Tuesday, April 19, 2005
Horticultural Morning.
Phalaenopsis 
Something has inspired me to pen this down, but even die trying I couldn’t regurgitate what it was. That’s not the important thing today.
This is, and it’s what I want to share.
During my elective, many years ago in Malaysia, I met and clerked in a woman in her 70s whom I swear only looked in her mere 40s. She was diagnosed with osteosarcoma ( primary bone cancer).
Her age discrepancy was a much talked about subject as it was very striking. During the ward round it became the subject of great interest even to the head department.
Dr.Iskandar asked the very question on behalf of a dozen of MOs and me a medical student. “Apa rahsia makcik?” (What is your secret aunty?) which came out rather strange for she looked no older than Dr. Iskandar himself.
Upon that she replied.
Bila makcik makan buah, makcik makan semua. Kulit biji semualah. Semua buah itu hasil kesebatian , jadi kalau kita ambil yang baik aja, kita tak dapat kesebatian buah tu. Semua khasiat buah tu.
(When I eat fruits, I eat everything. The skin, the pips, everything. A fruit is a product of the badness and the goodness of a plant. If we only eat the flesh of the fruit, we might have left out the goodness in the skin.)
In my mind then, I imagine trying to eat durian and biji durian and kulit durian. Gajah aje yang buat macam tu. (Only elephants capable of doing that) Oh what a torture and a cruel way to arrest the process of aging.
She didn’t stop at that.
Sama macam orang. Kita kena terima orang yang kita rasa tak sempurna seadanya, sebab yang baik pada dia itu datangnya dari apa yang buruk pada dia.
(Same goes to people, we have to accept a person as a whole, because whatever good in him/her is stemmed from what is bad in him/her)
At this point I thought she was digressing a bit, until she said this.
Apa yang kita fikir dan apa yang kita rasa bila kita bercakap dengan orang itu akan terlihat pada raut wajah kita. Ketenangan kita, kesabaran kita dan kebahagiaan kita. Mungkin itu yang buat kita nampak muda.
The school of orthopaedic had the longest silence that morning and the makcik smiled a weak smile. It was too philosophical for 7:50 in the morning. I was busy thinking about double parking at the MO’s parking space and the possibility of my car getting clamped or worse towed away.
I didn’t think much about what she said apart from 'pandainyaaa makcik niii' until this morning as I sat on the sofa, and had the pleasure of staring at the orchid plant by my window. The mundane uninteresting open field background set off the luscious royal green colour of the splaying leaves.
I was thinking, up high the stem, the flower is the art, the beauty, the love, the object of great fascination, has inspired great painters and philosophers and sought after by great lovers to symbolise the agonising love for a lady. The positive element to the plant.
Low down the stem, the roots, crooked, tortuous, fat, ugly, wrinkly with it’s own mind wrapping itself carelessly around the pot. The negative element.
But if you cut out every ugly less than perfect, negative roots, and the negative elements out, it would simultaneously choke off the positive elements that might arise from it further up the stem of the plant. The very reason why the orchid is so beautiful.
We should not feel embarrassed by our difficulties, only by our failure to grow anything beautiful from them. Equally we shouldn’t disregard difficult beings, as from their difficulties they have what’s good in them.
Too tired to analyse more. Off to bed. Lights off.
Something has inspired me to pen this down, but even die trying I couldn’t regurgitate what it was. That’s not the important thing today.
This is, and it’s what I want to share.
During my elective, many years ago in Malaysia, I met and clerked in a woman in her 70s whom I swear only looked in her mere 40s. She was diagnosed with osteosarcoma ( primary bone cancer).
Her age discrepancy was a much talked about subject as it was very striking. During the ward round it became the subject of great interest even to the head department.
Dr.Iskandar asked the very question on behalf of a dozen of MOs and me a medical student. “Apa rahsia makcik?” (What is your secret aunty?) which came out rather strange for she looked no older than Dr. Iskandar himself.
Upon that she replied.
Bila makcik makan buah, makcik makan semua. Kulit biji semualah. Semua buah itu hasil kesebatian , jadi kalau kita ambil yang baik aja, kita tak dapat kesebatian buah tu. Semua khasiat buah tu.
(When I eat fruits, I eat everything. The skin, the pips, everything. A fruit is a product of the badness and the goodness of a plant. If we only eat the flesh of the fruit, we might have left out the goodness in the skin.)
In my mind then, I imagine trying to eat durian and biji durian and kulit durian. Gajah aje yang buat macam tu. (Only elephants capable of doing that) Oh what a torture and a cruel way to arrest the process of aging.
She didn’t stop at that.
Sama macam orang. Kita kena terima orang yang kita rasa tak sempurna seadanya, sebab yang baik pada dia itu datangnya dari apa yang buruk pada dia.
(Same goes to people, we have to accept a person as a whole, because whatever good in him/her is stemmed from what is bad in him/her)
At this point I thought she was digressing a bit, until she said this.
Apa yang kita fikir dan apa yang kita rasa bila kita bercakap dengan orang itu akan terlihat pada raut wajah kita. Ketenangan kita, kesabaran kita dan kebahagiaan kita. Mungkin itu yang buat kita nampak muda.
The school of orthopaedic had the longest silence that morning and the makcik smiled a weak smile. It was too philosophical for 7:50 in the morning. I was busy thinking about double parking at the MO’s parking space and the possibility of my car getting clamped or worse towed away.
I didn’t think much about what she said apart from 'pandainyaaa makcik niii' until this morning as I sat on the sofa, and had the pleasure of staring at the orchid plant by my window. The mundane uninteresting open field background set off the luscious royal green colour of the splaying leaves.
I was thinking, up high the stem, the flower is the art, the beauty, the love, the object of great fascination, has inspired great painters and philosophers and sought after by great lovers to symbolise the agonising love for a lady. The positive element to the plant.
Low down the stem, the roots, crooked, tortuous, fat, ugly, wrinkly with it’s own mind wrapping itself carelessly around the pot. The negative element.
But if you cut out every ugly less than perfect, negative roots, and the negative elements out, it would simultaneously choke off the positive elements that might arise from it further up the stem of the plant. The very reason why the orchid is so beautiful.
We should not feel embarrassed by our difficulties, only by our failure to grow anything beautiful from them. Equally we shouldn’t disregard difficult beings, as from their difficulties they have what’s good in them.
Too tired to analyse more. Off to bed. Lights off.
