Losing way, losing faith?

Darkness—the greatest fear of many people, including me. When you are in the dark not knowing which way to go, there are only 2 options: to stay or to walk on. What would you do?

 People get lost in the dark. Darkness is actually the most formidable thing in many people’s mind. In such situation, some just stand there and look back; some walk on unwillingly with hesitation; and few people opt to continue their journey with confidence and belief even though they have no idea about what is going to happen next second.

The first type certainly has little likelihood to find their way out as they do nothing to help themselves. Then what about the other two?

You may think the other two types are more or less the same. But I would say faith makes the biggest difference and makes people know where their destination is.  Yet it is something seemingly abstract and unreachable, it is with us anytime and anywhere. People having faith in themselves are motivated and enthusiastic, with hopes of achieving their goals and seeing a bright future. Even in times of difficulty and uncertainty, they never drift with the tide and are not dubious of the decisions they have made.

 I must admit there are not many type-three people in the world, especially in Hong Kong where people live a life of hustle and bustle, a routine indeed. Without a clear goal and faith in themselves, they become blind followers of others. That more and more teenagers are getting addicted to drugs is in particular a cogent proof. They fail to endure the temptation and fall into traps that bring life-long disruption to their future. If they had had faith in themselves and strong determination, they surely would not have ruined their lives.

Life is all about how we walk our own paths. Having faith in ourselves allows us to take a step out of fear and darkness. Have you taken this step? 

A Bottle of Life

Life is like a hollow bottle. We all have a different exterior appearance. What matters is what is inside the bottle. My faith is: there are no white, yellow or black men but only good men and bad men in our world.

Life is like a falling bottle. In most cases we haven’t done anything wrong but troubles themselves knock on our door, just as natural as the gravitational force. My faith is: I can do something to save myself, anything.

Life is like a broken bottle. It is brittle and insignificant. A soft blow from Morakot claimed hundreds Taiwanese lives. A little shake from the Indian Plate caused 70 thousand Chinese deaths. My faith is: albeit the fragments of life are so trivial, they can still arouse the sympathy and empathy of us the human beings and bring great changes to the whole world.

Life is like a mended bottle. Scars are always left, which keep reminding us of the affliction and agony. My faith is: if we face the mistakes made wholeheartedly and spread our love and concern to other ‘mended bottles’, there will be no war but peace.

The Disabled in Society

Talking about the disabled, many may not know there are many forms and levels of disabilities. Basically, they can be simply divided into mentally disabled and physically disabled. A person is considered as mentally disabled when he/she is incapable of giving informed consent because of mental illness, mental retardation or emotional disturbance. A person with disabilities which limit or impair the ability to walk is deemed to be physically disabled. To different forms and levels, respective treatment and rehabilitation will be provided in order to help those live a smooth daily life.

The disabled are often associated with discrimination. Fortunately, our society does not discriminate against the disabled. On the contrary, the government has detailed and clear guidelines and procedures to support and help the disabled and the family with disabled members by providing special education, finance, employment and medical services. She also sets up different organizations and hotlines for different types of disabilities so that when problems crop up, they have a channel to turn to.

Some deem that the disabled are of no use to our society and are wasting tax-payers’ money. This ridiculous and unreasonable argument is fundamentally flawed. The disabled can still work to earn a living and produce output for our society. Their contribution to the society can be as much as those given by ordinary people. Some serve as social workers after treatment and rehabilitation to help others while some even gain reputation and gold medals in overseas competition. Furthermore, whether the disabled can contribute to our society or not, they deserve our respect and care simply because they are a part of us. We should never discriminate against them and say that they put additional burden on tax-payers.

All ordinary people have their imperfect parts; all the disabled have their ordinary parts. We are in no circumstances more privileged. From now on, we should treat the disabled like we want to be treated.