The importance of knowing your place – I miss General Yeo

Many years ago, General Yeo said in passing,

“know your place and we can have a conversation.”

When I first heard these words – I considered him arrogant and presumptuous. But as I turned the wheel of life as a farmer who has to regularly manage myself and others effectively to get results. I realized the wisdom of these words – as with everything the General has to say, it is compact as a pill and full of meaning.

I frequently think it is so sad that Singapore has lost a thinker in the cabinet. I hope one day he will change his mind and return to politics again.

Good men are hard to find….very hard.

The Second Coming

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

————————————————————-

“I think it is a criminal waste that such an outstanding man has decided to turn away from the affairs of the world like a man who retreats into the forest just to meditate on the meaning of life.

I wouldn’t mind if Mini Lee or Kee Chui did that at all – I would probably help them along by donating ten years supply of canned sardines minus the can opener to wish them Bon voyage. As all they seem to do is hurt my brain with their kooky logic.

As for the General. It saddens me immensely he is so inaccessible these days. I personally don’t mind paying 10k just to have lunch with him – I will cook him a nice salmon with creme sauce and some mash potatoes. We will dine in the field over a bottle of Yaldara – he will like that as I have a feeling, he’s someone who like the outdoors like me.

It will be meaningful and that is really what I want out of life….meaningful relationships….meaningful moments…meaningful encounters that will allow one to see the world slightly differently and even change to be a better person. Not fake people who are so afraid of their own shadows….all they can do is trust their fears more than their hopes.

After all we only live once. I miss him dearly….”