Random Talk

Yesterday, when I was eating out, I saw this old woman sitting by the street. There were some things very wrong about the situation:
She was sitting on the streets. She was smoking. She was asking for some money (as I inferred from her sticking out two of her fingers).

Lets look at the first and third problem together. It surfaces a very large problem in the current society, where children decide to turn their backs to their elderly parents. Sometimes they kick them out of the house, other times they send them to elderly homes. There were also cases of the parents being sent out to beg for money to give their children.
What has happened to the current society? What happened to all the filial peity that our ancestors were so particular about? Now do we just treat the parents who have raised us as our servants or some obstacle?

I remember watching a video awhile ago about this Malay family, I do believe many other school mates have seen the one about the sick grandfather and his son-in-law treating him badly because he wasn't able to do things properly. But in the end the father-daughter bond still persists.

Coming back to the topic at hand, I would personally blame the fact that the society is more competitive for such a thing to happen. When you don't have the money, time and love for your parents, you won't want to take care of someone who could possibly obstruct your progress at work. I directing this more to the men of the family, as I personally do believe that women would not be the ones to throw their parents out, unless they are the ones who have such a great amount of greed.

In the end, its still about what you view your family as. Some view their parents as a gold mine, some just hope that they'd get a large share of the fortune (typical drama material), while many others truly care. It is this love that binds families together, but apparently greed and so many other factors can crush it. What is family bonds now? A mere term that a secondary school student analyses with little to no insight? I do hope that the meaning of this bond does not deteriorate in this fast changing world. The once important things about putting others before oneself have long died, and 'I', 'Me' and 'Myself' are the only words some people know.

Lets get back to the second point I pointed out. Smoking.
When I saw the scene, I was reminded of Mrs Duboses' situation. She was alone, a drug addict, and rather pitiful.
In the situation as described above, I have reasons to believe that the person may have taken up smoking due to her situation, or merely because it never came to her to give up the habbit.
Once again, I remember Mrs Dubose. The courage to quit her morphine addiction before death is really admirable. Not many would be willing to try and quit a painkiller despite knowing that they are close to death. Many would just accept their situation and die an addict. Mrs Dubose actually had the courage to say she wanted to die beholden to nothing and nobody.

Its funny how many similarities the two share, yet Mrs Dubose seemed so different. That courage in itself is admirable, the determination to keep her own promise is amazing.

Speaking of determination, there was news on the NTU run. The 218km run was simply incredible, especially those who managed to run to the very end.
My past PE teacher once told me, that if your mind gave up, even if your body is still capable of running, you will not be able to run on. Similarly, I find that it takes an insane amount of determination to finish this extreme marathon. Many find it hard just to run the 2.4km that we are tested on for NAPFA, but people manage to finish this incredible feat.