Good News Bad News

I picked up the Main section of the papers and from page 1 it was bad news. The crisis in Egypt, predictions if the violence will spread to Jordan and Syria (having started in Tunisia), destruction by cyclone Yasi in Australia, the volcanic eruption in Miyazaki prefecture in Japan, winter storm chaos in the US, two Singaporeans involved in insider trading in Britain, obesity rising like a tsunami worldwide, the price rise of essential commodities and how it is affecting the poor around the world, corruption as one problem of what is ailing India ... I skipped the obituary page!

I looked for something pleasant to read. There were some good news about Singapore's economy, three babies being born during cyclone Yasi's "attack" and the safe return of many Singaporean students and workers based in Egypt and more to be done to improve the lot of the lower income group in Singapore ... all pretty good news on this third day of the Rabbit year. But I searched for something ... pleasant and found it in Letter from Kyoto by Janice Tay.

I loved her description of the winter scene and I looked up and imagined my garden draped with snow. It would be all white and the trees would have snow hanging from its branches instead of leaves. Little sparrows will hop around searching for the odd frozen worm. The sun will shine and the snow will melt slowly dripping from the trees, glistening in the sunlight and then more snowflakes will fall and blow in the wind, twirling like break dancers before they settle on the ground.

I sigh. It will never be. But for a moment, it was nice to imagine.

Back to the real world, I picked up the Home section of the papers and braced myself for more bad news ... Such is life. We have good news and bad news. I guess it is all about balance ...

Gong Xi Fa Cai. God bless our new year!