Tale of the Weekday Morning People
Written on 3/26/2007 08:13:00 pm by sikapitan
It was a typical weekday morning. A typical weekday morning in Subang Jaya consists of spending a lot of time stuck in traffic jam, as thousands of vehicles converge on the only road leading them towards the city. The vehicles are occupied. Some are occupied by couples but most, by only one person. Most, if not all, heading towards work, or as some like to call it, responsibility.
Many go through this routine, every weekday, every year. There will be a time when their responsibility, these people who spent their weekday mornings going to work, no longer exists, or a new, more “responsible” replacement comes along, or when they simply cannot be “responsible” anymore, due to old age and/or illness.
Suddenly, these “weekday morning people” are left with nothing to do on a typical weekday morning. They wake up at 6.30 am or 7.00 am or 8.00 am or whatever time they’re used to and have nowhere to go. Oh yes, many would say, “Ahh, now I have the time to do whatever I want…” Yet, many do not know what they want to do.
They turn to their friends, but their friends are off to work. For those fortunate enough to have friends in the same predicament, they will soon find that there’s nothing left to talk about. No more complains about the boss, no more rumblings about the new management policy, no more comparing accomplishments.
And so they turn to their family. For the past 20 odd years, they have been in contact with their spouse for only a few hours every weekday. Now, they are there for breakfast, for lunch, for afternoon tea, for dinner. For some, this is a blessing, and for these people we can only look on in envy or to the cynic, warily.
But for most, this sudden shift from affectionate detachment to irritating obsession is grating on the nerves. People say that this is due to lack of love but I just think that love, over time, changes its character. Love in its infancy is full of possibilities and raw attraction, while love in its “golden age” is more about compromise and understanding.
In short, love is a work in progress. It evolves through time. And when two people in love are used to seeing just a little bit of each other every day, and cherish these simple moments, the sudden shift to constant contact every hour, every day, can be fatal to the concept of romance.
So the weekday morning people seek their children. Certainly, if children are investment, then it makes absolute sense for the investor to enjoy the rewards from a matured investment. But alas, managing children is not like managing stocks or bonds.
Neither are they pets or servants. Though time and effort had been made in raising them, having any sort of physical expectation is bound to cause depression and dissatisfaction. The best reward a parent can and should expect is the one that isn’t connected to them at all.
The weekday morning people should be glad if their children are now part of the weekday morning crowd. Touching other’s lives with their own, loving others just as the weekday morning people loved them, and be a part of that weekday morning traffic jam heading to work that might appear inconsequential, but nothing is ever truly inconsequential in this world.
In other words, the best expectation, one that doesn’t cause hardship to the soul, is for the weekday morning people’s children to have their own meaningful life.
If so, what’s left for the weekday morning people to do? No books, or shows, or sports, or activities can ever replace the feeling of waking up in the morning, having a task to do, and a responsibility to fulfill. And so the weekday morning people, who so often sit in a traffic jam and curse their weekday morning routine, will one day wake up and wish they are there, in the midst of a weekday morning traffic jam, heading towards the city.
…
Many go through this routine, every weekday, every year. There will be a time when their responsibility, these people who spent their weekday mornings going to work, no longer exists, or a new, more “responsible” replacement comes along, or when they simply cannot be “responsible” anymore, due to old age and/or illness.
Suddenly, these “weekday morning people” are left with nothing to do on a typical weekday morning. They wake up at 6.30 am or 7.00 am or 8.00 am or whatever time they’re used to and have nowhere to go. Oh yes, many would say, “Ahh, now I have the time to do whatever I want…” Yet, many do not know what they want to do.
They turn to their friends, but their friends are off to work. For those fortunate enough to have friends in the same predicament, they will soon find that there’s nothing left to talk about. No more complains about the boss, no more rumblings about the new management policy, no more comparing accomplishments.
And so they turn to their family. For the past 20 odd years, they have been in contact with their spouse for only a few hours every weekday. Now, they are there for breakfast, for lunch, for afternoon tea, for dinner. For some, this is a blessing, and for these people we can only look on in envy or to the cynic, warily.
But for most, this sudden shift from affectionate detachment to irritating obsession is grating on the nerves. People say that this is due to lack of love but I just think that love, over time, changes its character. Love in its infancy is full of possibilities and raw attraction, while love in its “golden age” is more about compromise and understanding.
In short, love is a work in progress. It evolves through time. And when two people in love are used to seeing just a little bit of each other every day, and cherish these simple moments, the sudden shift to constant contact every hour, every day, can be fatal to the concept of romance.
So the weekday morning people seek their children. Certainly, if children are investment, then it makes absolute sense for the investor to enjoy the rewards from a matured investment. But alas, managing children is not like managing stocks or bonds.
Neither are they pets or servants. Though time and effort had been made in raising them, having any sort of physical expectation is bound to cause depression and dissatisfaction. The best reward a parent can and should expect is the one that isn’t connected to them at all.
The weekday morning people should be glad if their children are now part of the weekday morning crowd. Touching other’s lives with their own, loving others just as the weekday morning people loved them, and be a part of that weekday morning traffic jam heading to work that might appear inconsequential, but nothing is ever truly inconsequential in this world.
In other words, the best expectation, one that doesn’t cause hardship to the soul, is for the weekday morning people’s children to have their own meaningful life.
If so, what’s left for the weekday morning people to do? No books, or shows, or sports, or activities can ever replace the feeling of waking up in the morning, having a task to do, and a responsibility to fulfill. And so the weekday morning people, who so often sit in a traffic jam and curse their weekday morning routine, will one day wake up and wish they are there, in the midst of a weekday morning traffic jam, heading towards the city.
…
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