What the world needs now is love, sweet love...It's the only thing that there's just too little of...What the world needs now is love, sweet love, No, not just for some but for everyone. - Excerpt from the song "What the World Needs Love is Love (Sweet Love)" by Jackie Deshannon
Saturday night gatherings at grandma's place are always refreshing. All my aunties rallying together to gossip about people, their kids (my cousins) and generally everything under the sun. Sometimes, I take such gossips like a pinch of salt, and sometimes, these gossips are so incredulous, I just can't help laughing over them.
My cousins, or should I say, the "lucky" few who are in their teenage years (luckily I'm already way past that cos I certainly do not enjoy being gossiped upon) have had the privilege of being hotly discussed by their parents since god-knows-when. The news of how they are getting more rebellious, self-centered and unconcerned about their studies always give me a basis for self-reflection, and also some room for reminiscence...the good old days when I was still a teenager...the devil-may-care attitude, self righteousness and nonchalance over the distress I was causing my mum. Listening to my aunties relating tales of their children made me ponder if people, not only the teenagers, had fashioned themselves to become more self-absorbed, inconsiderate and sometimes to a point, unknowingly/outwardly vile. Just like yesterday on board the train, amidst the crowd, sudden loud music greeted the whole cabin...It didn't take long even for a fool to guess that some young punk must have played his radio on the train, so bloody loud that some people stirred from their slumber. Being easily pissed, I begin to dart my eyes around hoping to catch a glimpse of this f**king nuisance, ever ready to give the person a piece of my mind coupled with some potentially lethal dagger stares (my trademark), had not my inability to suss that asshole out from the crowd. That damn blasting of music lasted approximately 8 stations. Bloody hell. Sadly speaking, this wasn't the only isolated case of mrt ride inconsideration. One other pet peeve I have is for those youngsters sitting their fat butts (I don't care if they are skinny or not) at the sides of the train doors...blocking people's entry and then acting so riled up when they get told off or stared. Moving those f**king knees ain't gonna help in generating more space for people to move...so can't they just bloody stand up for that few stations? Are they so bloody tired that if they don't sit they will disintegrate and self-ignite? Especially those stupid sec school kidos (I know cos most of those scums wear uniforms) who spend less than 8 hours in school and then act so bloody exhausted...justifying this stupid act of sitting along the train doors. Technically speaking, if they are so tired for a mere 6-8 hours of school per se, then doesn't this give more right for tertiary students (I spend up to 10 hours in school and don't bloody sit my fat butt there) and office workers (who do not enjoy school holidays) to sit along the train doors also? If everyone have this mentality of inconsideration, wouldn't this act cause a lot of unhappiness? It's not logical enough to assume that most of these youngsters are not mature enough to realise they are being inconsiderate because it is just basic common sense. Even my cousin, at the age of 4, will automatically shift away when someone is passing or coming his way. What more a 13-18 year old person? Plain inconsideration & self-absorbtion I would say. Self-absorbtion...why? Because they are only aware of their exhaustion/comfort to see that they are causing distress and discomfort to others. Ok...I shall stop this personal rant cos my topic is on showing tenderness right? (& I'm acting so bloody vile...tee hee.)
Anyways, one of the random conversations in grandma's house was one by Joelle, my 16 year old butch cousin. Joe was telling her mum that her flag day duty was one plagued by obstacles (people refusing to donate, people questioning why they need to donate and basically some dimwits that refuse to lay off, rather enjoying bullying students on flag-day duty). She said she can't see sense why some people are just so incompassionate, she was lamenting on how they should either donate or just shut up and walk away if they ain't donating. However, I added my 2 cents worth and told her that most of us would also behave in such a way, waving our hands off those people shoving their donation cans our direction, or purposely choosing such a path:
After my piece, Joe looked at me and nodded in agreement.
Perhaps it is silly to compare the past with the present, but we can't ignore the fact that humanity had lost a lot of compassion, tolerance and patience for things like love, concern, consideration (feelings and actions alike) for others except for self. By saying that I don't proclaim that I behave like a saint, but rather, this blog is like a form of evalution for myself and others in general. I remember once upon a time where I had so much time in the world to spend with mum, the days when I still dared to tell her "I love you" almost everyday...the times when the internet haven't took a lot of my time (& sanity) away.I also remembered the times when I enjoyed all the childhood games like zero-point and rolling in the mud during camps. The times where I enjoyed talking to people on the phone (now, I either sms or msn..hell, we lost so much patience that we actually use short condensed form of words to express every other thing) , face-to-face contact and just simply getting to know people slowly. As I grew up, such attributes of innocence and fun had been robbed, in replacement was endless nights in front of the com (such as this time). I hardly have the patience to talk to my mum, choosing instead to tell her "can't you see I'm using the com?". I also lost a lot of compassion and empathy for people...(e.g.: I used to shove away 3/5 donation cans, now it is 5/5). Also, it takes me approximately 3 repititions of the same question to blow my top at someone and I gossip about someone/thing every other hour (except in my sleep). This is just basically life for a lot of people nowadays...the pace of life and technology both emancipating and enslaving at the same time...that we sometimes do lose touch with what used to matter to us that we still would think mattered to us now. It's akin to addiction, we are well aware that we may be getting more impatient, gossipy, inconsiderate, selfish, incompassionate and self-absorbed...but we just can't break out from this cycle. Room for self-reflection may come in from time to time but never lasts long enough before we simply forget or get disilltioned again, especially so in my case.
However it is still heartening to see incidences of compassion. 2 weeks back, I witnessed 3 teenage girls giving donuts to the elderly cleaner at raffles city shopping mall. Think those girls are part-timers at the donut stall nearby and decided to keep some donuts for the cleaning auntie. They even lingered for a while to chat with her, asking her to take care and stuff like that (I was at the cafe beside them). It's really nice to see such a case of kindness and tenderness. God forbid that the rims of my eyes were a lil' moist after that. :p
