good evening ladies and gents, i lost my wallet. in fact, it was most likely pick pocketed.
and that kind of sucks. all my cards, my identification, everything, gone. poof. which is kind of troublesome and annoying, and not to mention there was about a hundred dollars total in there.
ah well, and that slimy bugger can't even be bothered to just mail me my ic back or something. but whatever.
honestly though, i really am not too affected by my lost. sure, i had to walk home from bukit timah that day, but i enjoy long walks anyway (although it'd have been better if i had company), and i am about a hundred dollars poorer as a result of this, and i'd have to replace my ic, my bank cards, and all the cool stuff that i had in my wallet are all gone. plus it was a wallet that i quite liked.
but hand on heart, i'm calm about this whole episode and i'm a little surprised at just how composed, almost nonchalant, i am about losing my wallet.
i saw this book with a totally awesome title a couple of weeks back and i just had to pick that up and borrow it.
the lord of the rings and philosophy, it read.
2 thoughts came into my mind the moment i saw the book: either it is going to be the coolest and most awesome read, or its going to be complete trash - just some pseudo-profundity based on an incredible piece of literature that has an enormous fan base.
i was kind of leaning towards the later, but come on, its the lord of the rings, and philosophy. how i can ever live with myself if i didn't give it the benefit of the doubt and give it a shot, i do not know.
so borrow it i did, and reading it i still am.
i'm about halfway through (i'm reading like 3 different books altogether, not quite out of choice, but out of necessity) and there are some really interesting things written in there that i've never quite considered about tolkien's masterpiece and i'm almost tempted to re-read the entire trilogy all over again now.
the second chapter of the book is titled, the quest for happiness.
i enjoyed the chapter very much and in a particular essay, the author submits that in the lord of the rings, tolkien gives us his take of the pursuit of happiness, and there are, in summary, 6 keys to happiness.
of the 6, i'll just highlight the first 2: take delight in simple things, and to make light of your troubles.
nothing too complicated right? (whoever said that philosophy is chim and not practical? well, i've been reading a little of plato's discourses and they are MIND-BOGGLING, so much that i had to re-read a particular paragraph 4 times to get an idea about what socrates was going on and on about, and my head hurt after a while, but that's besides the point.)
so, make light of your troubles.
i think i've been doing just that. i haven't been whining, and honestly, i'm managing to see the funny side to my predicament, and i'm going about replacing my things in a oh wells kind of manner.
but more importantly, i think, the key to happiness is to take delight in simple things, and there are delightful simple things abound recently.
my children are always a joy, and recently, they've taken to talking to me about they're crushes and "girlfriends/boyfriends" and that kind of stuff, and i've been wading in with encouragement and "advice"; i was quite the charmer in primary school after all, although the children always respond with mock puking and disbelief.
also, playing football is some thing that i really love and for the past few weeks, starcraft 2 has taken up a big part of my time (well, some will say that starcraft 2 is the furthest thing from simple - after all it's 12 years of wait, 5 years of development at least, millions of dollars spent and $109 an investment - and i'd tend to agree, but this is my post, so i get the right to get away with something like that. home ground advantage of sorts.
but most importantly, i've just started teaching literature. i'm actually doing this as a favour to a friend, she said that she's struggling with her lit just months before her 'o's and asked me for help, and so i agreed to teach both her friend and herself. she stays really far(ang mo kio), and i didn't ask about the pay at all, so in all likelihood i'm not going to be paid for this, but i'm having a ball of a time teaching.
first of all, i enjoy teaching, and i think i'm fairly useful as a teacher. on top of that, i'm relishing the chance to have older students, people who are more mature, whereby i actually get to be less of a lecturer, but more of a communicator, people whom i can joke around with, almost like friends, and that is always cool. very enjoyable. lastly, literature. very cool stuff. very fun subject to teach, so of course i'm deriving a lot of pleasure teaching these 2 girls, despite the distance and travelling time, in spite of the lack of remunerability.
so i'm genuinely enjoying what i'm doing - the simple things.
something that i want to highlight real quickly though is that of the 6 keys to happiness, money is absent.
now this is probably not a surprise to many. money, as the saying goes, cannot buy happiness. yes, we all know that line.
but as my pastor likes to say, "truth doesn't change lives. it is only when truth is applied that we change.".
how so very true. maybe it is time that we stop merely knowing that money is not a requisite to happiness and start considering how we are actually work this knowledge into our daily consideration, into our actions, into our decision making.
and really, how amusing is that when some people are sporting the most expensive labels, wearing the most costly threads, carrying the most branded bags but don't have the disposition to carry them off. they look cheap, like they are wearing imitated goods, and they are hilarious.
confidence is free. sense of style is free. good looks is free.