Tuesday, August 29, 2006

It has been a long time, hasnt it? How is everyone doing on with their life? Fine I hope. Mine have been a hectic grasp of time. I never find the chance to slowly stroll my way into the MRT Station after work everyday. This explains my deeply regretted and apologetic absence from this wonderful place. I guess its human nature at every certain point of time to release their emotions and thoughts verbally or otherwise as a form of relieve, de-stress, unwind, or whatever they call it. My excuse for this literature diarrhea would be for closure. As much as I would like to deny I am a sucker for closure however let’s not get that confused with sentimentality because I am not.

In days to come young, depressed man-to-be creatures like me, Andrew, Andy, Leroy and many more innocent homosapiens across this tiny island will be mercilessly conscripted into the brutal, sinister and vicious mechanism plotted by the government to exact revenge on its citizen under the cloak of disguise: the notorious army. Sighs! I guess that is the price to pay for claiming ownership to that pinky flimsy card us all proudly safe keep in our wallet. So hereby I bid you farewell, loved ones, treasured friends, family, bed, TV, civilization, the land of liberty which we stepped on and the sweet air of freedom we breathe.

Nevertheless it would be a new phase of life for us and many more as the girl behind each unsuccessful boy playing soldier. In retrospect so much has changed and the sense of familiarity eroding, for the good or worse? Gazing ahead, I ponder what is there of to desire in the alien future. Over lunch last weekend, my Aunt commented that the September 11 got her seriously thinking about her job security and eventually she did seek a different employment opportunity at another bank in the midst of wide scale retrenchment. The nature of the incident ushers in an era of unpredictability and dispels the notion of certainty, she said. It inevitably deprives everyone the cushion of conformability under the illusion of familiarity. And scare you not; this is the era that we will carve a career out and earn a decent living to form a family and raise our children.

It brought to my mind a part of this ideology I was reading from in this book "Bush at War". The advisers were the best brains ever in the world, bagged with decades of invaluable experience in leadership, and boots on the ground were a bunch of intensively trained and highly motivated men. They tirelessly held numerous hours and hours of comprehensive meetings, scrutinizing, analyzing, strategizing and planning over days, weeks, and months and alas! Finally when that first shot was fired across the dessert, the field of the battle, the light sparked in the complete darkness surrounding and that echo rang across the night into the depth of fear in everyone’s heart. Unprecedented events slowly spiral into troubles then chaos and ultimately land themselves into a quagmire that baffles the commander in chief how did it all begin with?

Isnt the scenario quite similar to so many of us how we negotiate our life through? We think and plan, plan and think, strived and lazed, work begin to multiply, concurrent events starts to swarm and we paddle through it over the days and finally we ask ourselves how did we end up here? Doesn’t seem like the place I initially planned to step foot.

Sir Winston Churchill (Im a great fan of him):

Never, never, never believe any war will be smooth and easy, or that anyone who embarks on the strange voyage can measure the tides and hurricanes he will encounter. The statesman who yields to war fever must realize that once the signal is given, he is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events.

We must not underrate the gravity of the task which lies before us or the temerity of the ordeal, to which we shall not be found unequal. We must expect many disappointments, and many unpleasant surprises, but we may be sure that the task which we have freely accepted is one not beyond the compass and the strength of ourselves. In this solemn hour it is a consolation to recall and to dwell upon our repeated efforts for peace. All have been ill-starred, but all have been faithful and sincere.

Outside, the storms of war may blow and the lands may be lashed with the fury of its gales, but in our own hearts this Sunday morning there is peace. Our hands may be active, but our consciences are at rest.

..........The Knights of the Round Table, the Crusaders, all fall back into the past-not only distant but prosaic; these young men, going forth every morn to guard their native land and all that we stand for, holding in their hands these instruments of colossal and shattering power, of whom it may be said that

Every morn brought forth a noble chance
and every chance brought forth a noble knight

Just_Jazz blogged at 12:59 AM