We see less than we think.
Not so deep under the floor you walk on, there lies a complex underground water system – the sewers. You cannot see it with your eyes, but it is there, upholding our sanitary life, protecting our dignity as civilized and hygienic people, separating us from the monkey kingdom.
If you could see below the ground somehow, I figure you would faint. There is just too much ugliness in that nasty business underground, where even seeing the flushing of the daily waste from one single HDB block would make you want to erase your memory permanently. It’s just too much to see.
All the darkness we cannot see
Similarly and thankfully, we can’t see even a speck of the darkness in the fleeting strangers in our lives. Broken hearts, trampled dreams, and recurring familial nightmares from which one cannot never wake. If we could see that, we would never go outside.
Amazingly, most of these people go through life working competently, smiling at their colleagues, thanking people , and showing no signs of that swamp of resentment and injustice not so deep in their hearts. We see no trace of that whatsoever, just as you look down and see no brown rivers below the ground.
Maybe someone’s fiancee got killed in an accident. Maybe a caring parent had passed , while the ads screaming “Happy Father’s Day” burns into her retina a hundred times a day. Maybe someone is living in a toxic family where people are playing emotional chess each moment , with sleep being the sole hiatus. These people are all around us, and likely you know some of them by name, and you just don’t know their stories.
Life is suffering, and there is no lack of human tragedy and pain. All of these are further obscured by our ignorant pursuit of a Instagram-worthy life.
Accept kindness gratefully
Someone offers you some help. Or praised your skills. Offered you a drink or a ride to your nearest MRT station. Or helped you up in some small way. Too small to register in memory , maybe.
This person was kind in spite of all the darkness that life has mercilessly poured into him or her. There was no need to be nice. Not to you anyway. You are a stranger. You have not helped in any way. You have not proven yourself to be useful. There is plenty of resentment to go about that ignoring you would be perfectly justified.
So if someone is kind, be grateful and accept that kindness. Take it as a small blessing in life. Give back help when you can. If you prick your ears, perhaps you will find someone you can help. This way, we all make the world a little bit better. Remember that being kind takes a certain maturity and strength of character; people who behave like bastards, bitches and two-faced groupies are the norm.
Today a quiet, unassuming hero is out there offering help to someone, in spite of an inescapable storm of darkness. He wants nothing in return, not even a “thanks”.
Do not take lightly the kindness of strangers.
