Wednesday, October 28, 2009

A Letter To Jasper

Dear Jasper,

Firstly, Welcome To This World!

I am not sure whether you will be chinese or english educated, so I guess I would just use the international language since you are gonna live in Singapore at least for quite sometime and so it is impossible for you to dislike english, like me.

Ok, probably now I dont hate English, because now most of the time I had no choice but to use it. But last time when I was young, I really hate English. I always questioned why I had to learn 3 languages when people all around me just used 1 language plus a dialect. Because I am chinese-educated, i seldom got the chance to use english, and so I disliked it because by studying 1 more language means I got 1 less slot for play time. Therefore, my English sucks, and so next time when you grow up, I suggest you to use chinese when talking to me for better communication.

You would probably ask me, why you still learn it when you hate it? My answer would be, this is not like a survey questionaire where you can put a tick beside your favoured language. No box, all are under *required field. In other words, you got no freedom. But you are lucky because the place that you are living in, your *required field is only 2 languages. I dont think you would want to choose BM which is so damm useless in the country that you are staying in. Even for me, I regret for putting so much effort in BM when I was younger because it got no other use now unless for cursing.

No matter what, my advice to you is have a good command of English, because with it, you are 1 class higher. I dunno why, but the whole world think like this. And please do not hate chinese like some singaporean. Not because you will have a hard time talking to me, it is because no matter what, you are still a chinese. Your skin colour cant change to 'angmor' white. The person that I know of changing his skin colour is no longer living in this world but he is very influential and so you will sure find out who is him. 1 clue for you, he can be linked to Mr. Armstrong.

And if you can, please go and learn more languages. Japanese, Korean, French, Spanish, Italian...etc. You may say it's useless to learn so many languages but trust me, they will come in handy as you would never know who you gonna curse or court. Ok, maybe you can dont learn Italiano because Italian used hand signals most of the time. Not because they cant speak, I think because of their culture. You cant expect the GodFather to talk so much during gunfight rite?

But you do not need to worry about languages for now as you only can communicate using 1 language, which is to CRY. You cried to annouce that you have arrived to this world; you cried to tell your parents that you are hungry; you cried when you sense that there is danger in order for the adult to put you to safety.

I suddenly realised, there is no clue to show that life can be joyful. Laughter is useless after all. Human are easily depressed. 10 good things that happen in the day couldn't compensate a bad news received at night before you sleep. Even when 10 friends praised you, you would still feel sad after a stranger scolded you as stupid pig. Our happiness is not long-lasting, nor it is firm and solid. But, sad and misery were crucial for our living. Imagine if our ancestors living inside the cave are always so happy and joyful that they neglect the danger of the predators camping outside the cave, then I guess they could not live long gua. Therefore, joy and happinesses are nothing but just a trick that we played on ourselves. Well, if you want to argue about this, do it after you have seen any new born babies that come to this world along with laughter.

Jasper, as you grow up, you will find out that we like to create something that we hate it.

Example, 'Monday'. Monday is the indication of the end of vacation, the start of work and study.

We created Monday ourselves, and then we hate it. But if you ask me, since we hate it so much, why dont we let it come only once a month?

Well, Jasper, I think I could not answer this question.

We also created this thing called 'COMPETITION', which will make us unhappy. I know, there is a need for competition. Just like the gazelle being eaten up by the leopard because it runs slower, the shorter plant could not enough sunlight compared to the taller plant, etc. But these are just the basic law of the nature. It is not the same as human's competition. We are so insane that we will go to the extent of calculating who runs faster than who by 0.01 second and who scores higher than who by 0.1 mark. Then, different movies shown in the cinema are competing among themselves; different songs standing on the billboard are also competing among themselves; those rich people are also competing to get to the top position of a chart created by some stupid magazines; those pretty girls are also competing among themselves to be the Miss World or Miss Universe, like she is going to represent us to meet up with the aliens from outerspace.

This is like, Strawberry and Rose, which are more red? Cloud and Moon, which are fairer? Which idiot would be interested in these thing?

But ironically, a lot of people take these competitions seriously. And I am one of them. No question about it.

You will be the same too, Jasper.

As you get older, you will involuntarily enter into different types of competitions. And soon you will become competitive. And soon you will end up judging people by using 'success' and 'failure' as the only gauge.

Well, there is nothing wrong about it. But when you start to feel that this 'success' and 'failure' thingie make you feel sad and depressed, make you doubt about your existence in this world, or even make other people around you to feel uncomfortable; I guess that should serve as a warning alarm to you.

Then, when you get even older, you will realise, all those tears, sweats and efforts that you put in just to obtain the top 3 position in class or to emerge as champion in some nonsense competitions are all so laughable. LOL.

And then when you get old enough, some people who have nothing else better to do will start to ask you some stupid questions. An example of these question is, "What would you choose for, a good-looking appearance(handsome), or a good-functioning brain(smart)?"

If you ask for my answer, it would be, "Good-looking."

It is not because I looked ugly now. It is because, you will know whether you are good-looking or not as soon as you look into the mirror. But you probably will not know that you got a stupid brain until the rest of your life.

If really there were someone asking you this question, and you feel like entertaining them, I don't mind that you copy my answer since you are my nephew.

So, this is a basic and simple introduction of the world that you gonna live in for quite a long time. Well, things that I mentioned are mostly my interpretation after arriving here earlier than you for 20+ years. If it doesn't fit for your generation, it is my bad. Everything will change, isn't it?

Therefore, my words might not be true after all. Haha. Well, what do you expect? I am just 21 years older than you, not like I am some willy old wise man that gone through all the experience in life....

So, you will have my blessings upon your arrival to this world. Remember, cry and laugh when you feel you need to, even when you think you have to cry and laugh at the same time. It is not that you are insane, it is just some precious moment of your life experience in this world.

That's all for now. Take good care. Ok, I think my bro and sis-in-law will take good care of you. Till then, bye!


Yours sincerely,
Uncle Soon.