Its not about the Cotton Candy Generation, which I had already written about. Rather is is our value of suffering. With reference to the Cotton Candy Generation, these softies are actually toughening themselves up. In Singapore, we have all year round full of activities of all sorts, you name it, we have it, well except the snow part, and the big waves sports. We have triathlons, Dragon Boat Regattas, vertical marathons, Sundown marathons, cycling, golfing, all sorts of means and ways for you to get fit, for a lifestyle. Well, i almost forgot, martial arts too, Sports Karate, MMA, Jiujitsu, Aikido, Muay Thai, BJJ…all sorts of s**t people can do to get fitness.

Please add suffering! All physical activities entails a level of suffering. It is the meaning we give to our suffering, that defines our salvation! You see, I already mention, we Singaporeans are a whole population of comfortable, pleasing bunch. We are so affluent in our lives we can choose to suffer, we pay to experience suffering. This choice is the worrisome thing, as it feeds on our ego, the masochistic part, to think that we suffer in our gym training to prepare for an upcoming swim, cycle, run event, which incidentally, we are not in it to win it, its just an interest we have. So suffer for the sake of an interest? Well, of course, we learn something from our experiences of suffering, but we become very narrow. We think that just because we can swim, cycle, run well, makes us good people. We are tough because we can gym it out! Who are we kidding? Since when has suffering, becomes a lifestyle experience?

Get a perspective! Get a good look at a kid living in a slum in India, a drug addict living in the shadows of mega cities like Los Angeles. People who farm for a living, day in day our manual labour, Fishermen, rubbish collectors! These people ‘suffer’ as their lives requires them to and they all did it with a smile! A wry grin, facing the grim facts of life everyday. And they does it not to justify their glorious efforts to get a piece of medal, a ‘Finisher’ medal. So think about them farmers, fishermen, and slum kids when you think you are ‘suffering’ in an air con gym.

First Published: Aug 20, 2012 @ 17:01