The Invisible Choice

  Definition of "Hell" according Oxford Dictionary: (in some religions )   the place believed to be the home of  devil and where bad people go after death Hell is a place which we often wish others will go to but not ourselves, because we believe that it is a horrible place, only for horrible people. When someone has offended us, or should I say we feel offended by others (because most of the time those people don't even notice their action has offended someone) we usually wish them to go to that place. Depending on religions, hell can be described differently and take different forms. But in general, that is a place which any mortal does not wish to end up to, which explains why we use it against those we hold a grudge or we hate. It is a place full of horrible thing. Only those who have done bad things in their life should and will end up there. I wish that Hell does exist. Never in my life I have said "Go to hell" to anyone, and hopefully I will not need to f

  "When should I give up?", my wife asked me that day. It is one of those questions that always come back to haunt her (or rather me) whenever she was facing a tough situation. I believe that it is a very crucial question, and the fact that we ask ourselves (or our spouse) that question, is a good sign. It means instead of plunging our head into the situation or making a rush decision, we are willing to take a step back and reassess the situation. Choosing to give up, or to continue to hustle, is often not an easy choice. The answer that I usually give her is "It depends", which without exception, will earn myself a harsh stare (big fans of Paddington, guilty as charged). However, I do think that there is no simple answer to this question. It depends on too many factors, and most of them rely on our deepest desire which cannot be identified nor quantified in an easy manner. It will be too intricate to build the decision tree for this question, if ever it is possible

  As far as I remember, the first time I experienced "Democracy" was when we needed to choose a "class monitor" in primary school, even though I did not know that exact word at that time. In order to choose the class monitor, all the students can propose themselves or someone else, then the entire class will "vote" who will be the class monitor for that year. I just remembered that it was rather a funny process, we get to write the name of our classmate and put into a box. When we were kids, any new thing that was out of routine would be very exciting for us. I was just glad that in none of those occasions my name was suggested... The word "Democracy" was then introduced to me in my History class in high school. History was never my favorite subject, but then the idea that we can cast a vote to choose the government that lead our country was very cool. It was kind of like a superpower, that we can control the faith of our country by choosing the

Watching the Notre Dame de Paris on fire on 15-April-2019, triggered an avalanche of emotions within myself. It was, after all, “Our Lady of Paris”. THE ONE and ONLY NOTRE DAME. It was just too devastating to look at, too hard to believe, and definitely too agonizing to accept. I first heard of Notre Dame de Paris when I was around 6 years old, watching the Disney movie “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” with my family in cinema. I did not understand most of the dialogue and all I remembered was watching a guy with strange figure hopping around an huge church. People were holding torches and burning everything. It was nevertheless a memorable experience, as going to cinema was kind of a big deal at that time. We needed to plan at least a week ahead for the tickets, logistic, snacks etc. Now, people just taking planes for holidays without any plan or luggage. Going cinema became as mundane as taking a walk nowadays. When I first saw it in person many years later in Paris, I w

  One of my favorite scenes while getting out of a metro station during peak hour is at the exit with escalator. Most of the time we can easily notice that all passengers will converge to the tiny passage leading to the escalator, leaving a deserted staircase residing beside it. Occasionally there will be someone who defies the temptation and takes the staircase, leaving those on escalator looking at him in amusement. I was always one of those looking in amusement from the escalator previously. Taking stairs instead of escalators seemed counter productive and a waste of energy for me. Putting the health condition or limitation aside for those who are not physically fit to take the staircase, staircase vs escalator is, among others, one of the daily choices that we are making every day, right under our nose but without us even noticing. Escalator represents comfort, convenience, requiring limited effort; staircase represents hard work, struggle, requiring substantial effort. Man

I stepped into the dark movie theater, first time ever since many years ago. The last time I was in it  was for a premiere with invitation from a friend. The real challenge this time, was I am with my 3-year-old son and 2-month-old daughter. We chose a special theater which was branded as family friendly –  means the kids can cry, laugh, yell, snore and run around during the show and no one can complain anything about it,  lest my kids would cause too much nuisance to others in a normal theater. I was impressed that there was even a small playground in the theater, which my son instantly disappeared into right after we stepped into the theater. That day we chose to watch the latest “Dumbo” movie. There were different reasons why we chose it. Firstly, my wife and I had not been into a movie theater since the birth of our elder son, so we thought that it would be a good idea to try out this new family-friendly theater and to share a new experience with the kids. Secondly, every d