i find my lessons a little morbid.

3 weeks ago i was using a skit to teach 永远的蝴蝶.
没有人知道, 躺在那里的,是我的,蝴蝶 ...
its a romance story then ends up in tragedy.
very shakespearish..

2weeks ago i gave a chinese lesson from an obituary.
but its no ordinary one, its by a famous author and it captures how the chinese are losing our tradition from the way obituaries change over 3 generations....
from traditional chinese and wen yan wen,
to simplified chinese,
to "was called home to the Lord on .... "
ok but its still quite morbid...

last week i gave a lesson on suicide...
他们说你没有写遗书,所以不可能是自杀.
但来说如果曾经大喊过却每人听明白,留下遗书给谁看?
i read this article one year back..
it triggers readers to thk about why teenagers choose to end their lives,
and how society is not doing much to understand the pain they're feeling..

in the past weeks,
i also came across blogs that belonged to youths that had passed on,
but still kept alive by the deceased close friends.
there was also a blogger who lost her bf of 4 years plus in 2008 and is still mourning over him up till today...
charleneyl.blogspot.com

The years go by.
The time, it does fly.
Every single second is a moment in
that passes oh so quick and it seems like nothing.
But when you’re looking back.
Well, it amounts to everything. We weren't meant for forever, but I just thought I'd let you know that I will always remember all the moment. It’s pretty much impossible to forget someone who was once the reason for the smile on your face. the pain i felt made me sleepless.

a student also told me about the death of his aunt recently.
its quite traumatizing for adolescences, at the peak of their youth, to cross path with death.
its like someone who has just started to catch a glimpse of the vibrancy of a sunrise, being forced to watch a gloomy sunset...

but we never know when we are going to leave this temporal world..
so its not too late to think about death.
i read in a poem,

without death, there is no life.
without thinking about death, we arnt really serious abt life..

human beings are may seem so wise and our wills so strong,
yet we can be so small and fragile....

we have ruled over the animal kingdom, tamed wild birds and beast;
yet a virus so small that we cant even see with our naked eye can mess up our immune system and kill us.

we have produced beautiful pieces of art and literature that tug heartstrings, transcending time;
yet if there is someth wrong with a tiny synapse in our brain,
we might be dead cuz our brain cant communicate important information to the rest of our body.

our heart, an organ only the size of our fist, is able to sustain us, filled with compassion to save the world,
yet a little dose of potassium can make our heart stop beating right there and then,
and all our dreams would end there and then too..

we can run miles and miles and miles
yet if we are not careful and do not hydrate ourselves adequately and let our body have enuf rest,
we'll just pass out and die. . .


how is it that we seem to be so BIG, brimming with so many dreams to change the world
yet we might be gone in a flash,
if a car crash into our path,
if a sudden illness invades... ...


only God knows how many days we have on earth,
we only live once..
what should we do with life?

one thk we shud not do,
thk that we're immortal and unfortunate incidents will not befall on us.
we certainly shud not live so carelessly...
if we're sick , eat medicine,
if we're tired, rest.
if we're thristy, drink!
don smoke, don get drunk,
do get into fights. . .
if we're depressed, get help..
if everyth fails, pray and wait for tmr...



when we start thinking about death, it is then that we start thinking seriously about life...