Money can buy a house
but not a home.
Money can buy a bed
but not sleep.
Money can buy a clock
but not time.
Money can buy a book
but not knowledge.
Money can buy food
but not an appetite.
Money can buy position
but not respect.
Money can buy blood
but not life.
Money can buy medicine
but not health.
Money can buy sex
but not love.
Money can buy insurance
but not safety.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Paradox & Inspiration 122: Plague Doesn't Kill
An oriental legend tells of the desert traveler, who, one night met Fear and Plague, going to Baghdad where they expected to kill 10,000 persons.
The traveler asked Plague if he would do all the killing and Plague answer, "Oh, no, I shall kill only a few hundred and my friend Fear will kill the others."
-R & R Magazine
The traveler asked Plague if he would do all the killing and Plague answer, "Oh, no, I shall kill only a few hundred and my friend Fear will kill the others."
-R & R Magazine
Friday, June 26, 2009
Paradox & Inspiration 121: The Lemonade Cleansing Recipe
Designed over a half century ago by Stanley Burroughs, the Master Cleanse, also known as the Lemonade Detox uses natural ingredients to clean the internal digestive walls of debris build-up and mucous.
What I find paradoxical is its ingredients – lemon juice, cayenne pepper, refrigerated mixture. As the Master Cleanse is not a diet because no solid food is eaten, I would take it as a fasting recipe. And during fasting, it is rather incredulous to take cold, citrus, and spicy drinks even if it’s for one or two days. I'd deem it as too stimulating and damaging for the digestive system!
Yet, those who have been on this 10-day detox process say it is safe, and swear by its cleansing and weight loss results. And what is most fascinating is most detox programmes come and go, but this Master Cleanse method has lasted for more than 50 years and has even become more popular now.
What I find paradoxical is its ingredients – lemon juice, cayenne pepper, refrigerated mixture. As the Master Cleanse is not a diet because no solid food is eaten, I would take it as a fasting recipe. And during fasting, it is rather incredulous to take cold, citrus, and spicy drinks even if it’s for one or two days. I'd deem it as too stimulating and damaging for the digestive system!
Yet, those who have been on this 10-day detox process say it is safe, and swear by its cleansing and weight loss results. And what is most fascinating is most detox programmes come and go, but this Master Cleanse method has lasted for more than 50 years and has even become more popular now.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Paradox & Inspiration 120: Oxymorons
My favourite oxymorons:
1) religious tolerance
2) civil war
3) seriously funny
4) terribly good
5) good grief
6) negative growth
7) final draft
8) pretty ulgly
And, my favourite one-word oxymorons:
1) extraordinary
2) spendthrift
3) supernatural
4) someone
1) religious tolerance
2) civil war
3) seriously funny
4) terribly good
5) good grief
6) negative growth
7) final draft
8) pretty ulgly
And, my favourite one-word oxymorons:
1) extraordinary
2) spendthrift
3) supernatural
4) someone
Friday, June 12, 2009
Paradox & Inspiration 119: Harmful Cigarettes
Big irony.
While FDA is furiously slapping bans on herb companies which sell products with insufficient safety tests, it is endorsing the marketing and selling of a deadly carcinogenic -- cigarettes.
If cigarette is neither a food nor a dietary health supplement, it is then clearly a drug. But if it’s approved as a drug, where are the required safety tests? In fact, you immediately know there isn’t when you see those graphic health warning labels on every pack of cigarette.
While FDA is furiously slapping bans on herb companies which sell products with insufficient safety tests, it is endorsing the marketing and selling of a deadly carcinogenic -- cigarettes.
If cigarette is neither a food nor a dietary health supplement, it is then clearly a drug. But if it’s approved as a drug, where are the required safety tests? In fact, you immediately know there isn’t when you see those graphic health warning labels on every pack of cigarette.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Paradox & Inspiration 118: Mother Teresa's Anyway Poem
Mother Teresa's Anyway Poem
People are often unreasonable, illogical and self centered;
Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;
Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyway.
What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;
Build anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;
Give the world the best you've got anyway.
You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and your God;
It was never between you and them anyway.
People are often unreasonable, illogical and self centered;
Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;
Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyway.
What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;
Build anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;
Give the world the best you've got anyway.
You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and your God;
It was never between you and them anyway.
Paradox and Inspiration 117: Poor versus Rich
"Poor and most middle-class people believe “If I have a lot of money, I could do what I want and I’d be a success.” Rich people understand, “If I become a successful person, I will be able to do what I need to do to have what I want, including a lot of money.”
~ T. Harv Eker Quotes from Secrets of the Millionaire Mind
~ T. Harv Eker Quotes from Secrets of the Millionaire Mind
Monday, June 08, 2009
Paradox and Inspiration 116: Nothing else Matters at 16?
News reported that in the UK and US, it has become common for mothers to give their teenage daughters breast implants as a birthday or graduation present.
Despite being warned by plastic surgeon and child psychologists that such moves were unwise as even at age of 16 or 17, the breasts had not matured enough and that there would be a lot of psychological repercussions, and cosmetic surgery was a dangerous way to resolve teenage anxieties, many mothers and daughters still believed that girls got to have breasts to be successful, as every other person seen on television had implants, and the best way to prevent any “hang-ups" about looks and boost one’s self confidence and esteem was to get a boob job.
Despite being warned by plastic surgeon and child psychologists that such moves were unwise as even at age of 16 or 17, the breasts had not matured enough and that there would be a lot of psychological repercussions, and cosmetic surgery was a dangerous way to resolve teenage anxieties, many mothers and daughters still believed that girls got to have breasts to be successful, as every other person seen on television had implants, and the best way to prevent any “hang-ups" about looks and boost one’s self confidence and esteem was to get a boob job.
Tuesday, June 02, 2009
Paradox and Inspiration 115: Lessons from Morrie
Tuesdays with Morrie, An old man, a young man, and life’s greatest lesson
by Mitch Albom
"Chase the right things in life, devote yourself to loving others, to the community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning."
"Find out what’s good and true and beautiful in your life right now. Looking back makes you competitive. And age is not a competitive issue."
"Owning things is good. More money is good. More property is good. More commercialism is good. More is good. More is good. We repeat it – and have it repeated to us – over and over again until nobody bothers to even think otherwise. The average person is so fogged up by all this, he has no perspective on what’s really important anymore."
"You know what really gives you satisfaction? Offering others your time."
"Because I work among the rich and famous, I convinced myself that my needs were realistic, my greed inconsequential compared to theirs. This was a smokescreen."
"Don’t I have enough pain and suffering of my own? Of course I do. But giving to other people is what makes me feel alive. Do the kinds of things that come from the heart. When you do, you’ll be overwhelmed with what comes back."
"When Morrie was with you, he was really with you. He looked you straight in the eye, and he listened as if you were the only person in the world."
“I believe in being fully present.”
"When someone wants to get ahead of me in the traffic, I would raise my hand, as if I was going to make a negative gesture, and then I would wave and smile. Instead of giving them the finger, you let them go and you smile. A lot of times they smiled back. I don’t have to be in that much of a hurry with my car. I would rather put my energies into people."
Paradox and Inspiration 114: Diseases in Developed Country
The mention of the city-state of Singapore conjures up images of modernity, remarkable cleanliness, admirable disease-free environment, safe and healthy living.
Not sure about you, but I believe many foreigners find it hard to reconcile the existence of life-threatening diseases and viruses such as mosquito-borne dengue and Chikungunya diseases, hand foot mouth, bird flu, SARS with a modern setting like Singapore.
Life is full of ironies, isn’t it?
Not sure about you, but I believe many foreigners find it hard to reconcile the existence of life-threatening diseases and viruses such as mosquito-borne dengue and Chikungunya diseases, hand foot mouth, bird flu, SARS with a modern setting like Singapore.
Life is full of ironies, isn’t it?
Paradox and Inspiration 113: When Parenting is Reduced to Numbers
Parenting is hard. Being a stay-at-home-mum is freaking scary. A big part of the reason is because we do not get a report on how well we are faring in this herculean task, what have been done correctly and wrongly, how much more we should do…
I do not ask to be a perfect parent, but I need to know if I've been a bad parent and how far I am from being a good one. I want to know if giving up my job to be with them is a correct decision, I want to know if what I've done is all worth it. The same principles of performance and reward in the corporate environment cannot be applied in this enormous parenting venture. At work, we have performance indicators to tell us how much have been achieved, how far we are from our targets and goals. At the end of the year, we get appraisal from the bosses.
Like every parent, I want my children to be healthy, happy, and successful in every way, I want to be a key contributor to that end goal. I can so easily forget that "Sucess of loving is not the results, but the loving itself." I must not reduce parenting to numbers – good health reports, good grades, good behaviour, good conduct, good reports from the school, but that feeling of insecurity just creeps in when you know that even if their school report cards record flying colours or they topping the class, it still doesn't mean I have been a good parent.
How to measure the emotional aspect and happiness of my children? Their smiles, their laughter? What a poster I saw said crystal clear - "For a child, love is spelled as T.I.M.E". Perhaps, by just being with them, offering a word of encouragement or a hug of assurance of my presence counts a hundred times more than those endless nights of coaching for school exam.
"The mother-child relationship is paradoxical and, in a sense, tragic. It requires the most intense love on the mother's side, yet this very love must help the child grow away from the mother, and to become fully independent."
~Erich Fromm~
I do not ask to be a perfect parent, but I need to know if I've been a bad parent and how far I am from being a good one. I want to know if giving up my job to be with them is a correct decision, I want to know if what I've done is all worth it. The same principles of performance and reward in the corporate environment cannot be applied in this enormous parenting venture. At work, we have performance indicators to tell us how much have been achieved, how far we are from our targets and goals. At the end of the year, we get appraisal from the bosses.
Like every parent, I want my children to be healthy, happy, and successful in every way, I want to be a key contributor to that end goal. I can so easily forget that "Sucess of loving is not the results, but the loving itself." I must not reduce parenting to numbers – good health reports, good grades, good behaviour, good conduct, good reports from the school, but that feeling of insecurity just creeps in when you know that even if their school report cards record flying colours or they topping the class, it still doesn't mean I have been a good parent.
How to measure the emotional aspect and happiness of my children? Their smiles, their laughter? What a poster I saw said crystal clear - "For a child, love is spelled as T.I.M.E". Perhaps, by just being with them, offering a word of encouragement or a hug of assurance of my presence counts a hundred times more than those endless nights of coaching for school exam.
"The mother-child relationship is paradoxical and, in a sense, tragic. It requires the most intense love on the mother's side, yet this very love must help the child grow away from the mother, and to become fully independent."
~Erich Fromm~
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
