Plant your garden here. Now.

Posted on March 4, 2008
Filed Under Culture

From the department of we-want-you-to-do-something-now.

Make what you will of the Old Testament but even if you just treat it as just another fictional book, there are some nuggets of life lessons it can teach us. So stuck somewhere near the end of the Old Testament is a book called Jeremiah, and in that chapter, terrible things happen to Israel; the Babylonian armies invaded the country, owned the Israelite army and looted everything. They also bring the elites of the country - priests, scribes, nobles and etc. to Babylon - into exile.

(Bear with me, history lesson will be over in just a short while). So at Babylon, the exiles began to long for the old way of life back at Jerusalem. They wanted to go back so badly that they began to believe in their religion again. And it was at this point, a number of so-called prophets spotted the market trend and the instant chance to be popular, and began to prophesy that “Don’t worry; A miracle will happen just like for us back in Egypt; if you can’t remember, go watch ‘The Prince of Egypt’!”.

(History lesson will end in this paragraph). So the exiles began to live the life of mundanes; they just live from day to day, live off the land and just, you know, slack. Why bother doing anything worthwhile when you may be going to be somewhere better soon. Remember, those were the elites from their homeland, living like leeches. Then one day, Jeremiah sent a letter to the exiles. It basically said “Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their products…seek the welfare of the city [Babylon]” — supposedly a command from their God.

In short - dudes, you are staying at Babylon in exile for a long, long time. Got off your ass and work. Where you are now is the best place to be.

Interestingly, in Singapore we are the opposite. We in Singapore are not exiled but we live like exiles. This is the place we hate, loathed and for guys, have to deal with NS and reservists. There is less freedom of speech, less welfare, less opportunities and etc. when compared with other countries. We wish to migrate; and ironically, it is always the elites of the country, those who are affluent, well-trained, talented, who sought to do so. Or even some of us, thinking that we could do nothing here, settle for a mundane life of day to day complaining, paycheck to paycheck mourning and year to year grumbling.

This is where we are at, Singapore, and the chances of migration, depending on who you are and whom your parents are, are low (and you think other countries are really better. Research). We think “When I leave Singapore I will make a difference” or “Since I can’t leave Singapore I won’t make a difference”. Try answering this question; if someone says person so-and-so is such a person, what would you think of him? Now, if you are such a person, what do you think of yourself, and ultimately, will you change? The likeihood of Singapore changing geographically, economically and politically is lower than you changing yourself and your outlook.

So what are you going to do about your garden?