The Proposal

Here is a story from a Japanese drama that I like. A young man was attending the wedding of a girl in a church. As he watched the ceremony, he was filled with overwhelming regret that he had never revealed his feelings for her in the past 15 years that they spent together from primary school through to university.

As he was watching the photos of the slide show of their times together through the years spent in the company of three other good friends, a fairy appeared. Taking pity on this young man, the fairy told him that he could choose any photo he liked and go back in time to the occasion that the photo was taken and from there find an opportunity to tell the girl how much he liked her. Anything that he did that he did not do before might change the way the people looked in the photo and ultimately, going into as many photos as he wanted, he could eventually change the course of history and end up being the groom in the wedding.

The young man was given unlimited chances by the fairy to go back in time. Each time, he managed to make small changes but what eluded him was the chance to tell the girl how much he liked her. He finally gave up trying because he felt that it was useless at the point when his rival picked up courage to confess his love for the girl.

The fairy disappeared as he was disappointed that the young man did not persevere to make his dream come true even though he had unlimited chances to try. Finally, the young man's good friend came and stood next to him and said, "You know, you went back to the past didn't you? I figured that out because of the weird things you said. Some of them were captured on my video when I was playing with it. You never came back after that and I was hoping that you would because if you had, I would have helped you to win the girl over to your side."

So what is the moral of the story? Here's what I think:

We often do not get second chances in life. When we do, we should not give up especially when we are making progress, no matter how small.

The story did not end there. The fairy appeared again not wanting to be a failure in helping mortals attain their dreams. He revealed that the young man's good friend had inserted a few extra photo slides and that he could make use of them to try to change his fate. The young man tried again and still he could not succeed.

He was brought back again to the present at the point when he had to make a speech to the audience about the bridal couple. It dawned on him then that if trying to change history was futile, perhaps he could make use of the present to do so. In his speech, he confessed his love for the girl. She was moved and obviously still in love with him. Noticing that his bride was now in two minds about proceeding with the marriage, he tricked her into going after the young man in pursuit of happiness.

So there is a happy ending to this story. The moral of the story? It's always good to be honest and sincere in relationships.

The Good Earth

"The Good Earth" by Pearl S. Buck was the first novel that I read when I was in my early teens. It is not a cool book for teens to read nowadays because it was set in China at the turn of the century when China was ruled by warlords and when possessing land was the ultimate accomplishment in the life of a respectable man because land brings wealth and wealth brings the lifestyle of the rich who equate wealth with not having to work because the land brings in the cash.

Though the time, place of this novel is far removed from today's reality of how life is led, the characters in the book are recognisable amongst us today. The story starts with Wang Lung, a poor farmer who slogged to buy a piece of land that he worked with his bare hands producing enough grain to give him just enough silver to buy over the house and all the land belonging to a rich family whose fortunes were declining.

Wang Lung was so poor that he could only afford to marry a slave called O Lan from that particular household. She was plain and not good to look at. However, she was hardworking, frugal and in her quiet, almost silent way, helped Wang Lung to rise from poverty to a farmer that was the envy of others because while they remained poor, he managed to acquire enough land and wealth to become known as a rich man.

To be continued upon request.

Plastic surgery

I have several books at the moment that I have started on. It will take a long time before I finish reading a complete book. Meanwhile I have been reading random stories from women's magazines as time-fillers and I came across this first-person account by a woman who related her story anonymously in one of these magazines and the story, if it was true, is really a sad one.

This woman underwent plastic surgery because she did not like her looks she was born with. After the cosmetic transformation, she became good looking and attracted the attention of a man whom whe married after 5 months of courtship. All went well until she gave birth to her baby. Her husband was horrified that the baby was in his view ugly because it had unflattering features. The woman then confessed to her husband about her plastic surgery. He was furious and he was disgusted with her because he felt that he had been deceived into the marriage.

From then on he rejected her and their child but did not divorce her because of his religion. Her marriage deteriorated and she lived in misery because she was ignored by her husband. She could not tell her parents for she did not want to burden them with her problems.

I am disgusted as well. Not with this poor woman whom some would consider vain and insecure. I sympathise with her and admired her determination to do something about herself through plastic surgery so that she could get on with her life.

It is easy for us to say that ugly people (like Ugly Betty perhaps) have made good with their life despite their looks and that a woman should not resort to plastic surgery to change what she was born with. It is easy to say because we are not that particular person. Whatever she has done could not be undone.

I realised that people will have different views from mine in the way they view this woman. Some will sympathise with her and some will say that she should have told her husband the truth before she married him. Honesty is the best policy in any situation. However the issue is not about honesty. What is done cannot be undone. She withheld the information because in her judgment it was the best thing she could have done in the naive belief that it would not have mattered to him. It was an assumption she made and that perhaps was her mistake. The question is whether the husband should treat her so badly after he found out?