freaking friday | naughty, naughty boy !

I am a heavily-opinionated fella. Heavily-opinionated is a good adjective. It is the other word for stubborn and busybody. Though, not all my opinions ever see the light, because from my experience, not all opinions are welcomed no matter how helpful they might be, because most of the opinions in life are good antithesis to the current climate of things. That’s why they coined the word ‘inertia’ for the incapability or difficulty or discomfort to accept changes or antithesis in life.

Here’s a good poem by my good ‘old friend’, teacher Quah.

“Stop it! You naughty boy!”, you said

Am I wrong to experiment?

I just want to hear…

Different sounds combs and brushes make

When I throw them out of the window

“Stop it! You naughty boy!”, you said

Am I wrong to construct?

I just want to see…

What kind of tower I can construct from pots and pans

“Stop it! You naughty boy!” you said

Am I wrong to explore?

I just want to know…

What it tastes like

When I mix chocolate powder with apple juice

When you twisted my ear so hard… I stopped!

Don’t blame me…

When our country is short of scientists…

When our country is short of engineers…

When our country is short of inventors…

All I did was to listen!

Be a follower!

And a good boy!!

That is what you want, right?

This poem was a standpoint of how we shouldn’t bar the creativity flow of an explorative child.

I was exposed to similar idea when I attended a talk at the Sin Chew Headquarters when I was in 2^nd year of medical school. The speaker was a director and producer from Hong Kong spoken about how the general public is the barrier to the births of many good directors or producers simply because since young, we have been discouraging creativity. He quoted an experience when he encountered a child stringing in multiple ice rings (ice cubes with a hole in middle) to form a ‘necklace’. As the child presented it to the mother, the mother did not even praise the child for such creativity, but instead gave that unfortunate child a round of scolding. The child went into a submissive stance.

Therefore, the big question is “WHY ARE WE PUSHING AWAY CREATIVITY?”

Here’s another angle to view our natural response to ‘naughtiness’ of our children.

Before I go on and dissect my good friend’s poem, I just like to apologize to her beforehand, just in case any words of mine might hurt her or probably drive her to end our friendship.

“Stop it! You naughty boy!”, you said

Am I wrong to experiment?

I just want to hear…

Different sounds combs and brushes make

When I throw them out of the window

This first passage attempts to justify that experimentation as a work of the intelligence, not of the devil. But, by throwing combs and brushes out of the window may cause serious repercussions. If there were people or pets outside, they may be injured by those combs and brushes. Even if they aren’t injured, all the mess may cause harm later if slipped or stepped on it accidentally. If it was beyond the house compound, the parents may have to suffer some amount of fine by City Council for loitering. If those combs and brushes were from poorer quality, they may be disfigured in some way or another.

“Stop it! You naughty boy!”, you said

Am I wrong to construct?

I just want to see…

What kind of tower I can construct from pots and pans

I must admit this is another good effort to discredit naughtiness by passing it as an early construction capability. Nevertheless, the towering kitchen utensils may seems to be the most dangerous construction if they crumbled down. Plus I couldn’t imagine the enormous quantity of noise pollution and tools disfigurement that will tag along with it.

“Stop it! You naughty boy!” you said

Am I wrong to explore?

I just want to know…

What it tastes like

When I mix chocolate powder with apple juice

Now, this is something with minimum damage, except for little culinary intrusion, and not much of damage to the health, unless the taste buds couldn’t take it and vomiting reflex kicks in.

When you twisted my ear so hard… I stopped!

Don’t blame me…

When our country is short of scientists…

When our country is short of engineers…

When our country is short of inventors…

Now, this paragraph simply puts the complete blame towards parental nasty approach in suppressing the creativity development of the young, denying the nation from scientists, engineers and inventors.

The thing is by ‘our country’, I am guessing it was indicating our Bolehland. Well, our country never short of scientists, engineers or inventors, just that most of them grow and spread their wings globally in other countries, because our country ain’t fertile enough, even after more than half a decade of independence.

All I did was to listen!

Be a follower!

And a good boy!!

That is what you want, right?

I guess this last paragraph was meant to be an antithesis.

But I couldn’t have agreed more with every line, and I would have answered at the end.

‘Yes, that is what I want!’

Now the dissecting works go bit deeper.

All I did was to listen.

Listening is definitely a skill worth learning, starting as young as possible. Miscommunication in the world happens over and over again, when people failed to listen. They hear, but never listen.

Be a follower.

Being a follower is the first step to being a great leader. To be able to command a grand fleet of army, one must first be able follow command.

And a good boy.

Yes, otherwise to be a bad boy, would be a disastrous outcome.

That is what you want, right?

Well, definitely.

Intelligence and creativity are borderless competencies.

That’s why they coined the catchphrase ‘think out of the box’.

However, it is a double-ended blade that as much good it’ll do, it can also bring harm.

P.S. Our country is NEVER short of scientists, engineers, inventors or brilliants, they are just found globally elsewhere except back at home.

P.S.S. No, creativity doesn't include speaking Hokkien in a freaking way.