I love Sundays, don't you? Usually, I spend my time on household chores, blogging, reading and napping. Today was a sharp contrast from the normal routine.
After two loads of laundry, sweeping, mopping and blogging three posts, I hurriedly drove at almost breakneck speed to my friend's restaurant Zealand Cafe at Gurney Drive to meet two former students, Kanatcha and Kuan Ju.
I thought it would be the usual reunion with good food, plenty of laughter, photos and reminiscing. Boy oh boy! I was so wrong.
By the time I passed Gurney Plaza, my car started spluttering and when I stepped on the accelerator, the car seemed to slow down. My heart sank. I looked at the fuel gauge and the indicator was way below the E sign!!! By then, I was just in front of Bella Vista Apartments.
Those of you who know me are aware that I have this hangup about filling the petrol tank. I had not gone out of the house for four days as it is school break and since I had been hibernating at home for the past four days, I had absolutely no idea that my tank was that thirsty!
Quick thinking was needed. Do you believe in miracles?
Amazingly, as my car slowed down, I reached an empty parking lot and swerved into the space on free gear!!! Then I called my hubby who was having lunch with my boy. As expected, there was no rebuke from him and he said he would sort it out for me.
Hastily, I walked in the hot sun all the way to Zealand Cafe, met up with the girls, chatted with the suave owner and his lovely wife and ate far too much for my waistline.
In 1995, Kanatcha was my Sociology student and also in my guitar class together with Kuan Ju and Amy Leitch who now resides in New Zealand. Kanatcha who works with Accenture (Singapore) just got married last November and will be be leaving for Australia to begin a new life there. How time flies indeed! The girls could still remember how to play "If" by Bread, one of the many songs that I taught them in the guitar class. At one point, all of us could pluck along exactly like in the original :-)
As I sat there with them, my heart was filled with pride as I looked at the girls - they were roomates in the boarding house for three years and Kuan Ju and Amy were Kanatcha's bridesmaids during her wedding held in Melbourne. Life is beautiful when we have real and longlasting friendships with people whom we love!
By the time I reached home, I rested, read a bit and then it was time for my Wing Chun class which is more than always filled with scolding from my sifu. Today was no exception. In fact, it was worse today as I had not had my classes for a few weeks as sifu was busy.
I will spare you the boring details of the different moves I had to go through which were so tiring and triggered my back pain and sciatic nerve pain, largely because I had to keep the basic triangular centerline position for so long and had to observe balance, posture and be relaxed and not too tensed when I went through the different moves.
I got scolded when I was too tensed as sifu said it would reduce my punching speed and power. So I had to be 'soft' and yet, not too soft/relaxed. My arms are aching terribly for when he hammered my arms with punches I had to deflect the blows much to my horror. And why? That is because today's lesson centred on the Wing Chun punch and the need to deliver my punch centrally from the my chest rather than diagonally from the shoulders. This is in line with the centerline concept. Sifu said that later on, I would have to learn how the punch is delivered diagonally from the shoulder to the centerline.
Initially, I had a gala time dishing out blow after blow on sifu's chest. And then when it was his turn to attack and my turn to resist, it was a nightmare and he pummelled my chest!!!!! Suffice to say I feel like a punctured car tyre, battered and worn out. Needless to say, I screamed and protested etc etc with all the drama but my boy did better. Well, that is not fair because my boy learnt wushu for three years and has a better foundation in footing than I do and also sharper reflexes. After some time sparring and complaining, I asked for time out while my boy continued with the lesson. I comforted myself with the knowledge that if I do succeed in mastering Wing Chun (very remote possibility!!!) , sifu said that I would be able to defeat a stronger person if and when I can use my structure effectively.
I shuddered when sifu said that things will get rougher when he taught us the different kicks. Then he showed us his sparring bruises - swollen sprained thumb, sprained elbow, swollen parts on both legs etc. *sigh* Not an easy martial art form to learn but I must say that it has given me added confidence. So right now, I feel so tired with aches and pains and bruises all over and I am beginning to wonder if I am sane. No matter what, I will not give up but will persevere to learn more!!! I would encourage you to take up a martial arts form because it can do wonders to your life.
Have a lovely evening dear reader and may the rest of the week be filled with precious moments and wonderful achievements!
This morning, I came across this article which was published on 27th February 2007. I am posting it here because the contents therein are excellent.
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DELUSION DESTROYS DEMOCRACY - written by Joel Hirschhorn
President Bush is deeply delusional, and so are millions of Americans. So much delusional thinking is detroying American democracy. We need more direct democracy opportunities.
Will Americans learn to trust their fellow citizens or stay stuck on stupidly backing serial political betrayers?
I have been watching films from the 1940s and 1950s about World War II. It was well known that Adolph Hitler was truly delusional. His delusions prevented him from accepting wisdom and facts from experienced military officers and others, and caused millions to suffer and die. Surely George W. Bush resembles Hitler psychologically. His obsessive delusions about his Iraq war are also causing incredible suffering and death, as well as squandering our nation’s wealth.
Our constitutional democracy makes it nearly impossible to free the nation from the grip of a seemingly sane but deeply delusional president. The present constitutional provision for impeachment is clearly inadequate. As with Hitler and other delusional tyrants, Bush has surrounded himself with sycophants that share his delusions, and perhaps nurtured them, and refuse to tell the emperor that he has no clothes. Congress, even under Democratic control, commits negligent cowardice. And our mainstream press has not rallied the nation to free itself from misused presidential power.
Also clear to some of us is that the delusional Bush has survived because delusion runs rampant across the nation, blocking populist actions in the national interest. Here are the main states of American delusion:
Millions of Americans persist in believing, contrary to all historical evidence, that changing control of Congress and the Executive Branch between Democrats and Republicans produces sorely needed reforms. But mainstream politicians are serial betrayers. Thus, people suffer from delusional political faith.
Millions of non-wealthy Americans believe that the economy works for them. This persists despite reams of facts that show how working- and middle-class people are not receiving their fair share of national income and wealth. They keep running on a debt treadmill that will not take them to the proverbial American dream. What they get is economic insecurity, inequality and injustice. Consumer confidence is an oxymoron. This is delusional prosperity.
Viral delusional thinking is that America sets the gold standard for democracies. The rest of the world, however, to its credit sees an arrogant nation with a government that uses its military strength foolishly and sees its policies rewarding the rich at the expense of all others. People from Finland to New Zealand question why Americans do not receive universal health care, why its workers are sacrificed for global trade and corporate powers, why millions of its citizens go hungry and homeless, why so few people bother to vote, why so many politicians are convicted of crimes, and why there are more people in prisons than in all other countries combined. Yet Americans by and large keep thinking that their constitutional republic gives them first class democracy. This is delusional patriotism.
So, what are we to do? Keep expressing dissent by marching and protesting in the streets? Keep signing petitions on the Internet? Keep demanding impeachment of Bush? Keep reading and writing angry diatribes on progressive websites? Keep voting for mainstream politicians from the two major parties, hoping for a political messiah? Keep obeying Bush by borrowing, spending, shopping and consuming to keep our debt-ridden nation afloat?
Such activities release anger, but are largely placebo self-medications, unlikely to provide the permanent solutions our nation needs. Protests serve more as entertainment for the nation than a force to tear down the rotten system. Scale is a problem. Maybe if one million angry Americans sat down peacefully in the streets all around the White House, defying police action for many days, just maybe the system would crack. Protests must have a revolutionary character. They must induce fear into the hearts of smug and delusional power elites – like Dick Cheney.
The real needs are structural reforms that combat the major societal delusions that are driving America downhill. We must attack the root causes of problems rather than provide temporary relief or cover-up of symptoms.
Delusional political faith and delusional prosperity require profound reforms in our political system. A new competitive political party is needed. One that is guided by a set of principles that both mainstream Democrats and Republicans can not opportunistically accept, because the principles clearly conflict with their rotten behavior. A recent New America Foundation survey of Californians found that "seven in 10 voters say they often feel they must choose the lesser of two evils; more than half the voters say California needs another major political party."
Delusional patriotism is tougher to remedy. To revitalize American democracy we must have a national dialogue. Heed the words of the great John Marshall: "The people made the constitution, and the people can unmake it. It is the creature of their will, and lives only by their will." And James Madison: "the people have an indubitable, unalienable, and indefeasible right to reform or change their Government, whenever it be found adverse or inadequate to the purposes of its institution." Thomas Jefferson believed that the constitution-drafting process should be repeated by each generation of Americans. That’s what real freedom is all about. A great democracy must be much more than stable – it must be self-correcting.
When a political system no longer deserves trust, citizens must trust themselves. Considering how doggedly our unrepresentative democracy stays under the grip of moneyed special interests and fails large fractions of Americans, more direct democracy aimed squarely at major reforms is desperately needed. That requires a lot more than protesting and ranting. Some urge citizens’ assemblies (see http://www.cusdi.org/ and http://www.healthydemocracy.org/), or national initiative elections (see https://votep2.us/). I and others believe that we have a constitutional right to Article V Conventions (see http://www.foavc.org). However, elitist status quo forces have made the population afraid of such activities – a sick delusional, status quo bias belief. If it persists, Americans will not set themselves free of the oppressive forces that have hijacked their nation. They will keep venting their anger as dissenters or stay distractive consumers rather than work to return power to the people.
LET’S NOT DELUDE OURSELVES THAT ALL WILL BE WELL AFTER BUSH IS GONE. AS AWFUL AS BUSH IS, HE IS A SYMPTOM OF WHAT AILS OUR NATION. Our nation will remain in need of deep reforms. Millions of dissidents must wake up to what is really needed and rally around a revolutionary strategy.
written by Joel Hirschhorn
[Check out the author’s solutions for fixing the nation at www.delusionaldemocracy.com; for information on the Article V Convention concept contact him at articlevATgmailDOTcom.]
From the book "Dumbing Down our Kids" by Charles Sykes
This is mistakenly attributed to Bill Gates, as a Speech he supposedly gave at Mt. Whitney High School in Visalia, California.
It is actually from the book "Dumbing Down our Kids" by Charles J. Sykes, 1995, and is directed at high school and college graduates.
Rule 1:
Life is not fair - get used to it
Rule 2:
The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself
Rule 3:
You will NOT make $40,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both
Rule 4:
If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss
Rule 5:
Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping - they called it opportunity
Rule 6:
If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them
Rule 7:
Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you are. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parents' generation, try delousing the closet in your own room
Rule 8:
Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life has not. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as many times as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life
Rule 9:
Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you find yourself. Do that on your own time!
Rule 10:
Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs
Rule 11:
Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.
