Books I used to love and books I now love...

An avid reader, I read at every possible opportunity and occasion. There will always be a book on my desk, in my bag or in my hand.

I used to love legal thrillers and have read all of John Grisham's works from legal to suspense to psychological genres. My favourite has to be 'The Firm' but it's not because Tom Cruise acted in its movie version. No sir, definitely not!

'The Firm' is my first John Grisham book; I came across it while in the States back in '92 when it just emerged fresh from the publisher's oven. I fell in love with Grisham's writing style and sharp insight into the legal world. As they say..............the rest is history.

I think we can all identify with the plot of being caught in a situation where everything seems too good and dandy to be true. When the crunch comes and we are caught between a rock and the deep blue sea....what do we do then? Do we take the easy way out or do we take the courageous way? Stifle your conscience or face the music and be true to yourself?

I also loved books by Joy Fielding and Sandra Brown. Women authors, it has been said, possess a more intuitive approach to women protagonists. They are able to draw upon their own lives, perspectives and weave their characters much like themselves with a myriad of underlying emotions and motivations.

But since my RCIA journey, I've stopped reading. For starters, I could not find the time to read. Secondly, I began to instinctively stay away from these works whose plots are choked full of malice, violence and deception.

My priest recommended us this book "Introduction to the Devout Life" by St Francis De Sales. Not one to read self-help books, biographies or non-fiction literature, I was however, hooked by this book from the first page! Written in the 16th century, this spiritual classic is so precise, compassionate, straightforward and modern, it seems to be speaking to me here and now!

Just recently, I also came across this book "A friend like Henry" by Nuala Gardner. It is a remarkable true story of how a boy and his family, lost in the world of severe autism saw the silver lining at their dark cloud when Henry, a golden retriever entered their lives. It is an inspiration how his parents never gave up trying to draw him into their world despite the challenges.....And all this happened in the 80s when autism was not widely recognised or accepted even in the western world.

Because I work with children, this book is very dear to me. We are seeing more children with autism these days because "mainstreaming" or 'inclusion" is encouraged for children who are high functioning and moderately social.

I'm taking my time with this book because it is so special. I believe all early childhood educators and parents should read it.

Compassion

I learned a lesson on compassion today.

Today is the day our local banking giant releases the dreaded news on who stays and who goes. I have been on tenterhooks for my girlfriend whom I have known for just over 10 months. I have always known that she's a great person - pretty, zany, sincere and God-loving. But I did not know that she has a heart of gold too.

Through our email correspondence, she shares that she is not on the retrenchment list but her unit's despatch guy will have to leave. Under the tense situation, I had expected her to heave a sigh of relief and move on.

But no, she asks rhetorically why it must be this guy to leave when he has a family and young children to feed? She would rather she got the axe because she is young and resilient; notwithstanding that her wedding is just next year and the bills are meanwhile mounting.

We all know why the despatch is asked to leave. He has worked with the bank for merely a year and he is at the lowest of the food chain. But would his leaving make any difference to the bank's bottom line?

What if pay cut is exercised instead? Can they make do with a little less and help others keep their jobs?? A pay cut for some of these guys might mean the difference between a Cartier watch and a Guess watch for Christmas but for lower level folks, getting the axe literally means the difference between food and starvation for the family.

While I thank God for answering my prayer that my friend gets to keep her job, I'm also thankful that he has also shown me what a truly beautiful friend I have. Through her, I learned that compassion comes from the heart. And like Roald Dahl, I too value kindness above all other qualities in life.

The Americans Have Decided

History is made today.

My girlfriend, who exercised her first voting rights in this presidential election, is estastic. A Singapore girl married to a New Yorker, she had contemplated moving back to Singapore with her family in tow had McCain won instead.

Obama is now the 44th president of United States. He has broken the ultimate race barrier to become the first African-American to hold the highest office in the land. But what strikes me most about him is not his race, although that has been played out in virtually every media coverage or report about the election.

To me, he stands for the courage to dream and believe. From humble beginnings and a dysfunctional family..........yes dysfunctional, President-elect Obama has shown us that nothing is impossible when you believe. As a student in Jakarta, he was asked to write an essay titled "My dream: What I want to be in the future". He had written "I want to be a president". Check out the link here

While I do not agree with all of his positions, I believe America might be happy to finally see the change they have been waiting for. Like my girlfriend and her family.