Between lanterns and a galaxy of stars

文章标题：Between lanterns and a galaxy of stars
文章作者：Geoff Tan
发表日期：2008年9月15日
发表媒体：《我报》My Paper

In an affluent and developed nation such as Singapore, it is not uncommon for many of us to compare ourselves with those who have more.

For this very reason, there are a bunch of us who seem to think that we need to continuously strive to earn that extra dollar or to climb another rung of the corporate ladder.

But let’s look at it this way: If we look up only at the wealthier and more successful, we will feel that what we have in life is never ever quite enough.

Being caught up in a hectic rat race of sorts, we don’t seem to have the capacity to stop for a moment and to take a good look around us. We blame this on the “fact” that we are constantly busy and that time is not on our side.

Even if we could somehow find the time, we would probably spend it on the pursuit of professional advancement and personal pleasure.

However, looking in the other direction towards those who seem to have less can evoke a slew of varied responses.

We could look down on these menial folk with disdain and accuse them of not putting in enough effort to match acceptable societal benchmarks.

It could also bring us to inwardly gloat over our self-made success without much concern about anyone else.

On a nicer note, it could cause us to appreciate the fruits of our hard work and the blessings which have been bestowed upon us.

Hopefully, that will be enough for us to make a concerted effort to offer something back to the community.

How life pans out depends on the perspective you take or are capable of taking.

To illustrate this point, let me share this story:

The head of a very wealthy family took his son on a trip to a country with a less-than-noble purpose of showing him how poor people live. They spent a couple of days and nights on the farm of what would be considered a very poor family.

On their return, the father asked his son: “How was the trip?”

“It was great, Dad,” the son replied.

“Did you see how poor people live?” the father asked.

“Tell me, what did you learn from the trip?”

The son answered: “I saw that we have one dog and they had four. We have a pool that reaches to the middle of our garden and they have a creek that has no end. We have imported lanterns in our garden and they have a whole galaxy of stars at night.

“Our patio reaches to the front yard and they have the whole horizon. We have a small piece of land to live on and they have fields that go beyond our sight.

“We have servants who serve us, but they serve others. We buy our food, but they grow theirs. We have walls around our property to protect us, they have friends to protect them.”

The boy’s father was speechless.

Then, his son added: “Thanks, Dad, for showing me how poor we are.”

There are many of us here in Singapore who may think we are rich. Perhaps so, but probably from a one-dimensional perspective.

The story above seeks to make the point that there will be others out there who will perceive your situation very differently.

It may not be a case of one being right and the other being wrong – it’s probably more of a situation where we should always strive to also look at things through other people’s eyes.


The writer is a senior vice-president of the SPH marketing division and the general manager of SPH NewMedia for Zapcode.