people matter

I took a taxi to Puduraya yesterday and at the end of my journey, I was very surprised when the taxi driver thanked me and said he was glad he stopped for me. What he said surprised me.

"I've been a taxi driver for about 3 months now, and so far, you're the only one who treated me like a person".

I was shocked. Appalled. He must meet at least 5 people a day, and of all these people that he might have met in the past 3 months, none of them treated him like a person?

It's sad, really, for as soon as you forget the people matter, you cease to be in touch with your humanity. You forget what life is about, why you were put here in the first place. You lose sight of what is important. You get so caught up in trying to be successful that you forget what success really means.

I'm really disturbed by this.

Some may argue that times have changed, we now live in a selfish, materialistic world. But doesn't it just mean that there is now, more than ever, the need for us to be more compassionate?

It scares me. Because once we lose our humanity, our humane-ness, whats to keep us from destroying each other, and ultimately, ourselves?

I wish I could talk to someone about this. I wish someone would tell me that everything's going to be allright in this world. That it's not true what the taxi driver said. I wish someone would restore my faith in our society. In people. But I read the news and everyday, I get more and more cynical. I read about cold blooded murders, random shootings, grandmothers being raped, pregnant women's bags being snatched, little girls' innocence cruelly taken away by people who are supposed to be their protectors. Evil prey on the vulnerable, and what are the ones in the position to protect doing?

I guess thats why we need superheroes. If not in real life, then in fantasy. Spiderman, Batman, Superman - if just to escape cruel reality that, really, no one is there to help us. But really, what is the heart of the message in those comics? That only those blessed with supernatural powers and courage will be able to do something whilst the rest of us look on, feel horrified, and then look away and do own own things, carrying on as we did before, apathetic.

Apathy. The antithesis of life itself. Someone once told me that the opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. Once that indifference has set in, there's no reviving love anymore. Once people are apathetic, they're as good as dead. How many people we see today are but empty shells? How did they end up like that? They must have used to care once, but somewhere along the way, things happened to make them give up. Will I end up like that too, not too long from now?

I'm thinking too much.

But I'm at a point now where I'm re-examining my values, attitudes and beliefs. I'm at a time where I have discounted my 'I will never...' list and have opened up to the possibilties that well, I might. *shrugs*. I'm accepting the fact that things aren't neatly divided into sections of black and white, but rather, comes in shades of grey. And I've learnt that I just have to trust myself to make the judgement of whats best for me. Because ultimately, it is my life and no one else is going to live it for me. I have to be accountable for all the decisions I make, and take into account the people who will be affected by those decisions.

I'll keep Emily Dickinson's words close to heart, that --

"We never know how high we are
Till we are called to rise;
And then, if we are true to plan,
Our statures touch the skies."

Well, today I decide that people matter. That everyone I meet, however briefly, come out of the encounter feeling that they're worth something, that they matter. Perhaps then, with the knowledge that someone believes in them, their statures will truly touch the heavens.

We can all be heroes.