A Penny For Your Thoughts

What happens when a human being (a meme machine - see earlier post on Randy Pausch) suffers a stroke, and recovers? What happens when that person happens to be a neuroanatomist, a scientist who studies the brain, the very organ that generates memes. Eureka! You gain new insights & create new memes.

Jill Taylor has lived to tell her unique story, of how her brain functions shut down one by one, the day she suffered a brain hemorrhage. And how she took 8 years to walk, talk & think again. We take for granted our ability to sing, dance & surf the Net. Imagine how crippled we'd feel with a brainstroke?

Dr Taylor, however, shares with us a wonderful revelation during her darkest moment. When her damaged left brain disconnected her from our mundane world, she was able to reach into her right brain to find a profound peace, compassion & feeling of oneness wth the universe. In her book, she tells us how to achieve that, without suffering a brainstroke.

So what's the price of a life-changing thought? Maybe a 16th century "penny", enough to buy you Dr Jill Taylor's book in today's currency :-)

The Dance Of Life

What do the book "The Dancing Wu Li Masters" and the musical film "My Fair Lady" have in common? I would think it's the pivotal role that Dance seems to play in our lives. Let me explain. "Wu Li" is romanised Chinese for life energy, amongst other things & Gary Zukav chose his poetic title to introduce the beauty of quantum physics for the layperson. On the other hand, in the musical adaptation of Pygmalion, one delightful passage about dance which I simply relish, is this : "Oozing charm from every pore, he oiled his way around the floor."

While I watched the confident senior couples dance at the Raffles Hotel last weekend, these reflections became my inspiration to blog about our dance teachers, Dr Jennifer Foo & Dr George Wong. They have been married for over 50 years & continue to impart their love for dancing to new generations of converts like us. Such a wonderful couple, they have what the French call Joie de vivre !

Celebrating Life

Come the end of the year, there's Hari Raya, Deepavali, Christmas, & just around the corner, Chinese New Year in January. It's always a good excuse to come together to celebrate with family & friends. It's also what's unique about Singapore - a multi-cultural & multi-religious gestalt.

After working hard in the office & raising the kids, what better way is there to celebrate life & our raison d'être by gathering the clan & friends for a smörgåsbord of Christmas turkey, Mediterranean salad & Chinese favourites. Then wash it all down with Chinese tea or a Tiger (beer), here's to Life !

Visit England 2008

The day after my wife's concert, we flew off to visit an old friend, Eric Maxim, in England. We first met 20 years ago while on holiday in Interlaken, Switzerland. Over the years, Eric has taught us what being a pen-pal is all about. There's something warm & fuzzy about receiving snail mail from the postman, & deliberately writing longhand instead of zipping off an email.

Now, at 92 years "young", he has shown us how to have dignity in the evening of our lives, coping as well as he has done. Sadly, he recently lost his true love, Edith, his dear wife of 53 years.

But as Randy Pausch (see previous blog posting below) told the graduating class in his "short" lecture, no one beats the "grim reaper". So may each one of us chase his/her childhood dreams & also, find true love & happiness in this (short) journey of Life on Earth.