the roads are getting nearer
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Sunday, September 04, 2005
` Sunday, September 04, 2005
In my opinion, Mitch Albom writes simply but effectively. No endless meandering of words to get to the crux of a story, which was refreshing for a change.
Reading The 5 People You Meet in Heaven was heart-wrenching in some instances and thought-provoking the next. Which was why I picked up Tuesdays with Morrie subsequently from the bookstore shelves, eagerly anticipating to learn about the finer lessons in life that were much ignored in the daily grind of days past.
With no offence to the book, I thought of the 3 people I might meet in Heaven (if I do make it there of course):
Person #1: The childhood bully who snatched my yellow plasticine animal on the schoolbus home and threw it out of the window. On top of making my life an absolute living hell for the rest of my kindergarten years by traumatising my rides home and conscientiously avoiding (out of fear) to walk through his parents' shop below the apartment block where I used to live, much to my family's amusement.
I would like to thank him for my somewhat testosterone-charged later years, accomplishments included punching a cherubic 7-year-old boy in the stomach after much taunting, and becoming part of the Mean Girls alumni in the secondary school and junior college years. Have I mellowed over the years? Does attempting to wear skirts and cursing in limited Hokkien and Cantonese count as My Fair Lady -worthy? Did I tell you how keen I am to take the mickey out of him if our paths were to cross one fine day?
Person #2: The kind elderly lady at an old folks home ten years ago, who told me how much she appreciated just listening to me clumsily tinker on the faded ivories, and how I reminded her of days past. I'd like to thank her, on my parents' behalf, that all the money they've spent on trying to make me the next Vanessa Mae have at least been appreciated in an intangible way, far more valuable than a recording contract and performances at the Royal Albert Hall. Then again, if only I had resolved to finish the final grade 8 theory paper...
Person #3: Mr Z, a very senior executive whom I was convinced pre-meeting, was going to dismember me with a hatchet and feed me to the vultures, just to teach me a painful lesson for my lack of work experience and feckless youth. Armed with b*lls of steel (prosthetic ones, of course) and a going-to-die attitude, I faced up to a half-hour prickly business discussion with the man, who was not only physically imposing but kept me on my toes with his booming voice, only to get a pat on the shoulder at the end of the session with a chirpy "You're very good". I would like to express utmost gratitude to the man for puncturing the very essence of my delusional pessimism and wanton humility.
Somehow, the lessons learnt in life come from the people whom you least expect to leave an impression.