I recently re-read Still Alice, after having read Still Alice, inside the O’Briens and Love, Anthony. I guess I just really love Lisa Genova. But I realised I can’t read her books one after another, as they are too heavy, or rather, they leave me feeling too heavy-hearted and pensive. So I Guess that’s why I’m reading a book written by Ellen DeGeneres now, called Seriously… I’m Kidding. Haha. Before that I interspersed her books with a Jack Reacher novel.
However, I have been raving to anyone whom I have more than a 5-minute conversation with, about what a wonderful author Lisa Genova is, and the themes her books explore. After they find out what she writes about, I am often replied with a grimace and an eeugh (that’s my Husband), or if people don’t know me well enough, a polite “oh, I usually don’t like sad stories”. Recently, when I insisted on telling my hubby the storyline of Love, Anthony, he balked and complained “No! No more of those sad stories! I hate hearing about them and i don’t understand why you like reading them!”.
I’m a little puzzled not everyone shares my love of realistic portrayals of everyday life that are immensely thought-provoking. Ok, so it’s not everyday life, as the characters always have some life-threatening or life-altering disease or condition, but they give me such deep, realistic glimpses into people and families who have to deal with such things, which I can relate to as I may have to deal with some form of that in the future either in myself or in my loved ones, that I find it a treasure trove of knowledge and is the best kind of fiction – that shines a mirror on your lives, on our inner lives, our thoughts, that throws us into scenarios both probable and improbable and makes us think what might be our reactions to it (another movie that causes such reflections between me and my husband is Train to Busan, but more of that in another post). And even more importantly, I love it that what she deals with is our mortality. What happens when our days are numbered, when the basic functioning a of life we take for granted are suddenly in decline, how do we cope, how should we cope, what is left? It is like a fictional story of characters having to live with the End in Mind, Steven Covey’s second habit, one which I love, except Lisa Genova explores this with a whole cast of characters, with different personalities, different levels of religiosity (however none of her lead characters were truly religious), types of spouses, kids, careers etc. So, as I said, a treasure trove of information, lives lived before, though they are fiction.
So, what struck me a lot this second time round, reading Still Alice, is the response of her husband John. I found myself seeing him in a kinder light at times, noticing how he is really trying to help her by running with her daily though he hates running, and attending lots of conferences on Alzheimer’s and trying to help her find a cure. However I think he never accepted or came to terms with the fact that his wife had Alzheimer’s and she would eventually lose her mind through a decline. He could not stomach seeing her eat medicines, could not face seeing her struggle with simple things. In the end, he chose to move to New York to take up a Chairman role which was a big coup for his career, even though it meant being far from Alice (I take it that she stayed in Boston with her daughters and son), and one really has to wonder, was that the right choice? If it were me, what would I do?
The book explores questions indirectly like is it worth spending your life and effort taking care of someone who may be more and more incapable of knowing you, and appreciating your efforts. Raise the stakes higher, would you sacrifice a part of your career to do that? The conclusion of the book suggests that yes, it is worth it, because you love the person, and even when someone seems to have deteriorated a lot, there are moments when they recognise you, are clear-headed, and they definitely continue to have feelings and can think at some level. However all that aside, what if that person is in a coma?
Ok, heavy questions (I’m feeling a bit breathless here contemplating all these big questions) and I can only offer a story as an answer. From my own experience.
My grandma had a stroke when I was very young, and she was taken care of by my uncle and his wife for very Long. She was mostly taken care of by his wife, as my uncle was working a lot, and perhaps partly as my grandma was not her mother but my uncle’s, my aunt eventually lost her mind a little from all the work of taking care of an invalid, and my grandma was moved to a home for the elderly. However when my mum saw more and more bruises on my grandma, she couldn’t bear it and took my grandma into our home. My grandma lived more ten years in our home before she passed on, and in that period of time, my parents simply hired a maid and juggled all the duties of working, taking care of me and my grandma as best as they could. They ensured she ate well, was taken care of and spoke to her occasionally (very loudly so she could hear). At one time, she even smeared her faeces all over the wall and my dad had to clean it up. All through it, my parents never complained. I think the answer for me would probably also be pretty straightforward. Family is family. And we have to take care of our family. And like this little placard that hangs on the wall just before we leave the house, “Hope makes things bright, faith makes things possible, love makes things easy.”
Tuesday, September 20, 2016
Saturday, September 17, 2016
Inspiring Creativity in Kids
Being a mother of a two boisterous toddlers, aged 5 and 4, I am a frequent visitor of Toys R Us at Tampines Mall. In fact whenever we eat in that mall it has become their routine to ask to go there right after food. In fact, now if they don’t suggest it, we will, simply to get them to stop staring at our hp screens at some YouTube video or compulsively scrolling through our Pokedex (yep, actually that is their craze now).
After our food, we would sit for a while to let our food digest (all of 2 seconds) before gathering our things and lumbering up to Toys R Us to locate them. They would inevitably be in the same old aisle, depending on what is their obsession at the moment. Once it was Thomas the Train and all the many train characters (Percy, James, Toby, Diesel, Flynn etc) or the more expensive train sets, then it was Star Wars and now it is Pokemon. I find it weird that the toy stores here haven’t caught on to selling Pokemon paraphernalia yet. Perhaps they all predict it is just a fad that will disappear, or the shops had no reaction time as to how hot it will become, or the company didn’t realise this was a lucrative marketing strategy. Anyway I just know that if they started selling Squirtle water bottles, Staryu bags or Eevee cushions, my boys (and me) would be clamouring for them and snapping them up for sure.
So after buying them enough train sets and Star Wars X-wings, Tie-fighters and lego sets to start a small museum, I found myself wandering through other parts of the shop in the hopes of finding other meaningful and fun toys that might engage my boys, with rather limited success. Sometimes I also walk around Kiddy Palace and some other toy shops, to check out their toys collection. It struck me after a while that most of the toys in these toy shops are the same and they all tend to be the convergent toys, meaning there is only one or a few ways to play with them. For example, train sets have only one way of playing with them, many dollhouses (eg Hello Kitty house, Peppa Pig house) have limited ways you can move around the furniture and place the characters, cooking sets where the fruits and vegetables can only be cut in half, and even Lego sets all come with precise instructions now on how to assemble the pieces to get the toy on the cover. There are still the age-old toys like colouring sets, beads, playdoh and toy guns and figurines fashioned after some character (eg superhero, Barbie, some collectible), which you can play with however many ways depending on your imagination, and my kids do like colouring, but aside from that, if your kids are not into those toys, that leaves very little to buy. I tried hunting for divergent, creativity enhancing toys, things which have many many different ways of playing with, but only came up with tangram (such a dull set of pieces, all in one colour and they are quite small and flat which makes it hard to manipulate and they don’t stay put), other forms of blocks, and other educational games which either teach you to spell or to count.
To be fair, you could get the rarer, less common toys if you go to a more inaccessible mall like Tanglin mall or Parkway Parade. I happen to know there are toy shops there that carry more variety of toys, although I must say many still fall under the category of convergent toys. They are nicer-looking convergent toys, but nothing really inspired or jumped out at me there too.
I recently found myself fantasising of the toys I would make if I could. They include:
•Lego bricks that actually have detail on them, eg blocks that suit Roman architecture style, Greek architecture, English cottage style, European castles etc. I used to have a set of building blocks with such pictures on the side but I lost them and can’t find anything like that anymore.
•Dollhouses where the furniture is not one piece but made up of different pieces and styles that you can mix and match, eg the types of legs on the chair or table, the type of cushions and sofa covers you use, different types of lamps, and get this – the characters should have fully movable body parts – waist, arms, legs, head, so you can make them adopt an infinite variety of poses. They can be standing over a stove and cooking, or kicking back and relaxing on a sofa with a tub of ice cream in hand haha, or working on a laptop or sweeping the floor. Wouldn’t that be great? Then you can really do role play and inspire future interior designers🙂
So, I decided last night (when my hubby is overseas again and it is up to me to entertain the kids) to come up with my own humble creativity toy. I borrowed the idea from a girl’s colouring book I saw in Urban Write (the Popular offshoot) where it showed girls in various types of outfits, and hairstyles, but the fun part was how they cut every character in half and you can flip the pages to mix and match tops and bottoms to get new outfit. Some work really well, and some just don’t. I know I spent an inordinate amount of time flipping through all the pages because I was so fascinated. So I did a boys version (no they do not have such a thing, sadly), using Pokemon, their craze of the day, to boot. I was quite pleased with the result, I must say.
So it looks like this.
As part of creativity is mixing two things that are different together and coming up with a new thing, I drew a few of their favourite Pokemon characters on a spiral notebook (the third one is Blastoise, by the way), cut them up into three sections – head, body and legs, but ensuring they are still attached to the spine, and then I showed them how you can flip the pages and have different combinations of Pokemkn characters – eg a Squirtle with Staryu legs, which I called Squiryu. Or a Staryu with a Squirtle body, which I called Startle, haha.
The trick is to make sure the body parts all end at the same points at the page edges so the final character looks seamless. Initially the boys were upset that I cut up their beloved characters, but later I found Hao Yi, my younger boy, flipping through the pages on his own and hopefully, enjoying the different combinations. As you can see, my next step is getting them to Colour them which they are in the midst of doing.
However I do want to add that actually one of the best ways to foster creativity in kids is actually, not to give them any screens, and leave them to their own devices. You may find that they go through an initial frustration mode, and complain that they are booooored, and start rifling through the house for that remote or handphone, but if you stick it out (and you must have faith to do so!), they should eventually be forced to entertain themselves by coming up with something. Heck, impoverished kids who are not exposed to any toys can even make a game out of breadcrumbs, and I used to talk to myself when I was utterly bored, so don’t underestimate the power of forced downtime and open imagination. Of course, telling them stories, reading books (fiction and non-fiction) and talking to them about things around them help to give their minds more fodder to chew on, but stretches of time with nothing to do – it’s an invitation for the mind to come up with new things.
Hope it gave you some ideas for things to do with kids!
After our food, we would sit for a while to let our food digest (all of 2 seconds) before gathering our things and lumbering up to Toys R Us to locate them. They would inevitably be in the same old aisle, depending on what is their obsession at the moment. Once it was Thomas the Train and all the many train characters (Percy, James, Toby, Diesel, Flynn etc) or the more expensive train sets, then it was Star Wars and now it is Pokemon. I find it weird that the toy stores here haven’t caught on to selling Pokemon paraphernalia yet. Perhaps they all predict it is just a fad that will disappear, or the shops had no reaction time as to how hot it will become, or the company didn’t realise this was a lucrative marketing strategy. Anyway I just know that if they started selling Squirtle water bottles, Staryu bags or Eevee cushions, my boys (and me) would be clamouring for them and snapping them up for sure.
So after buying them enough train sets and Star Wars X-wings, Tie-fighters and lego sets to start a small museum, I found myself wandering through other parts of the shop in the hopes of finding other meaningful and fun toys that might engage my boys, with rather limited success. Sometimes I also walk around Kiddy Palace and some other toy shops, to check out their toys collection. It struck me after a while that most of the toys in these toy shops are the same and they all tend to be the convergent toys, meaning there is only one or a few ways to play with them. For example, train sets have only one way of playing with them, many dollhouses (eg Hello Kitty house, Peppa Pig house) have limited ways you can move around the furniture and place the characters, cooking sets where the fruits and vegetables can only be cut in half, and even Lego sets all come with precise instructions now on how to assemble the pieces to get the toy on the cover. There are still the age-old toys like colouring sets, beads, playdoh and toy guns and figurines fashioned after some character (eg superhero, Barbie, some collectible), which you can play with however many ways depending on your imagination, and my kids do like colouring, but aside from that, if your kids are not into those toys, that leaves very little to buy. I tried hunting for divergent, creativity enhancing toys, things which have many many different ways of playing with, but only came up with tangram (such a dull set of pieces, all in one colour and they are quite small and flat which makes it hard to manipulate and they don’t stay put), other forms of blocks, and other educational games which either teach you to spell or to count.
To be fair, you could get the rarer, less common toys if you go to a more inaccessible mall like Tanglin mall or Parkway Parade. I happen to know there are toy shops there that carry more variety of toys, although I must say many still fall under the category of convergent toys. They are nicer-looking convergent toys, but nothing really inspired or jumped out at me there too.
I recently found myself fantasising of the toys I would make if I could. They include:
•Lego bricks that actually have detail on them, eg blocks that suit Roman architecture style, Greek architecture, English cottage style, European castles etc. I used to have a set of building blocks with such pictures on the side but I lost them and can’t find anything like that anymore.
•Dollhouses where the furniture is not one piece but made up of different pieces and styles that you can mix and match, eg the types of legs on the chair or table, the type of cushions and sofa covers you use, different types of lamps, and get this – the characters should have fully movable body parts – waist, arms, legs, head, so you can make them adopt an infinite variety of poses. They can be standing over a stove and cooking, or kicking back and relaxing on a sofa with a tub of ice cream in hand haha, or working on a laptop or sweeping the floor. Wouldn’t that be great? Then you can really do role play and inspire future interior designers🙂
So, I decided last night (when my hubby is overseas again and it is up to me to entertain the kids) to come up with my own humble creativity toy. I borrowed the idea from a girl’s colouring book I saw in Urban Write (the Popular offshoot) where it showed girls in various types of outfits, and hairstyles, but the fun part was how they cut every character in half and you can flip the pages to mix and match tops and bottoms to get new outfit. Some work really well, and some just don’t. I know I spent an inordinate amount of time flipping through all the pages because I was so fascinated. So I did a boys version (no they do not have such a thing, sadly), using Pokemon, their craze of the day, to boot. I was quite pleased with the result, I must say.
So it looks like this.
As part of creativity is mixing two things that are different together and coming up with a new thing, I drew a few of their favourite Pokemon characters on a spiral notebook (the third one is Blastoise, by the way), cut them up into three sections – head, body and legs, but ensuring they are still attached to the spine, and then I showed them how you can flip the pages and have different combinations of Pokemkn characters – eg a Squirtle with Staryu legs, which I called Squiryu. Or a Staryu with a Squirtle body, which I called Startle, haha.
The trick is to make sure the body parts all end at the same points at the page edges so the final character looks seamless. Initially the boys were upset that I cut up their beloved characters, but later I found Hao Yi, my younger boy, flipping through the pages on his own and hopefully, enjoying the different combinations. As you can see, my next step is getting them to Colour them which they are in the midst of doing.
However I do want to add that actually one of the best ways to foster creativity in kids is actually, not to give them any screens, and leave them to their own devices. You may find that they go through an initial frustration mode, and complain that they are booooored, and start rifling through the house for that remote or handphone, but if you stick it out (and you must have faith to do so!), they should eventually be forced to entertain themselves by coming up with something. Heck, impoverished kids who are not exposed to any toys can even make a game out of breadcrumbs, and I used to talk to myself when I was utterly bored, so don’t underestimate the power of forced downtime and open imagination. Of course, telling them stories, reading books (fiction and non-fiction) and talking to them about things around them help to give their minds more fodder to chew on, but stretches of time with nothing to do – it’s an invitation for the mind to come up with new things.
Hope it gave you some ideas for things to do with kids!
Wednesday, September 14, 2016
We are Living in a Material World…
Yesterday I saw a funny wall poster in a mall that said “The biggest regrets in life are the things I didn’t buy”. Funny. Well, I recently learnt a precious lesson on how we ought to relate to material things in life and just want to jot it down before I forget it.
It was my usual Sunday facilitators session and we were preparing notes on Philippians. W, who is finishing up his theology degree and the most diligent of us in preparing notes for each study (I am less regular) was sharing with us that according to a certain Christian teacher, the bible teaches us that helping the poor is not a matter of charity (i.e. voluntary) but justice (i.e. essential). The shoe in our cupboard we have not worn for eons and the food we throw away uneaten are all what we owe the poor. He went on to elaborate why this was so (e.g. often, the poor are that way because of the circumstances they were born in or found themselves in, and not through any lack in personal traits) and assured us that the teacher provided lots of bible verses as reference, which we could check out if we watched the video.
To me, this was the missing piece of the puzzle in my mind on how we should treat material possessions and wealth. Living in Singapore, a country that is as pragmatic and unabashed as they come in its goal to seek and maximise material prosperity (I think even China is more ideological than us), I have been convinced since my JC days that life must be about more than just pursuing material riches. I mentally checked out of this rat race a long time ago and had no trouble accepting the Christian teaching on the deceitfulness of wealth and not pursuing mammon as our God. However I could not find any teachings about not being incidentally wealthy as there are characters in the Bible who were so (eg Job, King Solomon, Abraham) although in my mind I just couldn’t gel a godly person who would at the same time live in a luxury condo (what are you trying to prove? Do you NEED to stay in one? Why not give the money to the poor or a good cause?) or driving a luxury car (same questions). However thus far it seemed like a matter of personal preference, something to be settled between them and God, with no absolute benchmark, and hence I have kept my mouth shut amidst conversations around me of upgrading, going on expensive holidays one after another, and what not. At the same time, I secretly admired the saints throw themselves wholeheartedly into a good cause or who invite the poor into their lives and share everything with them.
So here was a teaching that tells us anytime we have abundance we ought not to gather more but to share. Ok, I Guess different people may have different barometers on what constitutes abundance but it is still a starting point. For me, this settles a Long-Nagging problem of mine and now I am calmly settled in my mind as to how I should treat riches and material things. Have and keep what is necessary, and give away the rest. What liberating teaching!!!
The next step is figuring how this gels with my life with my husband, who umm… doesn’t quite see things the same way I do. Granted I haven’t quite shared this with him yet. I probably should although I wonder if it would make much difference. He drives a luxury car (cos he has to meet investor clients for work) and aspires to live in a condo. So much so that we bought a very expensive penthouse which will be ready by end of the year. Can’t quite back out now. The good thing is he is very open to discussing things with me, but he may not agree with me at the end of the day and I can only advise, not control him. If he insists on doing certain things in ways, we will just have to agree to disagree and to prevent civil strife, I’ll go along with his decision. Which means I’ll be one of those Christians living in a penthouse and owning a luxury car 😟. One of life’s ironies. The silver lining I can see in this is that we will be spending so much of our monthly income on house and car that it will result in us having much less money to spend and hence conversely, we may end up becoming even more generous to the poor, as we will have less in our bank account. Sometimes the more we have, the harder it is to let go. So I can still practice what the Christian teacher said about living simply and giving away unused things but just that we will have much less to give away compared to if we were living in a HDB flat or condo that is less expensive.
So ultimately, it is between us and God. We have to give a reckoning and an answer to God in every decision we made including on stewardship of resources so we just have to be able to live with ourselves.
It was my usual Sunday facilitators session and we were preparing notes on Philippians. W, who is finishing up his theology degree and the most diligent of us in preparing notes for each study (I am less regular) was sharing with us that according to a certain Christian teacher, the bible teaches us that helping the poor is not a matter of charity (i.e. voluntary) but justice (i.e. essential). The shoe in our cupboard we have not worn for eons and the food we throw away uneaten are all what we owe the poor. He went on to elaborate why this was so (e.g. often, the poor are that way because of the circumstances they were born in or found themselves in, and not through any lack in personal traits) and assured us that the teacher provided lots of bible verses as reference, which we could check out if we watched the video.
To me, this was the missing piece of the puzzle in my mind on how we should treat material possessions and wealth. Living in Singapore, a country that is as pragmatic and unabashed as they come in its goal to seek and maximise material prosperity (I think even China is more ideological than us), I have been convinced since my JC days that life must be about more than just pursuing material riches. I mentally checked out of this rat race a long time ago and had no trouble accepting the Christian teaching on the deceitfulness of wealth and not pursuing mammon as our God. However I could not find any teachings about not being incidentally wealthy as there are characters in the Bible who were so (eg Job, King Solomon, Abraham) although in my mind I just couldn’t gel a godly person who would at the same time live in a luxury condo (what are you trying to prove? Do you NEED to stay in one? Why not give the money to the poor or a good cause?) or driving a luxury car (same questions). However thus far it seemed like a matter of personal preference, something to be settled between them and God, with no absolute benchmark, and hence I have kept my mouth shut amidst conversations around me of upgrading, going on expensive holidays one after another, and what not. At the same time, I secretly admired the saints throw themselves wholeheartedly into a good cause or who invite the poor into their lives and share everything with them.
So here was a teaching that tells us anytime we have abundance we ought not to gather more but to share. Ok, I Guess different people may have different barometers on what constitutes abundance but it is still a starting point. For me, this settles a Long-Nagging problem of mine and now I am calmly settled in my mind as to how I should treat riches and material things. Have and keep what is necessary, and give away the rest. What liberating teaching!!!
The next step is figuring how this gels with my life with my husband, who umm… doesn’t quite see things the same way I do. Granted I haven’t quite shared this with him yet. I probably should although I wonder if it would make much difference. He drives a luxury car (cos he has to meet investor clients for work) and aspires to live in a condo. So much so that we bought a very expensive penthouse which will be ready by end of the year. Can’t quite back out now. The good thing is he is very open to discussing things with me, but he may not agree with me at the end of the day and I can only advise, not control him. If he insists on doing certain things in ways, we will just have to agree to disagree and to prevent civil strife, I’ll go along with his decision. Which means I’ll be one of those Christians living in a penthouse and owning a luxury car 😟. One of life’s ironies. The silver lining I can see in this is that we will be spending so much of our monthly income on house and car that it will result in us having much less money to spend and hence conversely, we may end up becoming even more generous to the poor, as we will have less in our bank account. Sometimes the more we have, the harder it is to let go. So I can still practice what the Christian teacher said about living simply and giving away unused things but just that we will have much less to give away compared to if we were living in a HDB flat or condo that is less expensive.
So ultimately, it is between us and God. We have to give a reckoning and an answer to God in every decision we made including on stewardship of resources so we just have to be able to live with ourselves.
Run. Hide. Seek.
I recently finished a trilogy YA dystopian series set in Singapore (what more could I ask for) called Run Hide Seek. And to cap it all off, it's written by a 14 year-old Singaporean girl!!! I was strangely excited and floored and inspired when I found that out. I remember laughing out loud to myself on the train when I read this on my phone and whooping and shaking my head at the same time :) If she can do it, what more us adults? We really have no excuse now.
She is called Gabby Tye and her story on how she wrote this book is quite inspiring. She got this book together when her Mom made her to write 300 words a day instead of watching all this "online nonsense" and before she knew it, she had enough to make a book! Ok so her Mom is a publisher/editor, and is hence in the business, so you could argue unfair advantage, privileged background, but still - it's pretty something huh? She actually made something out of it, when many other privileged kids probably don't. Having written many stories since my childhood days and not having finished many long ones, I can tell you what she did takes a lot of perseverance, and her imagination was quite brilliant too.
Though the thick pages and more widely-spaced words take getting some used to, her story sucks you in right away as its always fast-paced, and written like an action movie. When I read it, the similarities with some other popular books/movies immediately struck me, but they are not complete rip-offs, more like a blend of Hunger Games meets World War Z meets Maze Runner meets Divergent. Yes, ALL my favourite movies/books. What’s not to like?!!🙂. When I was in a scriptwriting course this was an exercise my teacher taught us to generate fun, creative plot lines and ideas when we are dry – randomly pick two movie titles from a bag and try to come up with a logline blending them together. Eg I may pick Jurassic Park and Matrix. So a logline may be – the story of how a person is the chosen one to go back in time and save the dinosaurs, but he wakes up and it’s all a dream or an alternate reality. Ok I’m totally making that up but I’m sure that was how movies like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (which my husband assures me actually works as a movie) were born.
Anyway back to the series. I’m quite fascinated by how she managed to weave in elements and plot points from all these stories, threw in some ideas of her own, and make a refreshing, whole new compelling kick-ass story out of it. Well done, girl *enthusiastic clapping* !!! Isn’t this what Korean dramas are doing? Pushing the boundaries of what is a genre and mixing genres (eg supernatural romance mystery thriller) to get a whole new product. And she ALSO landed a China book publishing deal where her books will be translated and sold in China, and go on to inspire a lot more young writers to be sure.
I am personally motivated from this to get my butt into gear (despite being a working Mom with 3 kids and church responsibilities) and to just do what she did – make myself write a certain number of words a day. Anyway all the writing books tell me to. They say the key to being a successful writer is discipline and habit, to write write write. And the stories will come. In a way, this blog helps me do that.
Ok what I liked about her book:
– how the heroine has something special about her (although I did think her personality could have been made more distinctive, where she could be sullen and protective like Katniss, or heck-care like Mary in a Christopher Pike book, or geeky and underdog like many other heroes in his book too)
– how there is a love triangle (ah, reminded me of how crushes feel!)
– her relationship with her Mom (I think she tried to be politically correct in her book, as her Mom is editor and she’d only 14!)
– the state of the future world and why it happened (themes of bad farming, environmental destruction, genetic manipulation, resonates with what I think is wrong in this world today and is what is refreshing about her book, that she brings in these themes in a layman and understandable, non-intimidating and non-yawn inducing way)
– how the action never stops, reminding me of Christopher Pike and Suzanne Collins’ writing.
That is what I am weak in – writing action. I may like reading action-packed books and have watched endless action movies, but ask me to write an action sequence and my brain just shuts down,. And if I’m forced to, like in my scriptwriting class, the writing comes out clunky and amateurish, and frankly, painful to read. I’m surprised my scriptwriting teacher (who came from Hollywood by the way – thank you Media Academy!) didn’t even comment on it. He wrote a lot of other comments though. Maybe he was laughing so hard he decided to spare me the pain. But hey, got to have the growth mindset right? With hard work and grit and laser-like focus, and the right training/teacher, I should be able to master it. If I ever need to, that is.
So, to the mattresses! Which means, let’s get cracking!
She is called Gabby Tye and her story on how she wrote this book is quite inspiring. She got this book together when her Mom made her to write 300 words a day instead of watching all this "online nonsense" and before she knew it, she had enough to make a book! Ok so her Mom is a publisher/editor, and is hence in the business, so you could argue unfair advantage, privileged background, but still - it's pretty something huh? She actually made something out of it, when many other privileged kids probably don't. Having written many stories since my childhood days and not having finished many long ones, I can tell you what she did takes a lot of perseverance, and her imagination was quite brilliant too.
Though the thick pages and more widely-spaced words take getting some used to, her story sucks you in right away as its always fast-paced, and written like an action movie. When I read it, the similarities with some other popular books/movies immediately struck me, but they are not complete rip-offs, more like a blend of Hunger Games meets World War Z meets Maze Runner meets Divergent. Yes, ALL my favourite movies/books. What’s not to like?!!🙂. When I was in a scriptwriting course this was an exercise my teacher taught us to generate fun, creative plot lines and ideas when we are dry – randomly pick two movie titles from a bag and try to come up with a logline blending them together. Eg I may pick Jurassic Park and Matrix. So a logline may be – the story of how a person is the chosen one to go back in time and save the dinosaurs, but he wakes up and it’s all a dream or an alternate reality. Ok I’m totally making that up but I’m sure that was how movies like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (which my husband assures me actually works as a movie) were born.
Anyway back to the series. I’m quite fascinated by how she managed to weave in elements and plot points from all these stories, threw in some ideas of her own, and make a refreshing, whole new compelling kick-ass story out of it. Well done, girl *enthusiastic clapping* !!! Isn’t this what Korean dramas are doing? Pushing the boundaries of what is a genre and mixing genres (eg supernatural romance mystery thriller) to get a whole new product. And she ALSO landed a China book publishing deal where her books will be translated and sold in China, and go on to inspire a lot more young writers to be sure.
I am personally motivated from this to get my butt into gear (despite being a working Mom with 3 kids and church responsibilities) and to just do what she did – make myself write a certain number of words a day. Anyway all the writing books tell me to. They say the key to being a successful writer is discipline and habit, to write write write. And the stories will come. In a way, this blog helps me do that.
Ok what I liked about her book:
– how the heroine has something special about her (although I did think her personality could have been made more distinctive, where she could be sullen and protective like Katniss, or heck-care like Mary in a Christopher Pike book, or geeky and underdog like many other heroes in his book too)
– how there is a love triangle (ah, reminded me of how crushes feel!)
– her relationship with her Mom (I think she tried to be politically correct in her book, as her Mom is editor and she’d only 14!)
– the state of the future world and why it happened (themes of bad farming, environmental destruction, genetic manipulation, resonates with what I think is wrong in this world today and is what is refreshing about her book, that she brings in these themes in a layman and understandable, non-intimidating and non-yawn inducing way)
– how the action never stops, reminding me of Christopher Pike and Suzanne Collins’ writing.
That is what I am weak in – writing action. I may like reading action-packed books and have watched endless action movies, but ask me to write an action sequence and my brain just shuts down,. And if I’m forced to, like in my scriptwriting class, the writing comes out clunky and amateurish, and frankly, painful to read. I’m surprised my scriptwriting teacher (who came from Hollywood by the way – thank you Media Academy!) didn’t even comment on it. He wrote a lot of other comments though. Maybe he was laughing so hard he decided to spare me the pain. But hey, got to have the growth mindset right? With hard work and grit and laser-like focus, and the right training/teacher, I should be able to master it. If I ever need to, that is.
So, to the mattresses! Which means, let’s get cracking!
Sunday, May 1, 2016
One art homework - two different personalities
Hello all!
It's been a loong time since my last post and here's why - I recently got seconded to another statutory board and it has been crazy learning the new content and interpersonal dynamics of new teams, getting used to my new bosses, and also juggling being a Mom of 3 kids and being a Loving Wife. Maybe more on that in another post :P
I wanted to talk about this homework assignment that my two boys, 5 and 4, recently got from their preschool. It caught my attention as their preschool never assigns homework (as it should be) and this time they wanted e boys to each do a 2D or 3D image of a sea creature, in line with the theme "sea creatures".
My older son, who doesn't like art much, distractedly told me he wanted to draw a crab when I asked him multiple times what sea creature he wanted to draw (he can be quite decisive). Then when I gave him a blank sheet of paper and paint, he immediately started covering it with dark blue. Then before it quite dried, he selected orange and yellow, and drew a rough oval, two beady eyes that were too big, and then four legs on each side with quick short brush strokes. Then he ran off. I had actually collected a small collection of sea shells from an earlier time when we were at Pasir Ris beach (that place has lots of sea shells unlike East Coast) and I asked my maid to get it out. I also went around my HDB estate scouting for some soil. Turns out someone had discarded a large potted plant in the community garden near my house, and I got a bucket and scooped in a fair amount of reddish-brown clayey soil. From their art class, I got the idea to mix the soil with glue, and then I smeared it along the bottom of the painting, to simulate the sea bed. Then I wanted to glue each shell on. However, it was already very late when I smeared the soil so I told my boy let's paste the shells tomorrow morning. But he insisted on doing it before bed and you know what he did? He just took each shell and pressed it into the soil mixture, and it somehow stuck! And he went on pressing them randomly until he finished pasting everything, and then he ran off. I looked at the finished art piece and chuckled to myself. It somehow portrayed the image of a crab scuttling very quickly to the side, and it was so reminiscent of how my own boy is like in real life, always moving, running, never resting (unless you give him some kind of screen).
My younger boy is a different matter - he wanted to paint a jellyfish, and when I gave him his paper, he kept painting over and over the same spot until the paper broke through with all the watery paint. And we had to do it over and over again. In the end, it was his first jellyfish (which he did without putting much effort in) that looked semi-presentable and which I brought to their school. The strange thing is, the older son's art looked better than the younger one's.
It shows their different personalities - the older one likes things fast, speed, and he doesn't waste time on things he doesn't like very much. The younger one is very painstaking in his art which reflects his perfectionist personality.
How interesting what an art exercise can reveal.
It's been a loong time since my last post and here's why - I recently got seconded to another statutory board and it has been crazy learning the new content and interpersonal dynamics of new teams, getting used to my new bosses, and also juggling being a Mom of 3 kids and being a Loving Wife. Maybe more on that in another post :P
I wanted to talk about this homework assignment that my two boys, 5 and 4, recently got from their preschool. It caught my attention as their preschool never assigns homework (as it should be) and this time they wanted e boys to each do a 2D or 3D image of a sea creature, in line with the theme "sea creatures".
My older son, who doesn't like art much, distractedly told me he wanted to draw a crab when I asked him multiple times what sea creature he wanted to draw (he can be quite decisive). Then when I gave him a blank sheet of paper and paint, he immediately started covering it with dark blue. Then before it quite dried, he selected orange and yellow, and drew a rough oval, two beady eyes that were too big, and then four legs on each side with quick short brush strokes. Then he ran off. I had actually collected a small collection of sea shells from an earlier time when we were at Pasir Ris beach (that place has lots of sea shells unlike East Coast) and I asked my maid to get it out. I also went around my HDB estate scouting for some soil. Turns out someone had discarded a large potted plant in the community garden near my house, and I got a bucket and scooped in a fair amount of reddish-brown clayey soil. From their art class, I got the idea to mix the soil with glue, and then I smeared it along the bottom of the painting, to simulate the sea bed. Then I wanted to glue each shell on. However, it was already very late when I smeared the soil so I told my boy let's paste the shells tomorrow morning. But he insisted on doing it before bed and you know what he did? He just took each shell and pressed it into the soil mixture, and it somehow stuck! And he went on pressing them randomly until he finished pasting everything, and then he ran off. I looked at the finished art piece and chuckled to myself. It somehow portrayed the image of a crab scuttling very quickly to the side, and it was so reminiscent of how my own boy is like in real life, always moving, running, never resting (unless you give him some kind of screen).
My younger boy is a different matter - he wanted to paint a jellyfish, and when I gave him his paper, he kept painting over and over the same spot until the paper broke through with all the watery paint. And we had to do it over and over again. In the end, it was his first jellyfish (which he did without putting much effort in) that looked semi-presentable and which I brought to their school. The strange thing is, the older son's art looked better than the younger one's.
It shows their different personalities - the older one likes things fast, speed, and he doesn't waste time on things he doesn't like very much. The younger one is very painstaking in his art which reflects his perfectionist personality.
How interesting what an art exercise can reveal.
Sunday, June 28, 2015
On Flashcards and Right Brain Training
It is so ironic that about a week after I wrote the post on the importance of slowing down, I went into early labour for my current, third pregnancy, had to be admitted to hospital in the middle of a work day, had an emergency procedure performed on me, was put on medication to stop the contractions, and then sent home with hospitalisation leave until I deliver! I was also told not to walk around save for meals, bath and toilet. And this was despite my firm intention to work until I deliver. Ah the best-laid plans...
Being only 34 weeks pregnant, and with my gynae saying fervently (he makes this praying motion with his hands every time he says it) that if I can make it to 38 weeks, he would be very happy, meant I would be on bed rest for another 4 weeks. And if I delivered then, I would go on my maternity leave, which was another 16 weeks! So I would be out of action from office for least 20 weeks. Sometimes, I think my boss and colleagues curse themselves for having me as a colleague, as this is not the first pregnancy-related complication I've had. It so happens I also have a very kiasu, trigger-happy gynae who prescribes MC liberally to be on the 'safe side' and safeguard every pregnancy. My husband, who often thinks I work too hard (my work is not stressful!), had also insisted in the past on enough MC to tide me over the first trimester, which is often the tricky part. I must say, this is the first time I have had MC for the last trimester of my pregnancy, which goes to show every pregnancy is different.
You may think that, since I wrote my previous post, I would take this opportunity to slow down and contemplate the deeper things in life, or just to prepare for the third addition to the family, but alas no. I have been bored out of my mind lying in bed most of the day, and being unable to leave the house much, I can't even do much packing or housework or go to the library to stock up on books. So I have been logging on to my work computer a few hours every day to settle the "important" stuff, and playing with my kids while lying down once they are back from childcare. Recently, I have taken to heading out to the neighbourhood centre for meals and doing some light shopping, and doing a spot of baking. It has been more than a week since I have been put on bedrest and only now have I gotten down to blogging again (which is my way of thinking more deeply about things). So it goes to show. It takes a while for a speeding train to slow down :P
Ok! I have almost finished two really awesome books, with loads of practical applications to my daily life. They are:
(a) Einstein never used flashcards: How our children really learn - And why they need to play more and memorise less
(b) The meaning of marriage
Let me talk a little bit about the first book.
Recently, we have been feeling guilty that we have not sent our kids to any enrichment classes at all, and having 2 kids who are aged 3 and 4, that seems a bit old not to have attended any (except the few sessions of Zoophonics which my elder son hated and we pulled him out soon after). At that time, we also discovered some free enrichment classes in early June, to interest parents in sending their kids over the June holidays, so we brought our kids to two such classes - an art class for very young kids, which was quite hard to find (most of them want kids above 4 plus), and another was a Japanese method of training the right brain of very young kids called Heguru. I guess it is similar to Shichida, which also uses flashcards, and trains photographic memory, but it is clearly different and according to the founder, relatively new to Singapore.
When I attended the free introductory lesson for Heguru, we were treated to videos of kids in Japan who had been trained under this method for years. What they could do seemed out of this world. It was like they were aliens from outer space. Some kids could do "wave reading" whereby they just flipped through a book really fast (think of flipping fast enough to get little cartoon figures to move), and after doing it a few times, they could write down in a fair amount of detail what the book said! They could also make up complex structures out of plastic cups really fast, and point out the number of dots on a paper flashed before them really briefly. I thought it looked like a freak show, but my husband was duly impressed and signed them up for a month's worth of classes. I asked the founder, who was conducting the introductory lesson, what were the life outcomes of these kids, and he said rather evasively that they did not track them. Personally, I was also thinking, so what if a kid could speed read like that, that could take a lot of enjoyment out of life! I mean, how were they going to find enough good books to occupy their time if they devoured them that fast! He talked about how by showing them flashcards really really fast, they were forcing the kids to switch from their left brain, which processed things more linearly, to their right brain, which could process things much faster. But by the time a kid reaches a certain age, they are unable to access the right brain as much (cue scary music for parents!). Hence we have to expose our kids now. In fact the younger the better (e.g. 18 months).
Well, it was so coincidental (or maybe divinely arranged?) that right after the class, I wandered into a children's bookstore in the same mall, and my eyes alighted on the book with the title "Einstein never used flashcards". I laughingly pointed it out to my husband, who replied "not many kids have the intelligence of Einstein". *Roll eyes*
The following week, they attended their first lesson and I sat with my younger son while my husband sat with my older one. My jaw dropped at how fast the 2 girls were talking and flipping through the flashcards. They were showing pictures of so many detailed things that I never thought of exposing my kid to - constellation names, pictures of famous paintings from a certain artist, landmarks in Germany, addition, subtraction and even multiplication, and even sang songs to them in a different language. They also made them do origami, when clearly my 3-year old lacked the fine motor skills to fold anything in a straight line. One kid kept screaming and crying and had to be brought out of the class after a while. The rest just sat there and either looked a bit shell-shocked, or started getting distracted at some point.
As I left, I stopped my the bookstore and bought the book, as I could not locate it in the library, and my curiosity was killing me.
As expected, it ridiculed the need to train kids at a young age to memorise letters, numbers, and names of famous painters, as memorising a lot of facts did not equate intelligence or understanding. It also said that kids who went to more academically-inclined preschools faired no differently in terms academic performance from those who went to more play-based preschools, except kids who went to the former were more anxious and stressed about learning. And it talked about how it was more important for parents to talk to their children in their daily life, or talk to them about what was happening in the storybook, to ask them questions, and to answer their questions, so that they learn in context, rather than memorise a lot of random facts. Talking frequently to our kids also helps them make sense of things that happened to them, and builds their emotional intelligence and resilience. And we can do many things to make reading and math fun. Like asking them about what the characters are feeling and why. Entertaining their questions about what they see in a book. Making them count their favourite toys, or share something, or giving them an allowance starting with really small amounts (nothing teaches math like money!). I must say my kids sometimes like to ask so many questions when I read, it takes a while to get through a page. But according to the book, we should relish such interactions!
And it also talked about the importance of giving them both convergent toys (where there is only one right answer, like a puzzle), and divergent toys (where there are many possible answers, like lego or blocks), to stimulate their creativity. And to give them time for free play, so they learn to entertain themselves and come up with things to do (an important skill in adulthood!) instead of always relying on videos or a screen to do it for them.
And not to praise them for their intelligence (guilty!), but for their effort; not to go wild with applause when they get the right answers (guilty again!), but to value their approach in solving the problem or arriving at the answer. Because it is their willingness to make the effort, to persevere, and to apply the right approaches, that will help them solve future problems. Praising them for intelligence may cause them to fear getting anything wrong, and being pleased when they get the right answer may produce more rote-learning than real learning.
All very tough lessons for me to apply, but in a future world where information can frequently be obtained via a search engine, the ability to amass and retain large amounts of information may not be as important as the ability to organise the information and to think critically and creatively.
Lastly, I reflected on my own childhood growing up. Funnily, my Grandma took care of me during my preschool years, and she was always too busy doing chores to bother with me. This meant I spent a lot of time lying on the living room sofa, watching TV or staring at the ceiling. One of my favourite pastimes was apparently washing my hands in the kitchen while talking to myself! I also eventually made up imaginary characters that I would talk to (including a younger sister) and when I started reading, to writing my own stories. My mum and dad were too busy working to play with me. And according to the Einstein book, having an imaginary friend was a sign of creativity in a child (think Calvin and Hobbes), and yet I suspect this often arises out of a lack of companions (Calvin didn't have any siblings, just like me) and boredom.
Hence, maybe our job as parents is much simpler than it really is - we just have to talk to our kids when we get home, read to them, give them both convergent and divergent toys, and limit their screen time so they can have a chance to be bored :)
And by the way, my husband didn't bring our kids to their third Heguru lesson, cos even he was starting to doubt the ability of my kids to absorb what was going on, and my older son was falling asleep in it! The art class, however, is another matter. We signed up for another 12 lessons this week as we were so smitten by the art work they were bringing back (see below), and as the teachers were providing us with good feedback on the relative abilities of my sons (younger one has better fine motor skills and more patience, older son is quick to finish and starts running around). I guess sometimes, old-fashioned hobbies are best.
Younger son's art
Older son's art
Being only 34 weeks pregnant, and with my gynae saying fervently (he makes this praying motion with his hands every time he says it) that if I can make it to 38 weeks, he would be very happy, meant I would be on bed rest for another 4 weeks. And if I delivered then, I would go on my maternity leave, which was another 16 weeks! So I would be out of action from office for least 20 weeks. Sometimes, I think my boss and colleagues curse themselves for having me as a colleague, as this is not the first pregnancy-related complication I've had. It so happens I also have a very kiasu, trigger-happy gynae who prescribes MC liberally to be on the 'safe side' and safeguard every pregnancy. My husband, who often thinks I work too hard (my work is not stressful!), had also insisted in the past on enough MC to tide me over the first trimester, which is often the tricky part. I must say, this is the first time I have had MC for the last trimester of my pregnancy, which goes to show every pregnancy is different.
You may think that, since I wrote my previous post, I would take this opportunity to slow down and contemplate the deeper things in life, or just to prepare for the third addition to the family, but alas no. I have been bored out of my mind lying in bed most of the day, and being unable to leave the house much, I can't even do much packing or housework or go to the library to stock up on books. So I have been logging on to my work computer a few hours every day to settle the "important" stuff, and playing with my kids while lying down once they are back from childcare. Recently, I have taken to heading out to the neighbourhood centre for meals and doing some light shopping, and doing a spot of baking. It has been more than a week since I have been put on bedrest and only now have I gotten down to blogging again (which is my way of thinking more deeply about things). So it goes to show. It takes a while for a speeding train to slow down :P
Ok! I have almost finished two really awesome books, with loads of practical applications to my daily life. They are:
(a) Einstein never used flashcards: How our children really learn - And why they need to play more and memorise less
(b) The meaning of marriage
Let me talk a little bit about the first book.
Recently, we have been feeling guilty that we have not sent our kids to any enrichment classes at all, and having 2 kids who are aged 3 and 4, that seems a bit old not to have attended any (except the few sessions of Zoophonics which my elder son hated and we pulled him out soon after). At that time, we also discovered some free enrichment classes in early June, to interest parents in sending their kids over the June holidays, so we brought our kids to two such classes - an art class for very young kids, which was quite hard to find (most of them want kids above 4 plus), and another was a Japanese method of training the right brain of very young kids called Heguru. I guess it is similar to Shichida, which also uses flashcards, and trains photographic memory, but it is clearly different and according to the founder, relatively new to Singapore.
When I attended the free introductory lesson for Heguru, we were treated to videos of kids in Japan who had been trained under this method for years. What they could do seemed out of this world. It was like they were aliens from outer space. Some kids could do "wave reading" whereby they just flipped through a book really fast (think of flipping fast enough to get little cartoon figures to move), and after doing it a few times, they could write down in a fair amount of detail what the book said! They could also make up complex structures out of plastic cups really fast, and point out the number of dots on a paper flashed before them really briefly. I thought it looked like a freak show, but my husband was duly impressed and signed them up for a month's worth of classes. I asked the founder, who was conducting the introductory lesson, what were the life outcomes of these kids, and he said rather evasively that they did not track them. Personally, I was also thinking, so what if a kid could speed read like that, that could take a lot of enjoyment out of life! I mean, how were they going to find enough good books to occupy their time if they devoured them that fast! He talked about how by showing them flashcards really really fast, they were forcing the kids to switch from their left brain, which processed things more linearly, to their right brain, which could process things much faster. But by the time a kid reaches a certain age, they are unable to access the right brain as much (cue scary music for parents!). Hence we have to expose our kids now. In fact the younger the better (e.g. 18 months).
Well, it was so coincidental (or maybe divinely arranged?) that right after the class, I wandered into a children's bookstore in the same mall, and my eyes alighted on the book with the title "Einstein never used flashcards". I laughingly pointed it out to my husband, who replied "not many kids have the intelligence of Einstein". *Roll eyes*
The following week, they attended their first lesson and I sat with my younger son while my husband sat with my older one. My jaw dropped at how fast the 2 girls were talking and flipping through the flashcards. They were showing pictures of so many detailed things that I never thought of exposing my kid to - constellation names, pictures of famous paintings from a certain artist, landmarks in Germany, addition, subtraction and even multiplication, and even sang songs to them in a different language. They also made them do origami, when clearly my 3-year old lacked the fine motor skills to fold anything in a straight line. One kid kept screaming and crying and had to be brought out of the class after a while. The rest just sat there and either looked a bit shell-shocked, or started getting distracted at some point.
As I left, I stopped my the bookstore and bought the book, as I could not locate it in the library, and my curiosity was killing me.
As expected, it ridiculed the need to train kids at a young age to memorise letters, numbers, and names of famous painters, as memorising a lot of facts did not equate intelligence or understanding. It also said that kids who went to more academically-inclined preschools faired no differently in terms academic performance from those who went to more play-based preschools, except kids who went to the former were more anxious and stressed about learning. And it talked about how it was more important for parents to talk to their children in their daily life, or talk to them about what was happening in the storybook, to ask them questions, and to answer their questions, so that they learn in context, rather than memorise a lot of random facts. Talking frequently to our kids also helps them make sense of things that happened to them, and builds their emotional intelligence and resilience. And we can do many things to make reading and math fun. Like asking them about what the characters are feeling and why. Entertaining their questions about what they see in a book. Making them count their favourite toys, or share something, or giving them an allowance starting with really small amounts (nothing teaches math like money!). I must say my kids sometimes like to ask so many questions when I read, it takes a while to get through a page. But according to the book, we should relish such interactions!
And it also talked about the importance of giving them both convergent toys (where there is only one right answer, like a puzzle), and divergent toys (where there are many possible answers, like lego or blocks), to stimulate their creativity. And to give them time for free play, so they learn to entertain themselves and come up with things to do (an important skill in adulthood!) instead of always relying on videos or a screen to do it for them.
And not to praise them for their intelligence (guilty!), but for their effort; not to go wild with applause when they get the right answers (guilty again!), but to value their approach in solving the problem or arriving at the answer. Because it is their willingness to make the effort, to persevere, and to apply the right approaches, that will help them solve future problems. Praising them for intelligence may cause them to fear getting anything wrong, and being pleased when they get the right answer may produce more rote-learning than real learning.
All very tough lessons for me to apply, but in a future world where information can frequently be obtained via a search engine, the ability to amass and retain large amounts of information may not be as important as the ability to organise the information and to think critically and creatively.
Lastly, I reflected on my own childhood growing up. Funnily, my Grandma took care of me during my preschool years, and she was always too busy doing chores to bother with me. This meant I spent a lot of time lying on the living room sofa, watching TV or staring at the ceiling. One of my favourite pastimes was apparently washing my hands in the kitchen while talking to myself! I also eventually made up imaginary characters that I would talk to (including a younger sister) and when I started reading, to writing my own stories. My mum and dad were too busy working to play with me. And according to the Einstein book, having an imaginary friend was a sign of creativity in a child (think Calvin and Hobbes), and yet I suspect this often arises out of a lack of companions (Calvin didn't have any siblings, just like me) and boredom.
Hence, maybe our job as parents is much simpler than it really is - we just have to talk to our kids when we get home, read to them, give them both convergent and divergent toys, and limit their screen time so they can have a chance to be bored :)
And by the way, my husband didn't bring our kids to their third Heguru lesson, cos even he was starting to doubt the ability of my kids to absorb what was going on, and my older son was falling asleep in it! The art class, however, is another matter. We signed up for another 12 lessons this week as we were so smitten by the art work they were bringing back (see below), and as the teachers were providing us with good feedback on the relative abilities of my sons (younger one has better fine motor skills and more patience, older son is quick to finish and starts running around). I guess sometimes, old-fashioned hobbies are best.
Younger son's art
Older son's art
Saturday, June 6, 2015
The Importance of Slowing Down
On World Environment Day (5 June), I attended at a conference on sustainability. Such a broad, general topic. I was in a dark mood when I arrived, convinced that I would waste a whole morning listening to self-congratulatory speeches and banal, motherhood statements on sustainability, when I had a lot of work waiting back in office for me.
To my surprise, I found myself hearing of things I had never heard much of before. Things like the Circular Economy, and hearing about cool companies that were helping to make it happen like Airbnb (you open up spare rooms in homes to tourists), Uber (you offer to drive people who need a ride and/or are going the same way), Rent Tycoons (you offer to rent stuff you own to others), Block Pooling (people from the same neighbourhood share professional services, contacts, advice and lend/borrow stuff from one another). One speaker also talked about how IKEA bought back used Christmas trees from their customers for a fee, to be used to make furniture! This was a nice concept of a win-win.
It was immensely refreshing to hear about such awesome concepts that were good for the environment and also good business.
I thought about all the tasks I was busy with at work, and some of the concepts I had heard from the panellists was actually helping me change my perspective on how I would tackle some of them. And wasn't it ironic that here I was, supposedly wasting my time at an irrelevant conference, and having all these thoughts that might actually make a bigger impact on my work than if I had spent an incredibly efficient morning finishing all of my tasks really well.
A speaker talked about how "we are accelerating our thoughts and actions at a breathless rate" today. With internet literally on our fingertips, we can gather information, find out what other people are doing, consume news and entertainment at an incredible, continuous rate.
All this might make it seem like we can make really good decisions, but I actually think this might result in us making decisions similar to everybody else. Worse, all this information overload and busyness is stifling the creativity and our ability to think deeply about issues. Yes, I am not into Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. Yet I also fill whatever time I have with work, children, really good fiction novels (by the way, I recently discovered Michael Crichton - what a renaissance man!).
I realized that there is value in taking time to sit back and to think deeply about our situations, if not every day, then at least once a week. To take a step back, reflect on what has been happening in our lives, think about the roots of the problems, the bigger picture, ask ourselves questions and let our minds wander and come up with answers and solutions that are true to ourselves.
I am very sure that by taking a little time to do this every week, we will become a lot more focused and effective when we ARE busy. And we will be able to see a lot more clearly, through all the BS and the details that clutter up our eyeballs, ears and fog up our minds, the best answer and solution that has a big impact and would bring us nearer to our goals, not further.
As they say, fast is slow and slow is fast. Less is more and more is less.
To my surprise, I found myself hearing of things I had never heard much of before. Things like the Circular Economy, and hearing about cool companies that were helping to make it happen like Airbnb (you open up spare rooms in homes to tourists), Uber (you offer to drive people who need a ride and/or are going the same way), Rent Tycoons (you offer to rent stuff you own to others), Block Pooling (people from the same neighbourhood share professional services, contacts, advice and lend/borrow stuff from one another). One speaker also talked about how IKEA bought back used Christmas trees from their customers for a fee, to be used to make furniture! This was a nice concept of a win-win.
It was immensely refreshing to hear about such awesome concepts that were good for the environment and also good business.
I thought about all the tasks I was busy with at work, and some of the concepts I had heard from the panellists was actually helping me change my perspective on how I would tackle some of them. And wasn't it ironic that here I was, supposedly wasting my time at an irrelevant conference, and having all these thoughts that might actually make a bigger impact on my work than if I had spent an incredibly efficient morning finishing all of my tasks really well.
A speaker talked about how "we are accelerating our thoughts and actions at a breathless rate" today. With internet literally on our fingertips, we can gather information, find out what other people are doing, consume news and entertainment at an incredible, continuous rate.
All this might make it seem like we can make really good decisions, but I actually think this might result in us making decisions similar to everybody else. Worse, all this information overload and busyness is stifling the creativity and our ability to think deeply about issues. Yes, I am not into Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. Yet I also fill whatever time I have with work, children, really good fiction novels (by the way, I recently discovered Michael Crichton - what a renaissance man!).
I realized that there is value in taking time to sit back and to think deeply about our situations, if not every day, then at least once a week. To take a step back, reflect on what has been happening in our lives, think about the roots of the problems, the bigger picture, ask ourselves questions and let our minds wander and come up with answers and solutions that are true to ourselves.
I am very sure that by taking a little time to do this every week, we will become a lot more focused and effective when we ARE busy. And we will be able to see a lot more clearly, through all the BS and the details that clutter up our eyeballs, ears and fog up our minds, the best answer and solution that has a big impact and would bring us nearer to our goals, not further.
As they say, fast is slow and slow is fast. Less is more and more is less.
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