In Retrospect

Once upon a time, we heard a tale, which I shall translate here for your reading pleasure.

A young man uses his motorbike to go to work and to return home. Such is his daily routine...and because material things in this life don't last forever, one unfortunate day, he finds his motorbike in disrepair.

The narrator of this tale later enjoined us listeners to imagine how the young man must have felt at the time. One audience answered "Depressed" - or something to that effect - and the narrator rebutted with "Half-dead" (in verbatim, "Separuh mati!").

At the time, shallow that I was - or maybe just dead bored - I agreed. But after what happened yesterday, when my feathers were ruffled more than twice in rapid succession and my sleep disturbed (crankiness ensued), I had to ponder back...

...because sometimes we minorities don't get enough voice that we deserve.

Anyhow. Depending on the said young man's personality - of course, _almost_ everything depend on our personalities! - he could respond in a number of ways. Another option, however unlikely that it may be, would be indifference. Naturally, this would assume that the fellow had no emotional attachment whatsoever to his transport, which is likely if he had had the 'bike for too long that the attachment had been severed by Father Time, or he simply thought that it was time to procure a newer replacement. Or, this indifference may have stemmed from the belief of "It's God Will, so why fret about it?" and he managed to move on...even if it means walking to workplace.

The third possibility would be he would not be as devastated that he'd be half-dead. Maybe just frustrated, but look at it this way: Out of all the days prior to the motorbike's dying down, it had served its purpose well. Perhaps with little to no problems for the young man.

So if the man had a minuscule of inkling in his conscience, he _should_ be able to move on.

Compare this to another scenario courtesy of yours truly; What if the 'bike had always given the man problems ever since he could remember? Would he be as appallingly devastated then?

Either yes or no, it's _still_ possible (Don't you love how things in this life can be of dual nature? *semi-sarcasm*). No devastation, because he had long lost hope in the godforsaken piece of metal that whatever additional problem it would present him won't change anything; i.e. numbness. As for the other end of response, it is attributed to the domino effect, or even the cumulative effect - After the threshold of tolerance has been reached and surpassed, all hell breaks loose.

It is this latter attitude that I reckon we may adopt (unconsciously?) in our daily dealings with our peers and the general public. As per example - Once or twice your friend is seriously, seriously late for an outing you two have planned, you may be able to overlook it. But ten times? Twenty even? You'll start fuming with each glance at your watch and you'd demand acceptable excuses. But even then, you might still look for caveats that would justify your displeasure.

That is all my analysis for now, which I had to put into black and white before it plagues my brain further. Kudos if you can figure out what I'm actually talking about...

(No? Ask, and thou shalt receive.)

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Now playing: One Republic - Secrets
via FoxyTunes

P/s: Allow me to end this by proclaiming that I _do_ have respect for the narrator...but my brain would still like to consider the other aspects of the same story...