Navigating Life: Reflections and Stories - Softcover

Phang, Andrew

 
9789815084153: Navigating Life: Reflections and Stories
Softcover
ISBN 10: 9815084151 ISBN 13: 9789815084153
Verlag: Marshall Cavendish International (Asia) Pte Ltd, 2024

Inhaltsangabe

Words of wisdom and advice for personal growth.

Getting one’s life principles in order and then applying them are of prime importance as they form the foundations upon which our lives – both personal and professional – are built. This book is a distillation of the author’s experiences in life and contains nuggets of wisdom which have guided him in his life’s journey as a legal academic, judge and family man.

These open and honest reflections, together with illustrations by the author’s younger daughter, provide fascinating and thought-provoking material to form the basis of potential reflection by readers, and may perhaps be of useful application to their own lives.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Andrew Phang spent almost a quarter of a century in legal academia before joining the Supreme Court of Singapore as a Judicial Commissioner, Judge and then Justice of the Court of Appeal. He recently retired and is presently a Senior Judge as well as a professor in universities in both Singapore and overseas.

Christine Phang, the author’s younger daughter, graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Carnegie Mellon University with a Bachelors of Humanities and Arts, majoring in Fine Art and Psychology. She is presently working as an art therapist at a community mental health clinic in California and is completing her Masters in Marriage and Family Therapy at Dominican University of California. She lives in Petaluma, California.

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No Crushed Sugar Cane
How to Treat Others
My mother was an excellent teacher (and, subsequently, school
principal). This was due mainly to her wonderful ability as a
communicator. As a mother, she was concerned with values.
This has influenced me deeply. As the years went by, I became
increasingly convinced that without a strong value system, one
cannot live a life that is truly meaningful. One way my mother
would communicate values to us was through stories – which often
(as in this reflection) constituted “word pictures” and which were
all the more vivid and memorable as a result. I think that stories
are powerful teaching tools, especially about life. People tend to
remember stories as opposed to arid, technical facts. Stories also
furnish the opportunities to convey values “in action”, as it were.
It is true that each person’s experience is different. However, one
person’s experience may still be valuable insofar as it contains
a kernel of wisdom, the value of which is demonstrated in the
life of the person concerned. At the very least, it might provide
encouragement to those who hear the story.
One such story which has been indelibly etched in my memory
is that of sugar cane – or, more accurately, crushed sugar cane. Sugar
cane juice is a common drink in Singapore. When I was young,
I would sometimes watch these vendors (often by the roadside,
occasionally in coffee shops) pushing cut sugar cane stems through
a machine. The stems would be crushed as they were run through
the machine, with delicious sugar cane juice flowing down into a
container below. These stems were passed repeatedly through the
machine until they were crushed utterly flat. I was always fascinated
by how the vendor would almost invariably take these flattened
pieces of sugar cane – already long devoid of any juice – and pour
some water over them before running them through the machine
one last time. This was, presumably, to extract the very last drops
of sugar cane juice possible. And then the inevitable next action
– casting the now really pathetic-looking pieces of crushed sugar
cane into a wicker basket which, when full, would be emptied and
its contents ultimately carted away to the rubbish dump.
My mother constantly cautioned usnot to treat people like
crushed sugar cane. More specifically, she would tell us that we
ought not to use people and then cast them away when they were
no longer of any personal use to us. She would advise us not to
squeeze personal benefits from people like juice from the sugar cane
stem but should always be polite and respectful to all, regardless of
who they are. Some might cite the view of Immanuel Kant that we
should treat people as ends and not as means. Others might speak
of the Golden Rule that we should do unto others what we would
like others to do unto us. However, to a young Singaporean boy
who enjoyed sugar cane juice, my mother’s imagery was a far more
effective way of conveying the same message.
There is another – and closely related – lesson. Just as I enjoy
sugar cane juice, I have also learnt to be appreciative of people –
in particular, the kindness and assistance that they render to me.
Such kindness and assistance entails effort and (on occasion) even
“crushing” effort. Many of us tend to take kindness for granted;
some are even worse – they take kindness as a sign of weakness.
In my view, this is unacceptable. As I have just mentioned, the
complete opposite should be the case. We should all learn to
appreciate people more – particularly those who help us and are
kind to us.
I would just like to conclude by observing that, decades later,
when I became a Christian, I found that this was how the Christian
faith required me to act as well. You see, it is a natural human trait
in most people to be selfish, resulting in a tendency to make use of
others like crushed sugar cane. This is an imperfect world. Indeed,
I must confess that I found it very difficult to conduct myself
selflessly. However, after becoming a Christian, it became a little
easier as I could draw on the wisdom and guidance of God. This is
not to say that I became a much better person. But what I will say
is that it made it a lot easier not to treat people as crushed sugar
cane and, on the contrary, enabled me to be more appreciative of
others and not take them for granted.

Do not treat people like crushed
sugar cane, using them and then casting
them aside. Learn, instead,
to appreciate them more.

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Verlag
Marshall Cavendish International (Asia) Pte Ltd
Erscheinungsdatum
2024
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
9815084151
ISBN 13 
9789815084153
Einband
Taschenbuch
Zeichner
Phang Christine
Anzahl der Seiten
189
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