exchange of words sustain, how do quarrels carry on, how do fights become violent ? Usually the sparking flint is words.
Strangely, it might be safer to punch someone than to insult him. The victim might think that the doer is just a bit loco, or given the benefit of the doubt, the punch was wrongly intended, or he might just punch in return. But try to be a hero and say something unpleasant or nasty, and one will definitely suffer for it, often later.
Sometimes the words are just very shallow and mindless, and yet the wound could be very lasting. One has only to reflect and think to be reminded of the times one has been hurt by words, whether jestingly, thoughtlessly or intended. We all know how words had hurt us; anyone who has not been hurt by mere words has my everlasting respects.
During one of my computer class when I was in SIA, just jokingly, I said, There, I told you so to no one in particular, but after a participant had not followed my instructions and had her mistake displayed on her computer. It was a mistake I realized as soon as I had said it, but the harm had been done. Later I received a rating of 1, the lowest, on a scale of 1 to 4 from her in the course critique.
Words can be very powerful as a weapon. In an episode of the long story The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, ChukoLiang once defeated his enemy without raising any weapon. In a battle, in an exchange of words, he merely vituperated his opponent who then fell dead when enough was said. That was the ploy of the great master ChukoLiang.
Harsh words make enemies, kind words make friends.
Have a nice day,
Ronald
Saturday, March 03, 2007
Fun rides
Fun ride for all ages.
The little kid climbed up onto the kiddy ride machine in his awkward way and sat in it happily. His granny inserted a 20 cents coin into the slot. The aeroplane whirred and came to life and the song I fly up the clear blue sky in Mandarin livened it up. Leaning and crouching and swerving, the kid manoeuvred the plane with delight like an ace pilot in a real dogfight while the granny looked around, interested in her own observation. Barely a minute passed and the machine stopped, also the music. The kid tugged at his granny's hand, and she inserted another coin. Twenty cents for hardly a minute's enjoyment, thus making it out to be more than twelve dollars for an hour of fun for a little kid.
A young girl went for a golf game in a buggy for the first time. It was difficult to tell whether she enjoyed more playing golf or driving the buggy, but it was clear that she hogged driving the buggy for the whole 18 holes. And the buggy fee was twenty dollars over a game which lasted more than four hours. Thus it worked out to be less than five dollars for an hour of fun drive, along the buggy track and swerving up and down the beautiful fairways, no traffic fines and no licence required.
There was a time when I decided to enjoy an MRT ride for the fun of it, and also partly to see the parts of Singapore which I seldom passed by. The ride from Tanah Merah to Jurong East lasted about an hour for which I paid a senior citizen concession fare of about seventy cents, during which I got to see some landscapes of Singapore from an elevated view. It was a calm, smooth and peaceful ride.
All these three stories illustrate that the cost of enjoyment greatly decreases with age, from over twelve dollars an hour for a small kid to less than five dollars an hour for an adult to less than a dollar an hour for a senior citizen. If this does not bring out the old fogeys for very cheap Mrt rides in place of boredom at home, I must also add that there are unusual things to see.
Once when I boarded the train there were two ladies dressed in their religious habit, which is that their whole body was covered in a black dress except an opening for them to see. When the train stopped at Eunos, a similarly dressed lady came up. Immediately they recognised each other, and thereafter there was friendly chatter. Some time later I narrated this to a group of friends and wondered how they could recognise each other. Almost at once a blurted answer stumped me, "Smell, smell !" His utter was a joke of course, and everybody laughed. The funny thing is that a longer time later at another gathering this same friend narrated a story which was exactly the same as the one I just told. Naturally and spontaneously I voiced, "Smell, smell." That brought out another hilarious moment. Another funny thing is that people easily forget what they said in jest.
When bored take a long MRT ride.
Have a nice day,
Ronald
