10,889

As the year draws to a close
Let me see
If I've lived a worthy life.

10,889 days have passed
Since the day I popped
From the amnionic depths.

What have I accomplished
I hope it's a long list
That this page will not fill
What have I missed
I'd rather not dwell on
As new resolutions swell.

People say
A lifetime is short
But not until I count it for you.

If you lived to 90,
It will only be but 30,000 days
Few centenarians
Can survive 40,000 days.

In this age of giga-anything
Mere thousands are nothing
But life holds a deeper meaning
Live it well
Our 30-thousand days on earth
Can mean many a great thing.

HAPPY NEW YEAR !

Of Meeting and Missing

10 years. I've been a regular at the interstate bus interchange in Melaka for 10 friggin years - from when it was only a little corner by the Melaka River to its current residence at the bustling Melaka Sentral, specially built for this purpose as travel demands continue to be on the rise. Orang Melaka are venturing to other states for a myriad purposes - further education, better jobs, holidays, to visit loved ones. In the same spirit, Sentral welcomes "foreigners" both from within Malaysia and abroad as Melaka, I'm proud to say, continues to be a favourite tourist destination in Malaysia. One really hasn't seen Malaysia until he's been to Melaka.

Yet, yesterday, as I sat in the JB-bound coach and watched families kiss goodbye and a couple hug, I was suddenly overcome by emotions. It could be the fact that it's Christmas - Why can't we stay and spend more time with our families?! Such is life these days, economic strength sustains life, sustains family. We have to be apart now so we can be together in a better economic climate, in future. F**k the future. If you have to be with someone dear, do it now. If you have to say something important to someone significant, do it now.

NOW. NOW. NOW.
NO Wait.

{Or it's the little verse that caught my eye on Christmas morning, in the papers - "In our giving, Jesus lives. In our living, Jesus gives." I am by no means a Christian, but I think it's wonderful how the spirit of Christmas can be so clearly explained in 10 mortal words. Yet, people were incredulous that a local supermarket pledged 1000 free turkeys in celebration of the birth of Christ on Christmas Eve, to be redeemed with absolutely no conditions attached.}

I am digressing. Always digressing.

I want to reflect upon the importance of interchanges.

The bus interchange - the importance of its mundane existence. The place where tears of joy and sadness are shed. Where people meet and miss. Where old friendships are rekindled or undone, and new bonds forged. Hundreds of people, hundreds of stories take place there each day. If only we could see speech bubbles floating above their heads ...

Same as the little bus stop in front of your flat. It has been the quiet confidant of many a tale.

The train station that we take for granted. That we get into as quickly as we get out of. Pause for a moment and look around at the exchanges that take place. The characters of life dramas unfolding on the busy platforms. Do not risk being caught between the closing train doors. Step back, sit back and enjoy the live play. Oh, and it's free.

Or MSN Messenger. Much emotion, secrets ... if you can think it, it has been quietly exchanged on MSN before. I am immensely thankful for the creation of the MSN Messenger. For keeping me in touch, and building special friendships which were forged but would have been short-lived had it not been for the MSN Messenger.

Sometimes, the most inconspicuous can be the most tell-tale, only they won't say it. Or cannot say it. I would like to know them as the unsung heroes - not truest to the meaning of the word, but that's what they are.

Living Mind, Travelling Thoughts

I've been a Couchsurfing member for exactly ONE year today. Hurrah!! But I've yet to have any CS experiences yet... but am definitely looking forward to some. Hopefully in the upcoming year.

Counting down... 15 days to 2007

Time used to fly, but now it seems to just zip past. This song sounds like something time would sing -

Once I was traveling across the sky

This lovely planet caught my eye

And being curious I flew close by

And now I'm caught here

Until I die

Until we die

It's a blessing we have time on earth but we won't be having it forever... So seize time while it's still here. Fear not, carpe diem!

"Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones that you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." - Mark Twain

"When I was about twenty-one, I went broke for the first time. I slept on chair cushions in my 'studio' in Kansas City and I ate cold beans out of a can. But I took another look at my dreams and set out for Hollywood. Foolish? Not to a youngster. An older person might have too much 'common sense' to do it. Sometimes I wonder if 'common sense' isn't another way of saying 'fear'. And 'fear' often spells failure." - Walt Disney, Animator, Dreamer, Father

Yet I fear for our planet. I fear for all the species the human beings, beings of the "higher order", are tasked to protect, but are unwittingly destroying in our pursuit of dreams. Dreams of "advancement" for the human race. For convenience. But do we all realise the inconvenient truth of this convenience we are seeking - the inconvenience of convenience.

I saw Happy Feet last Monday. Posters and trailers show a bunch of bubbly, cuddly penguins. Another cutesy animation? Happy Feet begs to differ. There is a message about human interference, pollution and the destruction of natural habitats in Antartica. It does not address global warming. The picture above does. Like Happy Feet, this is "art" with a message, up for each individual's interpretation. I see penguins melting in the rising temperature, trying to shelter from the heat with little umbrellas. It gets too hot, they are burned, the parapluies fall, the penguins die. Their blood is melded with snow, hence the pink patches on a surface of white.

How much of white ice still covers the poles? As seen in Al Gore's disturbing An Inconvenient Truth, polar bears are beginning to drown because they have to swim farther afield to find a piece of solid ice on which they can rest. Imagine this - polar bears swimming with their little cubs, find a piece of ice, climb on it, it breaks because it has become so thin due to global warming that it can no longer hold the weight of its resident bears, the family has to swim again to find another slab that breaks again... until they become so tired, their feet won't peddle anymore and they sink. This has NEVER happened before. This is the bloody truth, inconvenient or not.

What do you see? The irony is, viewpoints on environmentalism are as varied as opinions on works of art. The same issue, different opinions, each motivated by selfish agendas.