For Granted
"In my shoes, just to see, what it's like to be me
I'll be you, let's trade shoes, just to see what it'd be like to
Feel your pain, you feel mine, go inside eachothers minds
Just to see, what we find, look at shit through eachothers eye"
-- Beautiful, Eminem
I spent most of yesterday at home working on my spreadsheet. After doing two out of the three, I got a call from my client's sister at 1:30pm saying she was at the jails trying to pick up my client's suit but apparently only the lawyer could sign out for it.
I asked her to see what time they closed and she said 3:00pm, so I decided to get this over and done with, and I didn't mind a break anyway. When I was walking towards my garage I heard someone yell out to me, but dismissed it as yelling directed at someone else. As I was reversing out, I saw Grizzly waiting outside - so he was the one calling out to me.
He seemed to be in a bit of a panic and asked me where I was going. He said he needed an urgent lift to the airport as his plane was leaving in 50 minutes.
Hmmm...friend or client? Friend or client?
I couldn't say no to such a desperate request, so I offered him a lift to the airport. There was initial traffic till about halfway there, and then it was reasonably smooth. We got there in about 30 minutes, which was a lot quicker than expected.
He was very thankful for my help, and I've always been open to helping people in need, mainly because I like being owed a favour. Of course, one has to keep in mind that, depending on the favour, the debt may be diminished by time. In other words, some people seem to have a short memory about your help, and later on may even refuse to help you in return.
I raced to the jails, and unfortunately I got stuck in traffic. It really was a test of time and my driving skills. With about 15 minutes to closing time, I was still a considerable distance away. Luckily I decided to take the freeway and I made it with about 10 minutes to spare.
The retrieval of the suit was pretty much trouble-free, I had expected some procedural hassle.
After that I drove back home, and worked on the remainder of the spreadsheet.
My knee felt pretty good today. It feels like a blend between pain and an itch. I keep having this urge to feign a turn around jump shot, but have to keep reminding myself that I'm still very much injured, and would just aggravate things if I tried it. I can walk pretty much without a limp, but only slowly. If I speed up even a little, the limp becomes evident. Like today, when Rom was keeping the lift open for me, I tried to run and my stumble was very obvious.
Court was pretty easy today as we just watched a video, although in the office I was doing a lot of work. I copped a bit from my client today. He asked me to call up this shop to ask for the contact details of someone who worked there years ago, and so I did. I returned to tell him that they said they knew him but had no information. My client then said "did you talk to the manager? You didn't did you? You're a lawyer and you didn't even do that".
Wow.
That stung.
Maybe he was in a bad mood. I keep telling myself not to be too sensitive about it, but at the same time I can't help it.
I saw that cute para today. Haven't seen her for ages. But no eye contact was made as for some reason I avoided looking at her when she was sitting at the back.
I'm also trying to keep my distance from Twish, as I don't want to mislead her in any respect. The other day in court, she told me she was moving places because she didn't like her room mate. I just nodded and didn't say anything, because: 1) we were in goddam court for god's sakes, it's not the best time to have a conversation about that; and 2) I didn't want to become the person to turn to when she needed to talk about her problems.
Today while we were watching the video, she pushed her transcript to my side so we could share, but I just kept watching the screen. She would also sometimes try to joke with me, and I'd just politely chuckle and leave it at that. During the break, I asked her why she didn't just move back with her parents, and she seemed to avoid the question, saying there was just not enough room. Hmmm...me suspects there may be something there.
I'm starting to like Relapse more and more. Some songs have stuck out and become early favourites, like Medicine Ball, My Mom, Insane, Bagpipes from Baghdad, Same Song & Dance, We Made You, and Beautiful.
It seems that everytime I listen to a song, I pick up something new, something that amazes me about the level of detail that goes into his songs. A good example is how in Stan, you can hear the windscreen wipers.
Anyway, I watched a bit of the news when I got home. They were talking about how some models from Australia nearly had their passports confiscated in Taiwan, and some of them were saying how scared they were and balh blah blah.
I bet they're probably of the opinion that they're never going to go back, and how it was such a bad place to be and all that. I say sucked in to these models. They probably think that because they're 'models', they're better than everyone else and are too good for a place like Taiwan. I suppose it's never occurred to them that people actually live in Taiwan. Yes, people habitat in Taiwan!
And listening to Eminem's Beautiful, it made me think: it really, really takes an experience to live in someone else's shoes to appreciate and be grateful for your own situation, instead of taking things for granted.
This can be directed pretty much at most people. Perhaps moreso in Western society than others, we tend to take our own lives for granted. Instead of being content and appreciating what we have, we are somehow instilled with the need to improve, to get better, to get richer, to be more than what we already are.
But who amongst us stops to think that some poor kid in Somalia would give anything just for a cup of water? Meanwhile, here we are in our expensive clothes, equipped with mobile phones, laptops, wide screen televisions, having the choice to eat anything like a fruit salad to elegant Japanese cuisine.
And I myself can't avoid this criticism. Some poor three year old is probably going to die from starvation within the next hour or so, and there I was throwing $200 onto the table for one spin at roulette. I haven't gambled since that breakdown, but I can never escape criticism for that.
I just think that society as a whole these days lacks empathy. Capitalism has fed us with greed, and in the process we've been blinded to what truly matters. Instead of just appreciating life, we do stupid superficial, materialistic things like having cosmetic surgery so we can appease whoever judges us solely on our appearance, we smoke, drink and do drugs till our bodies force irrevocable regret on us, and we cheat on our partners because we're pressed and impressed to focus on lust and not love.
So maybe, next time when you have a moment to spare, you should try picturing yourself trading shoes with someone less fortunate than you. And hopefully, even if it's for a micro-second, you will learn to appreciate and be content with your current situation, instead of taking the next risk that could ruin it all.
I'll be you, let's trade shoes, just to see what it'd be like to
Feel your pain, you feel mine, go inside eachothers minds
Just to see, what we find, look at shit through eachothers eye"
-- Beautiful, Eminem
I spent most of yesterday at home working on my spreadsheet. After doing two out of the three, I got a call from my client's sister at 1:30pm saying she was at the jails trying to pick up my client's suit but apparently only the lawyer could sign out for it.
I asked her to see what time they closed and she said 3:00pm, so I decided to get this over and done with, and I didn't mind a break anyway. When I was walking towards my garage I heard someone yell out to me, but dismissed it as yelling directed at someone else. As I was reversing out, I saw Grizzly waiting outside - so he was the one calling out to me.
He seemed to be in a bit of a panic and asked me where I was going. He said he needed an urgent lift to the airport as his plane was leaving in 50 minutes.
Hmmm...friend or client? Friend or client?
I couldn't say no to such a desperate request, so I offered him a lift to the airport. There was initial traffic till about halfway there, and then it was reasonably smooth. We got there in about 30 minutes, which was a lot quicker than expected.
He was very thankful for my help, and I've always been open to helping people in need, mainly because I like being owed a favour. Of course, one has to keep in mind that, depending on the favour, the debt may be diminished by time. In other words, some people seem to have a short memory about your help, and later on may even refuse to help you in return.
I raced to the jails, and unfortunately I got stuck in traffic. It really was a test of time and my driving skills. With about 15 minutes to closing time, I was still a considerable distance away. Luckily I decided to take the freeway and I made it with about 10 minutes to spare.
The retrieval of the suit was pretty much trouble-free, I had expected some procedural hassle.
After that I drove back home, and worked on the remainder of the spreadsheet.
My knee felt pretty good today. It feels like a blend between pain and an itch. I keep having this urge to feign a turn around jump shot, but have to keep reminding myself that I'm still very much injured, and would just aggravate things if I tried it. I can walk pretty much without a limp, but only slowly. If I speed up even a little, the limp becomes evident. Like today, when Rom was keeping the lift open for me, I tried to run and my stumble was very obvious.
Court was pretty easy today as we just watched a video, although in the office I was doing a lot of work. I copped a bit from my client today. He asked me to call up this shop to ask for the contact details of someone who worked there years ago, and so I did. I returned to tell him that they said they knew him but had no information. My client then said "did you talk to the manager? You didn't did you? You're a lawyer and you didn't even do that".
Wow.
That stung.
Maybe he was in a bad mood. I keep telling myself not to be too sensitive about it, but at the same time I can't help it.
I saw that cute para today. Haven't seen her for ages. But no eye contact was made as for some reason I avoided looking at her when she was sitting at the back.
I'm also trying to keep my distance from Twish, as I don't want to mislead her in any respect. The other day in court, she told me she was moving places because she didn't like her room mate. I just nodded and didn't say anything, because: 1) we were in goddam court for god's sakes, it's not the best time to have a conversation about that; and 2) I didn't want to become the person to turn to when she needed to talk about her problems.
Today while we were watching the video, she pushed her transcript to my side so we could share, but I just kept watching the screen. She would also sometimes try to joke with me, and I'd just politely chuckle and leave it at that. During the break, I asked her why she didn't just move back with her parents, and she seemed to avoid the question, saying there was just not enough room. Hmmm...me suspects there may be something there.
I'm starting to like Relapse more and more. Some songs have stuck out and become early favourites, like Medicine Ball, My Mom, Insane, Bagpipes from Baghdad, Same Song & Dance, We Made You, and Beautiful.
It seems that everytime I listen to a song, I pick up something new, something that amazes me about the level of detail that goes into his songs. A good example is how in Stan, you can hear the windscreen wipers.
Anyway, I watched a bit of the news when I got home. They were talking about how some models from Australia nearly had their passports confiscated in Taiwan, and some of them were saying how scared they were and balh blah blah.
I bet they're probably of the opinion that they're never going to go back, and how it was such a bad place to be and all that. I say sucked in to these models. They probably think that because they're 'models', they're better than everyone else and are too good for a place like Taiwan. I suppose it's never occurred to them that people actually live in Taiwan. Yes, people habitat in Taiwan!
And listening to Eminem's Beautiful, it made me think: it really, really takes an experience to live in someone else's shoes to appreciate and be grateful for your own situation, instead of taking things for granted.
This can be directed pretty much at most people. Perhaps moreso in Western society than others, we tend to take our own lives for granted. Instead of being content and appreciating what we have, we are somehow instilled with the need to improve, to get better, to get richer, to be more than what we already are.
But who amongst us stops to think that some poor kid in Somalia would give anything just for a cup of water? Meanwhile, here we are in our expensive clothes, equipped with mobile phones, laptops, wide screen televisions, having the choice to eat anything like a fruit salad to elegant Japanese cuisine.
And I myself can't avoid this criticism. Some poor three year old is probably going to die from starvation within the next hour or so, and there I was throwing $200 onto the table for one spin at roulette. I haven't gambled since that breakdown, but I can never escape criticism for that.
I just think that society as a whole these days lacks empathy. Capitalism has fed us with greed, and in the process we've been blinded to what truly matters. Instead of just appreciating life, we do stupid superficial, materialistic things like having cosmetic surgery so we can appease whoever judges us solely on our appearance, we smoke, drink and do drugs till our bodies force irrevocable regret on us, and we cheat on our partners because we're pressed and impressed to focus on lust and not love.
So maybe, next time when you have a moment to spare, you should try picturing yourself trading shoes with someone less fortunate than you. And hopefully, even if it's for a micro-second, you will learn to appreciate and be content with your current situation, instead of taking the next risk that could ruin it all.
posted by toey | 21:12
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