Ruminations...

Is it wrong to dream
Freedom of humans
Where they can be true
And not self-centred?
Where people are contented
And not money-hungry?

Is it wrong to try
To achieve
The discipline of soldiers
But the simpllicity of a child?

Is it wrong to fantasise
Of true love:
A pure, spiritual attraction
Between man and woman?

Is it wrong to hope
For friends to be concerned
And in turn be supported?
To be without competition?

We can believe whatever we want,
I guess.
But, to want such things,
It seems too dangerous.

When you fall off a bike
And people come to help,
It seems possible:
The reality of this dream.

When you drop some money
And people return it to you
On initiative:
You believe in the human spirit.

But so often, when you take transport:
A public one.
You see the ugly side of humans.
A teen gives up her seat to an elderly:
Wow.
In struts another middle-aged woman
Up to the seat.
She stands in front of it and asks the elderly
Does she want the seat?
That middle-aged woman had the seat in the end.
I, as did the youth, stared.
A seat is free.
A young boy walks toward it.
A lady spots it too.
A quick shuffle of feet, and she moves.
Amazing, considering her old age.
At one glance, it was clear the boy did not see the old lady.
A moment more, and the boy would have had the seat.
A quick lunge by the lady held the boy back --
A heavy fling sent the boy into a slight stumble --
As she herself squeezed into the seat.
Almost immediately, she switches into nothing-has-happened mode:
A skill almost all Singaporeans are adept in.
And the boy stares.

I think it is not the "young people nowadays"
That have lost morals.
Yes, youths are more open
To previously taboo stuff.
And, as always, there are the deviants.

Youths have not lost it:
Our curiosity is merely greater
With so much development:
Media advances propagates stories.
I trust that our ancestors, too, had such a desire.
If not for the lack of knowledge
And so many "immoral mediums,"
I trust there would have been
No difference.
It is thus not "today's youths" --
It is youths as an age group that should be referred to.

I thank the parents for placing so much restrictions in place
So that desire rarely becomes action.
But does the desire constitute immorality?
Perhaps.
But is it any difference?
Is there heightened immorality with our generation?
I don't think so.