Gnat Bites

I've received some emails and comments recently from people who read the Star articles and checked out the blog. They have indeed been very encouraging and heartwarming.

It seems the gnat bites have had some result.

Here are a sampling of them, and in some cases, my replies.

Velayudhan left a new comment on the introduction:
"I was touched by your words and impressed by your actions. Thank you for lighting a candle to dispel the darkness of despair."

If you recall, when I wrote to Bill McDannell to tell him of my plans, he said in his blog on August 7 that he felt good about lighting a fire halfway around the world. And yes, I felt good about it too. Not for myself you know, but because the magic of this is how sharing the light of a candle doesn't diminish what you already have. Instead, the overall brightness increases.

So I say, 'Spread the light!'

My neighbour in PJ, Shoba, wrote:
"hey john
congrats on finishing r trip....now what will i do at work when i am suppose to be working?
anyway i told my friend about r blog and she has decided to buy a bike and learn how to cycle...at the age of 68! see, you never know who you inspire."

Exactly! You just never know. That's why cynicism is so dangerous, Just as you can exert a positive influence, so too can you drag someone backwards into inaction. And the natural predisposition for most of us is to do nothing. But talk.

I say change your life, and whether you then consciously attempt to influence someone else or not doesn't really matter. By your very own personal change you undoubtedly will create change in someone else.

I feel great about a 68 year old woman making a positive change in her life - I just hope she heeds my advice to be properly attired and to ride safe!

I received an email from Shalini who wrote:
"I read about your noble endeavor in THE STAR yesterday.
It was truly heartwarming to know that you too feel that we are losing touch with our Asian values and care for the wellbeing of our society albeit having lived a good 18 yrs. Away from home.
It’s tough to find people who cherish virtues like honesty, kindness and love for all irrespective of race, religion or creed.
Speaking alone is not enough, we need to put it into practice & I applaud u for taking the first step in trying to do something POSITIVE.
We need to stand together as a nation & call a spade a spade & fight against selfish attitudes, rising crimes, misuse of power, etc that threatens the stability of the nation & mother earth."
She continued by asking if there was a movement I was setting up and if so, could she join.

Well, no movement, Shalini, except what is in your own heart. Groups have a way of diminishing and diluting the value of their original purpose over time. So I say, work on yourself. Life is hard enough nowadays that we perhaps do well enough just taking care of ourselves. Be another gnat. One day, perhaps if enough gnats take a bite at the national issues, we will indeed have some sort of gnational movement.

Thanks for your emails and comments - send more! Share the light!

Let me sign off this holiday season post with the lyric of one of my favourite Christmas songs: Happy X'Mas (War is Over) by John Lennon as a reminder:

So this is Christmas
And what have you done
Another year over
And a new one just begun

And so this is Christmas
I hope you have fun
The near and the dear one
The old and the young

A very merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear

And so this is Christmas
For weak and for strong
For rich and the poor ones
The world is so wrong

And so happy Christmas
For black and for white
For yellow and red ones
Let's stop all the fight

A very merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear

And so this is Christmas
And what have you done
Another year over
And a new one just begun

And so this is Christmas
I hope you have fun
The near and the dear one
The old and the young

A very merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear

And so it begins....

But before the legs pump the pedals and the miles flow by, the fingers have first to tap the keyboard. I'm learning this blogging thing, and I'm organising and planning my route. At this point, my fitness is suspect and my funding still uncertain. I have set aside about 6 weeks and the only destination now is Penang on 11 November. I have a wedding to attend, you see...

The rest is still a little uncertain. I have, at times, surrendered to happenstance, and I am beginning to think serendipity will be my co-pilot on this trip.

I will need some things though - a compact digital camera, a compact video camera and a bit more equipment for my bike. I have already embarked on readying the bike, but the cameras are a little out of my budget for the moment. Well, I'm sure something will be worked out... If you do want to sponsor one or both, you do know how to contact me...


Bill McDannell has reached DC and if you look through his journal, he reproduced my first email to him on Tuesday August 7th. We have promised to keep in touch. If you like, drop him a line and wish him well.

My dear friend, Patsy, at The Star has also reflected some interest in doing a writeup - I guess the idea of celebrating in the midst of much gloom is a unique thing. Keeping my fingers crossed it'll all work out.

More news soon...

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It's the journey, not the destination: An Introduction

This is a philosophy I have extolled often enough. Through the years, even when I practiced as a hypnotherapist, a common thread in my dealings with people has been that the present should always be our point of focus. It's no use dwelling in the past for it drags us back. No use keeping our sights on the future for we fill our lives with worry and dread.

When we live in the here and now, however, we give ourselves the chance to absorb, appreciate, and give a little something back.

Enough people have espoused this so I shan't bore you with what you probably already know... save to add that this ideal is not always the easiest to adhere to though. Life sometimes has a way of dealing us a set of cards that leaves us scratching our heads and chewing on our nails. Or worse.

It's easy to aspire to this philosophy when you've got a steady job, some money in the bank, your health, the love and care of close ones. When you're dealt a difficult hand, however, it's not quite so easy. The focus then shifts to your actions, not your situation. What do you do next? How do you respond?

It is something akin to this that I find myself in now.

Malaysia is the land of my birth and my first 21 years. Most of the subsequent 21 years have been spent away. And yet, even though the body is not there, the heart always has been. And we all know home is where the heart is.

Consequently, the last few years have not been the easiest. Like a child who is away when a parent is ill, I have read about the problems my homeland has been going through with more than a tinge of sadness and helplessness. It's true the media thrives on bad news, but it's also true - and we would be blinkeredly foolish to deny so - that there is indeed much bad news nowadays.

I am no politician, law maker, activist, whatever. I am a simple bloke with a great love for a country that is rapidly losing touch with the values the founding fathers envisioned. This simple bloke has a tiny sphere of influence so small I might as well be a gnat on the back of an elephant. I can do almost nothing to solve the social, political or economic problems I read about.

When I was young, I had close friends from all the major races - in many ways we even failed to see the differences, enjoying instead the common-ness we had. I just don't see the same integration now. And it saddens me. It saddens me too, to see the social ills that continue to plague Malaysian society whilst taxpayers' money is spent questionably.

I have struggled with my response to all this. To do nothing, to turn a blind eye and a deaf ear is unconscionable. It has never been my way and it never will. And yet, I am that gnat. On an elephant. A large expanse before me...

And so perhaps the idea hatched. Certainly I would point to one person to whom I owe the inspiration and the courage: Bill McDannell who chose to walk from one end of the United States to the other to effect change. Now, I do not have the audacity to believe I could bring about nationwide change.

But I do believe in focussing on the here and now. And right now, right here within me, I feel more than a little sad and helpless.

So I have decided to confront that head-on. Not with my typical sledgehammer approach to life, but in an altogether gentler way. I wish to be that gnat, scratching at the surface of this country, exposing what is beneath the tough hide of this mad elephant charging ahead. Not as an irritant, but rather a micro-observer. I do believe that although the big picture may appear to be an insane, headlong rush into oblivion, the micro view may be altogether more surprising.

I intend to seek and find (and I have no doubt I will find) the values Malaysia was founded upon. In the everyday lives of ordinary Malaysians, I am sure I will discover warmth, kindness, honesty, a moral sense of right and wrong and a brotherhood that cuts right through the bigotry and racism we read about all too often. The heart of Malaysia must surely beat strong and healthy and I want to feel that pulse.

My physical journey will be a slow one, on bicycle, firstly through the villages and towns of the west coast of the peninsular. I will meet people and I will write about them and share their stories with you. Stay tuned, the journey starts in October...