With Great Power Comes..

srizals@gmail.com

As the second child and the only son of my family, my life is not that easy when I was a kid. I have to satisfy my boyish needs and in the mean time had sisters that would slow me down from time to time in my quest of the brave new world around a kid that loved the beauty of living things around him. Nature never fails to fascinate me. At that time, I wasn't sure I really care to know who had created them and placed everything in a perfect harmony and balance. I just enjoyed shooting the colourful birds with my slingshot just to hold those beautiful creatures in my hands. Most of the time I missed. Gladly. But my judgement, bear in mind, like yours when we are about at the same age was purely on exquisite fun and discovery. We have no ill-intention of killing and decreasing the population of birds or any other beautiful living things around us that was so abundant before the merciless progress catch up, conquering and eliminating all the beautiful creatures from our little hands' reach and places of our treasured childhood. How I missed those days, the good and serene live of a child.

Every where I went, I would discover new living things. Fish being my main target until my mother gave me the ultimatum. The fish in my aquarium must not increase in numbers or she would let loose every one of them back to the waterways where I found them in the first place. But, being what I was at that time, and the fish seemed never to diminish in numbers and sizes, no matter how many you have caught, seduce me to my dark childish greedy side. One instance, I managed to catch a big Malayan catfish with my bare naked hands, firmly holding it just right below its poisonous sharp stings. My gentle grandmother was so terrified of the size of the catfish she cut off the stings because I wanted to keep it as a pet. I was absolutely mesmerised by the weird looking fish that had whiskers on its mouth just like a cat. But my mother had better idea and we had it for dinner instead. Eventually my daring adventures of a boy hunter exceeded her patience and for my mistake of catching a very big eel fish that of course resemble much like a snake, she lived up to her promise and all my precious fish were gone.  I could only watch helplessly as the fish jumped joyously into freedom. Catch and release and to be caught again afterwards, of course.

My little sisters would tagged along and my grandmother would always reminded me to watch them and I would get the lecture if they were to return home crying. But what a boy under 10 would know about taking care of his little sisters that was so vulnerable to their surrounding? And of course, again my mother would keep up to her words. Growing up was something. The memories of pain and pleasure override each other until they all became one sweet solid mesmerising memory. 

I remember when I was racing with my buddies just after the rain, the bicycle was twice my size and on a sharp turn, I lost control and the bicycle with me still on it plunged into a deep big drain. I don't know how but it must be pure instinct of a boy, somehow, I managed to fly and cling on to the wire fences. Did I mentioned my bleeding mouth? Anyway, my bicycle was not that lucky. Well, there was a lot more of falls and bruises, but strangely, no matter how bad it gets, the blood and cuts, I could still remember, the pain was not that lasting. Until recently when I was an adult do I learn about endorphin. The automatic counter pain mechanism of our unique and complex body system unrivalled by any marvels of the greatest human creators’ ingenuity. And then we dare to be confused when we found in the Koran that says Allah is the best of creators, thinking that there are actually other gods that also creates. We forgot about ourselves. Strangely we didn’t get confused that easily when we read the verses that Allah is the best planner among planners.

Unlike adults, sorry, unlike children, we adults have a heavy responsibility laid on our shoulders, whether we acknowledge it or not. Unlike children that couldn't have predicted and understand the consequences of their actions, we as adults have the ample ability to fully comprehend our actions and predict the reactions that would follow almost instantaneously. We cannot expect all the reactions would limit themselves to our well-calculated expectation, it would be rather childish, unwittingly. Some of the consequences of our actions would come back to haunt us when we have forgotten about them. We have deliberately forgetting our own doing that have provoked or caused the reactions of others, delayed by our overwhelming dominating prowess.

As powerful adults, which of course have better insight and intellect of things at hand, we must show to others that are still in their childish years, how we deal with things and how we limit ourselves in our actions to achieve results. If we failed to set a good example of self-control and knowing when to stop or how far should we really go in achieving our goals, the not so smart would lost their basis of comparison and hence, would not have any benchmarking as a guide. We have failed to set an example and we are going to pay dearly for it.

Don't act like a baby when others start to copy our childish behaviours. Remember our own upbringing.

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