in thoughts...

have been clearing my cupboards of the old Reader Digests that my bro wanted to throw away last time - i kept them to read thru and sieve out certain articles i wanted to keep. went for kopi with Aud and Mao yesterday and managed to finish "Tuesdays with Morrie" while i was with them.

and i must say: it's really a good book.

gonna read it once thru again.

but i look around me, at friends, at bloggers that i read (some local and some not) and i realize we're basically not that different - the same stuff bother us.

***

how people think of us.
whether we are liked by others.
whether we belong.
but reading Tuesdays, Morrie talked about culture. building our own little sub-culture. deciding the BIG things. deciding how you wanna live your life, how you wanna see things.

Morrie: It's the same for women not being thin enough, or men not being rich enough. It's just what our culture would have you believe. Don't believe it.

to be brainwashed everyday by advertisements.
i'm sure they do affect what we want, and how we want to be like.
to be resilient enough to stop and think, "Is that what I really want/need?"
it takes time. and strength.

to see yourself for what you're worth.
worth may not be a good word.
heck.
to see yourself for what you are, and what you can be.
not to see yourself for what you can OWN.
it's not about the car, it's not about the house.
when you die you're taking nothing of that with you.

what is immortality?
not glory.
not achievement.
not property.
but whose lives you touched, and how deep you went.
to let someone know they matter.
and when you show them that you care, it doesn't matter anymore if you're rich, beautiful, slim or not.
because what they see is no longer what's on the outside.

***