The Nitty Gritty

 Written by: Gia

 Imagine yourself in this situation. City with plastics and garbage on the street and ocean. Road with car honks competition and angry people yelling at each other. Pregnant woman, moms, and kids are standing on a bus while teenagers are sitting and listening to their iPods. People tend to patronize others, without doing so themselves. Hard to admit and yet, all these situations remind me of us. All of us.

“Change will not come if we wait for some other person, or if we wait for some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.” What a beautiful insight delivers by Barack Obama.

We have seen many people do good things for others. From planting trees for earth dedication to volunteering in helping earthquake victim in Nepal. From teaching poor kids how to read to feeding hunger children in Africa. If you are one of these people, you should be very proud of yourself for going extra mile. Because you are an asset to the world.

We don’t need to feed hunger children in Africa or find trees to plant, just yet. Merely by sharing a little portion of our love will help to change us and the world itself. Starting from the easiest action can be a good stepping stone to continual improvement.

Mahatma Gandhi once said, “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” So let's see how much change we can bring to the world.

WALK A LITTLE FURTHER TO GARBAGE CAN
As humiliating as it is, I had to admit that I stopped throwing trash in public only since junior high. I know, should have been sooner. I realized that it was totally wrong not to throw trash on its can, made me ashamed. I saw once in Singapore, a mother was furious to her five-year-old son for throwing trash on the street. And her son promised her to put trash to garbage can from thereon. Hence, if you still throw trash not at the right place (even occasionally), you should be embarrassed to that five-year-old kid.

REDUCE PLASTIC AND WATER USE
Egocentricity. Lack of attention to surroundings. It is understandable that every human being possess this kind of selfishness sometime. But when it comes to our home, the earth where we can live for free, is it humanity to still be ignorant?

Most people have less awareness to think about the earth, after all we get. Amazing beach we go vacation to, beautiful animals we enjoy viewing at the zoo, unlimited water we use every day. But what did we give in return to the love of mother earth?

We take plastic bags from grocery stores even though our grocery is easy to carry, occasionally toss plastic or trash to street / ocean without guilt, ignore water taps in public restroom because we think it’s not our responsibility to turn it off.

Did you know that plastics can literally kill seabirds and other animals as they mistake plastics for prey? Or that somewhere in the world a pelican bird died after ingesting 17 plastic bags? Moreover, somewhere else there are little kids dying of thirst and there is less drinkable water in the world every day. From what I read and proven scientifically, there is actually less than 1% of all the water on earth can be used by people. The rest is salt water or permanently frozen as we cannot drink it. Did you know this fact?

Please don’t be a threat to mother earth. And for some of you who may have known all these facts, please be something mother earth deserves from an open-minded, smart human being. Be a closest friend who takes good care of her.

TAKE OUR LOGIC ON THE ROAD
How many times do you see pedestrian cross the street not in zebra cross? How many times do you see car crash on the road merely because people are too selfish to be disciplined to traffic rules?

If we act ignorant and think that it is fine to cross the street without looking, or to cross the street not in zebra cross, and to think that it is fine to drive car/motorcycle in the wrong way only because no policeman nearby, then we are disgraceful to ourselves.

Why don't we see how it feels to stop the car for pedestrian without being told, or to be a little patient and use less car honks if unnecessary and most importantly, to follow all the basic traffic rules? See how it feels to be part of these people. Wouldn’t you like to feel how much pride you can gain from these positive attitudes?

People need to be awakened from the fact that our selfishness can endanger ourselves and others. I drive myself every day to office and I know it is never easy to be kind to people on the road, not to those who deliberately disobey traffic rules. But if we throw our tantrum at them or do exact same thing, then what makes us different from those people?

SET A GOOD EXAMPLE TO QUEUE
I heard on a radio once that in Japan mothers tend to believe children’s awareness to queue in public is more important than their ability to solve mathematics test. If this basic rule can be implemented to little kids in another country, why can adults in our country barely even understand the definition of queue itself?

It makes me sad seeing woman in public restroom take peoples’ queue line and act as if nothing happen. It makes me sad seeing cars form their own line on right / left without guilt in a road that suppose to use one center line. If you are one of them, you should see it as a betrayal to your own morality.

I suppose it will take over a century to understand the way these people think, insensible people who neglect the importance of queue. They don’t feel guilty for sure, but don’t we all have a sense of dignity? If not, people would have been walking around shirtless. You know, for having no shame.

The benefit of queuing education is not only for us, it is for our children and grandchildren. Do not let future generation blame their mental failure on us. Let us educate them to thank us later. Urge yourself to be a role model for your kids.

SHARE LOVE TO SURROUNDINGS
This should have been the easy part. Because actually sharing our love to surroundings is effortless. Throughout our lives, we have been told to say 'please' and 'thank you' to others and to always put a smile on our face. But why don't any of us implement these very good theories into action? Let me emphasize, what I mean here is by saying thank you and please with heart, and smile with good intention. What makes all these theories we learned vanished gradually over time?

The answer is in ourselves, our families, our friends, and even strangers we meet. We tend to do things theoretically, as an automatic-set. We forget to take our heart with us when involving other people.

I met an old foreigner couple once, they happened to be a client of mine. Something about them made me feel extremely appreciated and oddly, happy. It turns out that the way they treat people is not as something they need to do, merely for something they want to do. They smile with purity and say gratitude with heart. Subconsciously, I do the same at them in return. And surprisingly, I felt really good afterward. Thanks to this beautiful couple, I learned that kindness is actually contagious.

I once helped a Japanese man in my head office drop off. He took a taxi but had no small change to pay, asked every one along the way but no one cared. I approached him and shared a little help. This stranger thanked me profusely as if I had done something big. The moral of this story is no matter how small you think the kindness you share, it can be big to others.

It is not easy to do this on daily basis, especially when you are facing abundant people with less love. But somehow it will make you happy only by sharing your love, and make you even happier when they do the same in return. My late grandpa once cited, "It is never too late to do good deeds, my dear!”.

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In essence, the key to implement all these basic actions is to set aside your ego. You will be overwhelmed of how good you can actually be.

And always remember my friend, big changes occur with a little love you share: the nitty-gritty to a better generation.