Thursday, March 19, 2009

All sorts of people

Having survived several decades as a fellow earthling and now going on to the sunset years of life, yours sincerely ( y s) is looking hard at earthlings.

Someone observes that there are five types of people: those who make things happen; those who think they make things happen; those who watch things happen; those who wonder what happened; and those that did not know that anything has happened. It is like a herd of buffaloes in a stampede. Many do not even know what is going on. They are simply imbued with the herd and mob instinct to follow suit. This is common in certain countries where one can marshal a mob by just shouting out a few religious phrases or words, or inciting speeches. You can easily rope in bullish mob to stampede for you for whatever God knows reasons.

William J H Boetcker divides people into four classes: -

1) Those who always do less than they are told
2) Those who will do what they are told, but no more
3) Those who will do things without being told.
4) Those who will inspire others to do things.

Y s has to add one more class of those who stand around, do nothing but every ready to criticise those who do. This is particularly common in churches. The inbreeding of this category has given rise to uneasiness and apprehension among those who sincerely want to do. So, finally nothing much gets done for the fear of being criticized.

Buddha says that there are three kinds of people. The first are like letters carved in the rock: they easily give way to anger and retain their angry thoughts for a long time. The second are like letters written in the sand: they give way to anger also but their angry thoughts quietly pass away. The third are like letters written in running water: they do not retain their passing thoughts; they let abuse and uncomfortable gossip pass by unnoticed; their mind are always pure and undisturbed.

May we carve our letters in water.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

That's nice. Btw, how you spend your time as a retiree ? I read you 'bucket list' too. haha.. you must be preparing for something ahead. Life is great ! Hope we'll have more time getting to know each other..

Thomas C B Chua said...

Thanks for dropping by.I don't spend my time but enjoy it to the hilt. Yes, I am preparing for the final retirement.Live your life. There is lots of time to be dead.

Viva life. U, 2.