26 Dec 2006
Foreigner at Home 7:40 am
Orders fish head curry, sotong in black sauce, chap chye and lime juice...
Don't you sometimes feel as though you're red amidst a sea of blacks and whites? A lobster out of water, somewhat? As I squeezed through smiling bodies along a lighted Orchard Road, I don't exactly feel the intended Christmas blizz being at the heart of "Christmas in the Tropics". Fighting with prams that clip at your heels and flaring arms does not help the cause. But this is home. Or technically, an extention of "home".
Celebrating midnight Mass at Holy Spirit Church was home; the same joy as we celebrated the g0d-child's birthday; the carols that filled the air, greeting friends from days when I still did not have facial hair (some may argue I still don't), having family close at hand, this was home. Having the precious one sit next to me at a children's Mass earlier in the evening felt comforting, with the only discomfort being how this Christmas seems so awkwardly placed in my life; there hasn't seemed to be an preparation for its arrival, and for a moment actually felt foreign to me.
I am extremely glad to get to spend time with loved ones, with Yong and old old friends and family. That is home. Yet, it seems foreign when certain circumstances have changed; people who once were dating are now not, that seemingly commonplace in today's restless world, but disconcerting when you thought that relationship would see you at a wedding banquet in the end. There are no rules for love, for relationships specifically. One would be naive to think that any sort of empirical precedence would akin to rules in such complex matters; being attached to close to a decade doesn't mean you'll end up together.
It is just sometimes that you feel fundamentally disconnected from the very system that bred you. It is, possibly, at such times that you seek a life-changing experience. An experience that can change your perspective on the littlest things in life; the toilet as an unexpected haven, life as a gift, trees as perils to drivers...Changing perspectives, dynamic perspectives. When I saw the book "Jazz 101" on Desmond's organ, I thought that would be that book that would change my musical understanding, hence a how I may perceive life as a whole. From Borders to Kino, the book is out of stock for an indefinite period. Will continue to seek the book with that sureity of wanting that that epiphany-perspective change.
Uncle T
Don't you sometimes feel as though you're red amidst a sea of blacks and whites? A lobster out of water, somewhat? As I squeezed through smiling bodies along a lighted Orchard Road, I don't exactly feel the intended Christmas blizz being at the heart of "Christmas in the Tropics". Fighting with prams that clip at your heels and flaring arms does not help the cause. But this is home. Or technically, an extention of "home".
Celebrating midnight Mass at Holy Spirit Church was home; the same joy as we celebrated the g0d-child's birthday; the carols that filled the air, greeting friends from days when I still did not have facial hair (some may argue I still don't), having family close at hand, this was home. Having the precious one sit next to me at a children's Mass earlier in the evening felt comforting, with the only discomfort being how this Christmas seems so awkwardly placed in my life; there hasn't seemed to be an preparation for its arrival, and for a moment actually felt foreign to me.
I am extremely glad to get to spend time with loved ones, with Yong and old old friends and family. That is home. Yet, it seems foreign when certain circumstances have changed; people who once were dating are now not, that seemingly commonplace in today's restless world, but disconcerting when you thought that relationship would see you at a wedding banquet in the end. There are no rules for love, for relationships specifically. One would be naive to think that any sort of empirical precedence would akin to rules in such complex matters; being attached to close to a decade doesn't mean you'll end up together.
It is just sometimes that you feel fundamentally disconnected from the very system that bred you. It is, possibly, at such times that you seek a life-changing experience. An experience that can change your perspective on the littlest things in life; the toilet as an unexpected haven, life as a gift, trees as perils to drivers...Changing perspectives, dynamic perspectives. When I saw the book "Jazz 101" on Desmond's organ, I thought that would be that book that would change my musical understanding, hence a how I may perceive life as a whole. From Borders to Kino, the book is out of stock for an indefinite period. Will continue to seek the book with that sureity of wanting that that epiphany-perspective change.
Uncle T