A journey into the past

We made a slow drive to old Penang city
A small island a hundred miles to the north
To meet with old friends from our university
Not knowing what the day will bring forth

It was a little more than five years past
Since we last set foot on the island shore
And now we have the chance, at long last
To see what for us it has in store

While driving through each busy crowded street,
Past each rustic shop-house, each transient shadow cast,
The city seemed not to have come forward, for me to greet,
Instead, I felt, I have gone back to its lingering past.

Soon we arrived, somewhat dazed, at the old hotel
A towering twenty-storey resort by the beach
For my wife, this place rings a nostalgic bell
For she had been here twice, for courses to teach

The grand old tower has not changed much
Over the rippling course of flowing time
From old wooden panels that felt rough to the touch
To the wobbly taps and the sound of lifts arriving with a chime

There was but one journey left for us to complete
To which this long awaited trip must pertain
It was a journey not by any road or street
But one to be made on memory lane.

To be continued . . .

I think, therefore I write

Je pense . . .

"Je pense, donc je suis", wrote René Descartes, the French mathematician who invented the Cartesian coordinates system in the 17th century.

Descartes also wrote it in Latin, "Cogito, ergo sum" in another work of his.

In English, it is that well-known saying that many of us have heard of,

"I think, therefore I am".

It tells us that we are what we think in our thoughts. Our character, our personality, and our disposition is composed by our thinking.

This idea did not originate from the 17th century.

A similar statement was written more than two thousand years earlier, around the 6th century B.C. by King Solomon in the ancient kingdom of Israel, in his "Sayings of the wise", the book of Proverbs which subsequently became part of the Old Testament of the Bible.

"For as a man thinketh, so is he . . ." , wrote King Solomon in Proverbs 23:7 KJV

King Solomon's complete statement says, "For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee.", telling us that a person's real character comes from what he thinks inwardly, not what he says' to you outwardly.

A similar saying also exists in an ancient Chinese proverb, in the Cantonese dialect, that says,

"You know a person's face, but you do not know his heart"

Again, this statement tells us that a person's thoughts and intents make him the person he is.

As such, we cannot really know a person just by listening to his words, or seeing his deeds. We can only be certain if we know what he is thinking in his heart.

If only we can see what everybody is thinking. If only we know what's in their hearts.

There is, however, one group of people whom we can know very well by their actions.

They are writers.

Writers write what they think. A writer thinks, therefore he writes. If you want to know a writer's heart, read his books.

"Je pense, donc j'écris". I think, therefore I write.

Do manners make a man?

"Manners maketh man", they say.

This well known expression is said to have been coined sometime around the 15th or 16th century by a headmaster of a well-known school in England.

It is often taken to mean that good manners distinguish human beings from animals.

The notion that a person's manners make him man, or woman as the case may be, simply because animals are not capable of such a thing called "manners", led me to ask myself another question, a provoking one:

If good manners make us human, what do bad manners make?

That is, if a person of good manners clearly distinguishes himself from "mannerless" beasts, what about a person of ill-manners? Is that person still human?

In other words, can we point to a rude, uncouth, foul-mouth, ill-mannered person and say,

"Behold, a man, who is clearly not a beast!"

Or should we instead point to a mannerless animal and utter,

"Behold, an animal who is not ill-mannered at all"

I write this today after having recently pondered over a few encounters with some rude, some vulgar and some hostile people, and sadly, some of whom used to be my friends.

One insulted me badly by throwing almost every expletive he could find under the sun at me over a simple disagreement. Another made a maliciously false and slanderous remark at me when I complained, politely, about not being told of an event that I would have liked to take part in.

There was also a friend with whom I have worked together in a group for more than two years, who lashed out with a much hatred and anger at a couple of our group members for merely suggesting that he should stop doing some things that are unhelpful to others.

Of course, I have had my share of impolite colleagues who ignored my "Good morning" and refused to acknowledge my "Thank you" on some occasions. I have also lost count of the rude and and inconsiderate drivers on the road, who cut me off in highly dangerous situations almost causing me to meet with accidents. And the irritating "hand-phone" guy ahead of me at the intersection, who is oblivious of the traffic-lights turning green, causing me to wait for the lights to change another full cycle.

"Such ill-manners, such inconsiderate behaviour, such abusive and unpleasant words, . . . such beasts", I thought to myself.

It makes me realise that "Ill-manners degrade man", that a man of poor manners is worse than a mannerless animal, for as much as an animal by nature knows not how to behave politely nor courteously, the very same animals also know not how to behave rudely nor discourteously.

Animals, by virtue of their inability to use language, do not insult, neither do they slander nor do they curse, nor hurl malicious accusations at others.

Animals have no manners: neither good nor bad.

When man loses his good manners, he has lost to an animal. An ill-mannered man is no longer man, he is not even beast. He has descended to a place lower than the animal kingdom.