Respect ought to be given to the right people.

If you have a great job, an Asian-Pacific region director or something like that in an international company, would you resign from it to take up a much lower paid job in another international company just because in the new job you need no longer have to travel from one city to another and it is situated in the small little town where your old sick mother can be looked after each day after working hours?

I know that not many people would sacrifice that much for a sick old mother. However, I know of at least one young person who did just that and that person is a friend of mine. I am indeed glad to have such a wonderful person as a friend. She is great! No doubt about that! And I have great respect for her.

Now, when I was young, I was taught to respect the elders, the wealthy and the VIPs. Unfortunately, as I grew, I met all of them and after experiencing the truth about some of those people, the respectability ballons burst one after another.

First, I discovered that not all older people ought to be respected. Some just do not deserve any respect. Of course, we ought to respect older people when we first get to know them. After all, with their longer lifespan and more experiences they ought to be better than all of us younger ones. However, respect given ought to be maintained and valued. Actions should indicate the wisdom and righteousness of the persons.

Have I ever told you about the old lady who would meditate with her beads day in and day out, giving such a pious outer appearance? Well, there was this lady I happened to pass on my way out of the house. It was in Penang in which a good many houses in those days house about ten families in one house. The poor could only afford a room in one of those stately houses and there were approximately ten rooms in one such house.

Well, back to that pious lady with her meditating beads. At that moment another person came into the scene and walked past her. As the other person disappeared from view, she opened her mouth and shocked my little soul. She cursed the man who had just gone in. In my innocence I had always presumed that pious people would walk with God and have not the bitterness to curse anybody. Was I awakened to the truth that such a thing could happen. That very day I reshuffled my views of meditating pious old people. I hastened to add, least I am misunderstood, that there are some good pious people in this world. After all, if you have read enough of what I have written, you would have realised that my own uncle who dedicated his life to serve the elephant deity in order to cure the sick, was one old pious man I truly respected.

And from what I have written today, you can see that it is not just some old people but also those younger than me whom I have great respect. So, respect has nothing to do with age. It is the person, what he stands for and how to goes about acting on his own beliefs. (At this point I remember the amusement of someone's face as she received advice from a young doctor. That will be another story.)