Who are we to judge?
I started on a good note today. Sent Shane off at the airport. Even though we (Rach and I were in a mighty rush, after having individually waking up late and picking her up) rushed down to the airport just in time to bid farewell to dear Shane as she left for a year-long exchange cum internship at the NUS Overseas College (NOC) in Shanghai.
Later on, headed to school as both Rach and Daryl (who took a lift from me) had classes. It was too late to go for the prayer meeting at the library rooftop…so I hung around, trying to check out my texts for a module entitled “Human Security in the Global Context” that I’m doing as a UE over in HKU (its PS stuff…but sounds mighty interesting and relevant. Even though the lecturer sounds like my Gender prof from last sem…no-nonsense-cut-the-cheese type).
Met D and R for lunch at the Engine canteen. I must say that things have changed a lot. Everyone has their own perspective about the world and its offerings. D is aiming hard to do well enough to go to grad school…to earn enough money...in order to afford a fuel-powered remote-controlled car costing $400.
R works hard at his CCAs…being the President of the Motoring Club for a second term…in the belief of gaining more contacts that will benefit whatever he does ‘post-LSA 4 year bond’.
And me?
Haha…scoffers may think that I’m just another brain-less, mindless automaton, who “signed his life away to the Army” (as if That’s worse than the Devil taking your soul).
Honestly, they may scoff all they like. I don’t really care.
I’ve got my own plans in life, and the army may be one of the means to fulfill these plans. So do the other people who may also be Army scholars, but hold lesser regard for their own chosen profession, claiming to want to leave after their bonds are ‘up’ for greener pastures. Certainly, doing my post-graduate studies will be high on my agenda as I step out into the world after graduation, come June 2008. So will buying a house, and (possibily) a car, as I plan for my future of adulthood in Singapore (to me, being an adult in Singapore only begins when you start earning your own income, pay your own bills, and live in your own home. Period. The rest are simply rites of passage leading to that).
But I won’t get hung up about it. Cos I know I’ve a duty to do for six years, serving in the SAF.
I may see where certain people are coming from, as they show indifference to their National Service stint, and even their bonds. And I will agree with them to a certain extent that the things that make them unhappy can be felt across the board.
Unfeeling bureaucracy.
Mindless red-tape.
Social inequality – the age-old scholar-farmer debate.
My list could go on.
But inherently, I believe there is good in the system.
And I would like to make a change.
Just like I believe that there is latent good in a world that is claimed to be inherently corrupt.
Just last week, D related an experience which has struck me deeply.
He had been out during the Christmas season, and was on his way home when he noticed a frail old man sleeping at the street-corner. The only possession that he seemed to own, was a battered bicycle that stood beside him as he lay on the cold, cement pavement.
Something came over D, a sense of responsibility for society? Something greater perhaps?
He went into the nearby 7-Eleven, and bought a packet of sandwiches. He brought them to where the old man lay, and hung the packet on the bicycle handle. He walked off silently into the night…
I’ve begun to understand abit more his reason for not attending church on Sundays anymore. I don’t condone his missing presence from God’s house on the Sabbath.
But I don’t condemn him either.
For who are we, human beings, to condemn a fellow human – into eternal damnation…for slipping on the lyrics of a hymn? For not tithing a ‘pleasing amount’? For skipping the sermon and entering the sanctuary for communion?
Who are we to judge?
Later on, headed to school as both Rach and Daryl (who took a lift from me) had classes. It was too late to go for the prayer meeting at the library rooftop…so I hung around, trying to check out my texts for a module entitled “Human Security in the Global Context” that I’m doing as a UE over in HKU (its PS stuff…but sounds mighty interesting and relevant. Even though the lecturer sounds like my Gender prof from last sem…no-nonsense-cut-the-cheese type).
Met D and R for lunch at the Engine canteen. I must say that things have changed a lot. Everyone has their own perspective about the world and its offerings. D is aiming hard to do well enough to go to grad school…to earn enough money...in order to afford a fuel-powered remote-controlled car costing $400.
R works hard at his CCAs…being the President of the Motoring Club for a second term…in the belief of gaining more contacts that will benefit whatever he does ‘post-LSA 4 year bond’.
And me?
Haha…scoffers may think that I’m just another brain-less, mindless automaton, who “signed his life away to the Army” (as if That’s worse than the Devil taking your soul).
Honestly, they may scoff all they like. I don’t really care.
I’ve got my own plans in life, and the army may be one of the means to fulfill these plans. So do the other people who may also be Army scholars, but hold lesser regard for their own chosen profession, claiming to want to leave after their bonds are ‘up’ for greener pastures. Certainly, doing my post-graduate studies will be high on my agenda as I step out into the world after graduation, come June 2008. So will buying a house, and (possibily) a car, as I plan for my future of adulthood in Singapore (to me, being an adult in Singapore only begins when you start earning your own income, pay your own bills, and live in your own home. Period. The rest are simply rites of passage leading to that).
But I won’t get hung up about it. Cos I know I’ve a duty to do for six years, serving in the SAF.
I may see where certain people are coming from, as they show indifference to their National Service stint, and even their bonds. And I will agree with them to a certain extent that the things that make them unhappy can be felt across the board.
Unfeeling bureaucracy.
Mindless red-tape.
Social inequality – the age-old scholar-farmer debate.
My list could go on.
But inherently, I believe there is good in the system.
And I would like to make a change.
Just like I believe that there is latent good in a world that is claimed to be inherently corrupt.
Just last week, D related an experience which has struck me deeply.
He had been out during the Christmas season, and was on his way home when he noticed a frail old man sleeping at the street-corner. The only possession that he seemed to own, was a battered bicycle that stood beside him as he lay on the cold, cement pavement.
Something came over D, a sense of responsibility for society? Something greater perhaps?
He went into the nearby 7-Eleven, and bought a packet of sandwiches. He brought them to where the old man lay, and hung the packet on the bicycle handle. He walked off silently into the night…
I’ve begun to understand abit more his reason for not attending church on Sundays anymore. I don’t condone his missing presence from God’s house on the Sabbath.
But I don’t condemn him either.
For who are we, human beings, to condemn a fellow human – into eternal damnation…for slipping on the lyrics of a hymn? For not tithing a ‘pleasing amount’? For skipping the sermon and entering the sanctuary for communion?
Who are we to judge?
posted by Nian Long at 1/15/2007 05:14:00 PM
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