An academic title
Is part of an entitlement
Made of
Wood and Ink
And seal

A scholar
Is part of an academy
Made of wisdom and skills
And love

An academic title can be bought
A scholar must be created

So it all started a while ago, when noises started piling up my hidden dirt. How long can one stand not digging them out? For me, it is just as long as I could remember. The hunt for “feeling right” could be forever, so long as you have some imagination or expectation. In my case, it is about convincing me through reasons or logic. Step by step explanation would be the perfect way for me. I might get you slowly, but that is not a matter, I feel comfortable that way. But a hunt could turn into haunt, when you mix two people together, let them be face to face and pointing right, it is not so comfortable now.

So there will be moments where relaxing your arm could help relax the other person’s arm. But there are also some point of time where you will need to keep your right arm straight up and be firm pointing “the” way. It all lies within your values and so it shall dictate your choices or initiative to  lead – whatever. Lead a social movement, lead an argument, lead your friends to camping…lead your child, lead your life.

So this “feel right” factor is just about normal, like everything else I believe, two-sided. If you know it just well, you lead well. If you are too fond of it, you might be bound to a more adventurous and exciting journey.

Every thought and feeling was touched with such intensity. Yet when I sit back and relax, there is a movie in me.

1-0 to any side winning has always been dangerous, your opposition will always try to sneak in a goal and spoil your party. Very often they fight much harder than your try to kill the game or sit behind defending such slender lead.

Last time, Liverpool players defended with random heading for clearance; they attacked in hope for Torres or Gerrard to put the ball behind the net. So many balls flew into the box and bounced back nicely; passes intercepted and a counter crossing from the opposition would have caught the defenders off guard and thus caused the game. Even when they were in the lead, the games were often nervy till the end.

Yet, I saw a grounded Liverpool yesterday.

The starting 11 against Chelsea were Reina, Kelly, Carragher, Skrtel, Agger, Johnson, Lucas, Gerrard, Meireles, Maxi, and Kuyt. One would have thought this team came to defend and counter on a lucky chance. However, there was something else instilled in these players. They were professional. They kept the ball with an eye to win. They defended well and kept finding the frailties in Chelsea. They battled as a team with a lot of confidence.

With their heads high, success was minor to the philosophy and beauty of football and a 1-0 win at Stamford Bridge answered their positive play, attitude, and mentality.

Have I spoken this day of aught else?
Is not religion all deeds and all reflection,
And that which is neither deed nor reflection, but a wonder and a
surprise ever springing in the soul, even while the hands hew
the stone or tend the loom?
Who can separate his faith from his actions, or his belief from his
occupations?
Who can spread his hours before him, saying, “This for God and
this for myself; This for my soul, and this other for my body?”
All your hours are wings that beat through space from self to self.
He who wears his morality but as his best garment were better
naked.
The wind and the sun will tear no holes in his skin.
And he who defines his conduct by ethics imprisons his song-bird
in a cage.
The freest song comes not through bars and wires.
And he to whom worshipping is a window, to open but also to
shut, has not yet visited the house of his soul whose windows are
from dawn to dawn.

Your daily life is your temple and your religion.
Whenever you enter into it take with you your all.
Take the plough and the forge and the mallet and the lute,
The things you have fashioned in necessity or for delight.
For in revery you cannot rise above your achievements nor fall
lower than your failures.
And take with you all men:
For in adoration you cannot fly higher than their hopes nor
humble yourself lower than their despair.

And if you would know God be not therefore a solver of riddles.
Rather look about you and you shall see Him playing with your
children.
And look into space; you shall see Him walking in the cloud,
outstretching His arms in the lightning and descending in rain.
You shall see Him smiling in flowers, then rising and waving His
hands in trees.

Adapted from The Prophet
More from The Prophet can be found at Click Here!

If 10,000 hours is what you need to claim expertise or a solid foundation (on any field), I think I should be quite enlightened by now. Again, life is tough. Where will you go from a Ferris wheel? 360° and you think there are still so much to explore; on one hand, you thought you might have seen enough. Then, everyone comes back to square one.

Life is harsh, tough and I guess a little bit weird. What you think, feel, and understand might all come to a contradictory end. Dilemmas accompanying. Your right hand makes it all right; your left hand is completely not applicable. And this is what I’m trying to look after, the gap between you and yourself; the gap between you and your beloved; the gap between the world and itself, and of course me and myself.

Will it be us making things “too hard” that create these gaps? Well, if so, a sense of humour might be our tool to bridge the gap.

When it comes to humour, I recommend Viktor E. Frankl, Woody Allen, and Bill Shankly. These are some greatest people in their fields and often delight people with their witty words. And it is behind their quotes that I try to understand life on another wheel. A wheel (without a name) of true wisdom riding on a dynamic life.

Finally I wish to share one quote from Bill Shankly with you:
“The trouble with referees is that they know the rules, but they don’t know the game.”

Actions Speak Louder Than Words
Good Actions Speak Louder Than Good Words
Bad Actions Speak Louder Than Bad Words

Without further references, one can easily understand one’s various reactions towards “Good Words” or “Bad Words”. It is also true, at least from my community, that “Bad Words” in the form of criticism, vulgarity, etc are often more heard than “Good Words” like “you have done well”, etc.

Well, from my own reflection, I often reacted very badly towards “Bad Words” and then, felt various negative emotions like sadness, unmotivated, a certain degree of inferiority, etc.

And so one day, things have to make a change. And this is what I decided to do: Reflect. Again.

I then take the reality where people have a choice, a choice to do “Bad Actions”, speak “Bad Words”, do “Good Actions” or speak “Good Words”. I respect these various preferences. And I know my reactions towards them.

And then I rank them in a mini-league. From my most preferred:
No. 1 Good Actions
No. 2 Good Words
No. 3 Bad Words
No. 4 Bad Actions

No prizes for the top-ranked. Rather, I take it this way, when someone react to you by uttering “Bad Words”, please take these words gratefully because they have a choice to do “Bad Actions” for you, but they didn’t. And over the years, I do think some “Bad Words” are actually words that could well tell you how to be better or motivate you to reflect even more.

And if they do “Bad Actions” for you, well, depending on the nature of it, a certain degree of tolerance will be needed. Sometimes you might just call the police. Sometimes you might just ignore it. After all, it’s just a fourth-ranked.

I’m sad that Ghee Leng did not tag me on Facebook. And I feel even sadder soon after for I realize that’s probably because I’m one of his best friends. And we talk about life now and then. Haha! So this post is written in particular with respect to the following extract, not because the rest are not good, it is just that this particular part touches me and helps me expand 我的道路 (my path). For readers’ information, Ghee Leng is practicing Aikido.

“…在這種境界里，每一個對方的動作都看得清清楚楚。沒有什麽分析，沒有什麽害怕。來了，就自然地閃，然後上前持續地與對方交流，直到對方自然的倒下…” (Translation: “…In this realm, all movements are clearly visible. There is no analysis, no fear. When it comes, I dodge naturally, and then interact with my opponent again, until my opponent KO-ed naturally…”)

OK, so after I read the article, I went back searching for one of my old tweets:
“Respect – A term that puzzles me a lot these days”

You might think how this extract leads to respect. So the key part for me is “no analysis” when you “interact with your opponent”. I extended this a bit and for me, it’s about differences in human beings. When you interact with anyone, we usually start with the first impression and then come the perceptions and judgement. This is when the “analysis” part comes in. And we collect as many data as possible. Not just the differences obvious to us, we will try to rank different characters, personalities, qualities, etc etc. Sometimes we don’t even realize it.

However, Ghee Leng’s post strikes me with that interactive portion. When you interact, it’s like dancing, you make a step forward and your partner makes a step back. There’s no way we could see a step forward or a step back as either superior or inferior over another. It is like saying there’s no reason for us to see others as being better or worse, in terms of what they say, what they do, what they think, how they react, etc etc.

I should make a distinction between human differences and the quality of work. I’m only taking “quality of work” as an instance because I could not think of any others now and could not possibly list all of relevance. The idea is that humans are born with conditions and through our development, we draw from assimilation and accommodation. We are made of the past. Why would we want to classify people as if we can dictate our package of conditions come by? On the other hand, we could actually make comments about quality of work. You can either compare between works, or lay out some guidances for one’s production and grade its conformity. We can certainly demand improvements or even reconstruction of our work, but can we demand people as if they are some “work”?

And now back to my puzzle about respect. I have always been asking the same question about respect. I read some materials about respect but I found it extremely hard to convince myself. Not that I can’t understand them, but rather a lack of resonance upon seeing them. So what do I understand now? The internalization is: “Respect” other people, for instance, means listening and responding truthfully and accordingly to others. What this means is that everyone is simply a different mold of conditions and we should take others as equal to ourself and vice versa. There will be no discrimination, no arrogance, no inferiority. Every told story could stand a value. And every response shall recognize it.

I would say that “respect other people” could be extended to our reach of the world too. Whether it be our interaction with trees or animals, or our interaction with concepts or applications, or our interaction with beautiful poems or argumentative essays. With this in mind, we should be able to know how things can be done in different ways from various perspectives.

Finally, I have to stress that this article does not try to define “respect”, it is an article to share an internalization regarding respect. There is no way this is the end and I hope you could share your views with me too.

“Ask yourself, ‘Why did God create but one man?’ ” the Reb said, wagging a finger. “Why, if he meant for there to be faiths bickering with each other, didn’t he create that from the start? He created trees, right? Not one tree, countless trees. Why not the same with man?

“Because we are all from that one man – and all from that one God. That’s the message.”

Then why, I asked, is the world so fractured?

“Well, you can look at it this way. Would you want the world to all look alike? No. The genius of life is its variety.

“Even in our own faith, we have questions and answers, interpretations, debates. In Christianity, in Catholicism, in other faiths, the same thing – debates, interpretations. That is the beauty. It’s like being a musician. If you found the note, and you kept hitting that note all the time, you would go nuts. It’s the blending of the different notes that makes the music.”

The music of what?

“Of believing in something bigger than yourself.”

But what if someone from another faith won’t recognize yours? Or wants you dead for it?

“That is not faith. That is hate.” He sighed. “And if you ask me, God sits up there and cries when that happens.”

Extracted from Mitch Albom’s have a little faith, Page 160 – 161.

This paragraph inspires me to share with others, not confined only to religious views, also other perspectives and elements of life.