So is May Day ....

Happy May Day! Heard May Day come about because of a few workers that banded together to demand for shorter working hours in the late 19 century. As a result of their sacrifice, May 1 was destinated as the day for labour day and this spreaded all over the world as workers become to see themselves as much more than money making machines and cheap labour! Well, today is a holiday for many and a long holiday for some. Tomorrow, it will be a bit quiet at the office as many will take the opportunity to take leave for a short vacation. Yeah but I will still be going to work tomorrow!

I was at the bookshop on Wednesday and I bought this book called "The Last Lecture". Have not read it yet but it seems to be the last lecture of a professor from a US university. He was disgnosed with a terminal illness and when asked what his last lecture will be, he said the lecture should be about "living". How provocative a topic! I think most us of will probably decide about lecturing about our life, our achievements and the knowledge that we would like to pass down to the next generations. To talk about living shows the positive perspectives of the person and this will be a person to learn from. Not many people will talk about living and the other person that values every minutes of his living is non other than Daisaku Ikeda sensei. Every seconds and every minutes is important. Sensei taught us not to just talk about the future but to fully make use of the presence to create value and to never regret this day of our life. We can always say there is a tomorrow but if we do not make good use of today, there may not be a tomorrow. In order not to regret, we must use our time and thus our life carefully! Most of the time, we tell ourselves that we are afraid or that we cannot do this or that. In the end, we will regret we ever hesitate. Hesitating in doing things as it may turn out wrong but without doing, we will never know! At the end of the day, we know we have tried and looking back, it provides us with the consolation that the answers are known. All it takes then and now is the courage to live our life!

Just watched a movie called "Stomp the Yard". This is about this dance or sport called "Stepping". The stepping movement is great but behind all those dangerous yet fabulous sequences are lessons for the youth. Themes such as teamwork, integrity, honesty, and hardwork are good moral characters. Often, one has to make some choices but not all choices should include sacrificing one's belief and dignity. At the end of the movie, the movie quoted this from Dr Martin Luther King, Jr "Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of education".

Education is to train the mind as well as the character of a person. Pocessing high intelligence yet lacking in strong moral character does not make the person educated. Unfortunately this is a common sight in society today! Graduates from well known universities with mulitple degrees and Phds have shown their brain power but their characters may be in an unpolished state. These are the people who will probably take up positions of decisions in companies and the government. These are the people who will make the decisions and make peace. With no strong character built, their actions will be the perils of the common people. Thus, education should start with building character before inculcating knowledge which is neverending in the first place.

"The word "character" originated from the Greek words meaning "sculpture" and "impression." Character, then, could be thought of that which is shaped or etched. It may be true from a medical perspective that our psychological and physiological traits are generally predetermined genetically. Knowing this, however, adds little to our lives. All that matters is how we can better ourselves here and now."

- Words of Wisdom by Daisaku Ikeda

Building character starts from the home and do not leave it to the teachers who probably have problems making syllables deadlines!

BTW, I also like the song group "May Day" from Taiwan. Yeah!

Lastly and to quote from Daisaku Ikeda's Words of Wisdom again "The task of education must be fundamentally to ensure that knowledge serves to further the cause of human happiness and peace. "

Cheerios!