The art of not doing anything

“All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone” – Blaise Pascal.

If there is one thing that I really discovered about myself in the last 6 months, particularly in the last few weeks, is that the above famous words from a historical figure do not quite apply to me. Having lived alone in Singapore for almost five year, I knew I am not a person who always want to be out and about. 

But… the few months have brought about monumental discoveries.

“To sit quietly in a room” – this is probably a metaphor.  Translating into today’s words, I would think it probably equates to not doing a lot, or not doing anything at all, or to a certain extent, just self-entertained. 

Are we able to do this for an extensive period of time?

I discovered that I could. As I reflect on this, I realised that it could possibly be because I have always done this from a very young age.  For instance, I don’t think I have a proper toy until I was in my early teens. As such, I believe I have mastered the art of entertaining myself, or just sit quietly at one spot and just let time passes.

It is probably an escape when I was very young, from everything that is happening around me.  Perhaps that was a good thing, as that didn’t allow bad influence affect me when I was young.

I sound pretty weird now, but I do believe not doing anything or just doing the exact same thing over and over again in these days and age is truly a disappearing art.

Isolation returns

It was just a few months ago…

The world was put on a lockdown, an effort to intentionally isolate the human race in order to curb the scourge that is the coronavirus.  Strangely though, it felt as though the effort to isolate the human race actually raised inter-human communications to a much higher level, thanks to technology.

How many times did you FaceTime your family?

How many times did you have social gathering held over platforms such as Zoom, Google Meet-up or the likes?

I bet the level of activity in all your chatgroups also went up a few notches, or maybe you even started having regular whatsapp catch-ups with some friends whom you have not spoken to in ages.  And… people who usually takes ages to reply a single text… suddenly became rather prompt, did they?

Some claimed that the lockdown has given them a certain degree of stress, and pushed them outside the comfort zone where they have to do everything themselves.  A friend of mine was telling me his part time helper could not go to his place so he had to do all housework himself.

Isn’t it an irony that people are being pushed outside the comfort zone by being in their… “home”?

And of course, suddenly everyone is able to cook.  A wave of cuisine parade swept across social media, where people proudly showed their ‘product’ from the only trip that they can make during the lockdown… trip to the kitchen.

That was just a few months ago…

The word that has reversed all of the above is called… “normal”... while the term new-normal is floating everywhere as the new way of life.  However, it cannot be denied that normalcy is slowly but surely returning, or more specifically, the human race craves for normalcy to return.

Normalcy… lesser inter-human communications, no more online social gatherings that did not translate into more physical gatherings, don’t need to cook so much yourself, don’t need to do housework yourself, more time wasted stuck in traffic jams… you know what I am getting at.

Normalcy returns, “I am busy” or “I have no time” is back. Isolation has ended, and yet isolation has also… returned.

A discovery during my reconnection journey

Following my last entry, I have more or less combed through my email archive, communicated with a lot of people, some of you have graciously replied and it has been an awesome experience communicating with those who replied. Amidst the elation, I would nonetheless pause and reflect on an unfortunate discovery during this sentimental re-connection journey.

In the year 2008, 2 years after my Mom’s passing (which I blogged plenty about during the early days), I received an email from someone, telling me that he chanced upon my blog at that time, and it was 2 hours before his mother’s funeral service.  He informed me that he would recite a poem found in this blog as part of his mother’s eulogy.

I could sense at that time that he was lost for words, and I was glad that writings in this good ‘ol blog helped him during those grieving moments of his. We exchanged a few emails more than 12 years ago and of course, I would definitely be interested to connect with him again. 

He was someone from the other side of the globe, in the US.

As I was about to write to him, something tells me to just google his name, maybe I will find a FB page or LinkedIn, you know, the kind of online footprint that we all have these days.  It was through this step, that I discovered something tragic.

I did not find his FB or Linkedin. Instead, I found is obituary. He passed away unexpectedly April this year. He was described as someone with a huge heart and a deep soul, and he was younger than me.

It was indeed a very timely reminder during this eventful year that life is too fragile to be wasted away.  While we cannot realistically live as though there is no tomorrow (because reality doesn’t allow that), we ought to cherish every moment of our lives.

May we all pause at this moment, think of the loved ones that we have around us and bask in the gratefulness that life has given us.

And may this friend of mine (if I could consider him as one)…. rest in peace.

Sentimental connection to legacy readers

I was feeling rather sentimental a few nights ago, perhaps it was because I have reached another milestone…. It was my birthday, another number to that ever increasing number, a number that you don’t quite keep track after a while. Wouldn’t you agree?

And so, I decided to log on to my Zewt e-mail account and went through a lot of the mails that I used to receive and the communications that I had with the readers of this blog, days when there used to be so many of them :)

It was very surreal to read through some of those mails from readers who asked me so many questions, ranging from where I got my inspiration to write, advice and well wishes during a time when I was diagnosed with a kidney condition, and most of all, questions about career from people who just graduated from university seeking a pointer or two about whether they should join the corporate world. 

Time wise… most of those mails were almost a decade ago, some even longer.  I wonder how these people are, whether my 2-cent worth of consult to them (if I can call that a consult) did lead them to where they wanted to go, and whether they have achieved greatness and did well in their respective career.

And as such, I decided to write to a few of them with the email thread that I had.  To my surprise, some of them have replied!

I have discovered through the years that human connection is one of the most fulfilling experience ever.  Therefore, I am excited to connect to people who wrote to me literally… a decade ago.

Are you one of them?

Zewt in hotel quarantine

It was such a good feeling to actually know that there are people still lurking around here, it gives me hope that people still fancy reading.   I myself have also missed some bloggers that I used to follow, and I too wish they would make a return.  However, we all have our lives to live.  

I wish everyone who is reading this is having a good life and that you are currently staying healthy and safe in this unprecedented time in human history.  I think no one alive has actually been through this.  Tough times but I am sure we will all come out of it stronger. 

Meanwhile, just want to share with everyone that I am now in hotel quarantine, and I made these videos to entertain myself and hopefully you will be entertained too.

My “Friday Frolics” crazy video, hope you will find it funny.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72d7FDY1LXM&t=31s

This one is when I first arrived.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-Xj7ZJEPpo&t=268s

Hope you enjoy them and I will see you again very soon.

Best wishes to everyone,

Zewt