I find people
fascinating. I tend to be attracted to people who have quirky sense of humour
and are open to exchanging their stories and sharing their thoughts. I like to
think that I am open minded and versatile in accepting what comes may but in
reality I find that everyday can be a challenge as it is never easy to just
accept what you see and what you hear without feeling affected or forming an
opinion, a conclusion or a thought. It is never easy to interact with
opinionated people but I figure if I stop listening to people who are
opinionated, I am just becoming as close minded as these people.
Maybe it is the hot and
humid weather, maybe it is the bad traffic, almost everyday I encounter errant
and impatient drivers and motorists on the road. I also encounter drivers who
do not seem to notice that they are obstructing traffic or entrance to a
parking lot.
Today when I approached the
driveway that led to my office car park, I honked as I sighted a truck that was
parked at the entrance to my office car park. After some honking, the driver stepped down from his truck asking me to
wait. He had this hostile look on his face and I decided to stay cool although
I very much wanted to insist that he moved his truck. It was then I wish I could do some kicks and flicks
just like in one of those Hongkong kung fu movies. I thought of calling up my
office and ask one my of male staff to speak to him. At that moment, a couple of police officers walked out with one of my office staff members who immediately walked up to the
truck to speak to the driver who finally budged.
When we returned to work
on Monday, we found an authorized car parking at our office compound, and due
to the way the car was left in the middle of our parking lot, we could not fit
in all our cars. This morning my office decided to make a police report. That
was why the police and policewoman had been called upon to pay a visit to the
site. It is still a puzzle as to who could have left his or her car unattended
in a private car park. If I let my mind wander, it is a mystery. Maybe it is
just one inconsiderate act of some driver, nothing more. It is definitely a
good opening line for a story.
While everyone must fend for himself or herself, he or she
must not be oblivious to basic civic courtesies. These days whenever I come
across a kind soul or someone with manners, I feel grateful. The truck driver
definitely behaved unreasonably when he expected me to wait for him to unload
the stuff he was delivering even
though he was blocking my driveway. I could not help feeling that his refusal
to shift his truck was a deliberate act
as a form of retaliation because I started honking or that I am a woman.
You reap what you can while you can and you act according to your own whims and needs. That seems to be the
motto for a lot of people to live
by in a material world. As one goes about in their daily life doing things that matter to them, one can become overly self serving and success oriented that one neglects
to examine one’s ethics and behaviour. No matter where we live or travel to, we will find that ethics, kindness and empathy are code of behaviour that matters to all.
Le Divorce is a
fiction that is sassy and stylishly written by Diane
Johnson. It is a delightful read since the day Isabel Walker lands
herself in Paris to offer help and moral support to her stepsister, Roxy, a
poet and an expectant mother who is going through a divorce from her artistic
French husband. Their brother, Roger, a successful lawyer in San Francisco is
into gun control issues ever since a gunman entered his office building and
gunned down fourteen lawyers and clients only two floors below his office.
‘What surprised him, he said ,
was that when people heard about the massacre they at first were appalled, but
then very quickly, seeking as one does cosmic explanations for tragedy on a
this scale, explained it to themselves by saying, with the radiance of sudden
comprehension, “Ah,but they were lawyers.”
“In the same tone as they would
say,”After all ,they were only dogs,’ Roger said. He had never thought of
himself as a member of an undesirable social category, and he was shocked. “I
knew they hated lawyers, but I didn’t know how much,” he said, a note of
self-pity in his voice.’
In the
story, Mrs Pace, a famous American
writer living in Paris gave a reading of her memoir- in-progress. Someone asked
Mrs Pace.
‘“How do you remember
everything, or do you take notes?”
This was a question that
interested her. She leaned forward.
“I ‘ve never understood the
proper role of memory in life. I feel I may have spent too long assembling the
materials for my memoir and not enough just getting on with it , but I had a
dread of being pulled back into the past, to the detriment of day-to-day life,
as if you can’t live in two places. In principle memory is to inform the
present, by allowing you to learn from your mistakes. Why go back? I am not by temperament an historian. I
would rather think about the present.”’
In this farce,
both Rox and Isabel have to face up to issues about morals, money and marriage
and their tale is sprinkled with drama and humour. Here is a take when someone
was found dead in the building.
‘Anne-
Chantal laughed merrily to think of Madame Florian and a corpse. Only then did
Roxy begin to feel how unnatural was this gaiety that seemed to attend the
death of a stranger, or perhaps even someone known to them , in her own
hallway. But it is a way that
French have, too ,of dealing with grave things, the way the Chinese are said to
laugh when you fall down in an embarrassing wan and may have hurt yourself.’