On Children II

I just read the email below today.

I am born in the early 80's. However I would still like to congratulate myself for having the luck to grow up as a kid. I am fortunate to be brought up on a farm in Singapore. I have a childhood which I am proud of. My younger days were spent out in the sun, running around barefooted and playing all day. I remember falling off trees and crashing my bicycle after being not able to stop at the end of the slope. I would cry for mummy, get scolded for being silly and then ignored. After a while, I figured out the next best thing to do was to go zooming down that slope again and learning to brake better ...

There was no tuition, not much homework and little of you-got-to-do-this, you-cannot-do-that ... I was left to romp on my own and I think I have done well.

Yups, pat on my own back ...

And once again, thanks mum and dad for bringing me up the way you did.

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TO ALL THE THOSE WHO WERE BORN IN THE 40's 50's and 60's / early 70s

First, we survived with mothers who had no maids. They cooked and cleaned while taking care of us at the same time.
They took aspirin, candy floss, fizzy drinks, shaved ice with syrup and diabetes was rare. Salt added to Pepsi or Coke was remedy for fever.
We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets.
As children, we would ride with our parents on bicycles/ motorcycles for 2 or 3. Richer ones in cars with no seat belts or air bags.
Riding in the back of a private taxi was a special treat.
We drank water from the tap and NOT from a bottle.
We would spend hours on the fields under bright sunlight flying our kites, without worrying about UV rays which never seem to affect us.
We go into the jungle to catch spiders without worries of Aedes mosquitoes.
With mere 5 pebbles (stones) would be a endless game.
With a ball (tennis ball best) we boys would ran like crazy for hours.
We caught guppy in drains / canals and when it rained we swam there.
We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually worry about being unhygenic.
We ate salty, very sweet & oily food, candies,bread and real butter and drank very sweet soft drinks, sweet coffee/ tea, ice kachang, but we weren't overweight because......
WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!!
We would leave home in the morning and play all day, till streetlights came on.
No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K.
We would spend hours repairing our old bicycles and wooden scooters out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes.
After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem .
We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, multiple channels on cable TV, DVD movies, no surround sound, no phones, no personal computers, no Internet. WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!
We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and we still continued the stunts.
We never had birthday parties till we were 21,
We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and just yelled for them!
The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of.
They actually sided with the law!
Yet this generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!
The past 40 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL!

And YOU are one of them!

CONGRATULATIONS!

You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the government regulated our lives for our own good, and while you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave their parents were.

PS -The big type is because all of us have Long-sightedness or hyperopia at our age !!!

Nothing happens by chance

Robert and I talked about forming a C team to participate in the ssra league ever since I started going down to Flynn. We tried to get more players but were not exactly successful. Eventually, we decided that forming a D team could be more realistic for now.

The supposed deadline for registration was 28 Jan 08.

23 Jan 08 (Wed)
I was handing out the forms at NEA. The D team only had Raymond, Robert and I. We needed at least one more player. Nasir agreed to move up from the F team, if necessary.

24 Jan 08 (Thurs)
I was finishing up some work and could not go down to Flynn. Chris called around 8:30 pm to say that Flynn could not form a veteran team due to last minute pull-outs. As such, Chris and Joe asked to join the D team.

Yes, of cos!!!

26 Jan 08 (Sat)
I was reading The Shock Doctrine at Starbucks when I got a call from Anthony. I believe I have met him at the JTC courts before. Last Tuesday, I had asked Kadir to check whether any of the JTC chaps would be keen to play in the D Grade. And Anthony called to say that he had 2 friends who were interested. "Welcome!" I said.

In the end, it turned out to be just one. But what the heck. What more could I ask for.

27 Jan 08 (Sun)
It was going to be Belinda's birthday. We had not seen her for very long and somehow I felt strongly about asking her out for dinner this year. Ansari called a couple of times, could not get her but eventually she called back. Lauren, her now 13-year old daughter, is going to pick up squash in school. For that reason, Belinda is going to pick up the racket again.

And Belinda is going to join the D team! How cool!

28 Jan 08 (Mon)
I called SSRA to express my intention of participating in the league and asked for an extension to submit the necessary forms.

5 Feb 08 (Feb)
I finally faxed the forms over.

My foray back into competitive squash after four and a half years.

On Children

And a woman who held a babe against her bosom said, "Speak to us of Children."
And he said:
Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you, yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts.
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might
that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as he loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable.

- The Prophet, Kahlil Gibran

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I love my parents so
They have sent me forth
To dream
To make mistakes
To learn
To live

Thank you.