The brevity of life.

Recently, Ainan has taken to considering the brevity of life. It troubles him, somewhat, to look ahead and see so few years to come.

“Life is SO short,” Ainan, said, a few days ago, without preamble. He almost seemed to be cursing its brevity.

“I am 12.”, he continued, a little too soberly, “...and that took no time at all, to reach.”

I kept quiet at that point. I held in my mind a thought I knew he wouldn’t want to hear: that I am 44 – and that took no time at all, to reach either. However old a human gets, they will still feel the same: that it took no time at all to reach their present age. It is one of the odd facts of our existence – that we would feel even the infinite were but an instant.

“Your generation should live a lot longer than mine.”, I said, to comfort him.

“I don’t know about that.”, he countered, a little too sure of himself.

“You think the world is going to have a catastrophic future?”

He just nodded in answer. Ainan didn’t think much of the way the world was being managed by its “leaders” – and was well aware of the steadily accumulating environmental issues, energy problems, pollution, species loss, potential ecosystem collapse and the generally apocalyptic trend of human mismanagement of nature. He didn’t see much hope in the face of it, primarily because he didn’t think much of the competence of those making the relevant decisions.

“No. It won’t.” I said, not quite certain of it, myself.

He just shook his head, deflecting my words and walked off, his thoughts a little too sombre.

Not for the first time, I considered the connection between high intelligence and a sobering view of reality. Smart people tend to understand, too well, the problems Mankind faces and see, too clearly, the limits those could place on their own places – so they can tend to be a little pessimistic as to what is to come.  Dumber types, however, are quite content to be happily ignorant and dismissive of all the darker possibilities. They will live quite happily...until they finally realize how wrong they were to be so content about it all.

Ainan, however, cannot know the ease of the dumb. He sees what might lie ahead and knows the enormity of the challenges Mankind faces. He also knows, the collective dumbness of those charged with navigating what lies ahead. It is not a happy realization.

Think back to what you were like at 12. Were you concerned at the brevity of life and convinced of hard times ahead for the human race? Let me know what you thought, below, so that I might compare your perspectives to Ainan’s.

Thank you.

Posted by Valentine Cawley

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The death of a mentor.

Ainan's only real mentor, in Singapore, Dr. Ng Kok Chin, has passed away. I had not expected to write such words, so soon, but the fact is, Dr. Ng Kok Chin never recovered from the illness which struck him down in December 2008. He had spent the almost two years since then, in a coma and never awoke to the world, again, after a brain operation that did not go as well as had been hoped.

I have written before of our gratitude to Dr. Ng Kok Chin, in my post, "A word of gratitude". That post now stands as a testament to the great character of the man. If you wish to know more of Dr. Ng Kok Chin, read how I described him in that post.

Here I will say this: Dr. Ng Kok Chin was a greater support to us, in educating Ainan, than anyone else we ever met, in Singapore. He stood up for us, when others wouldn't. He advised us, when others couldn't be bothered. He fought for us, when all others lay around either doing nothing, or trying their best to be obstructive. He was a man of good character who really wanted to help Ainan become what he could be. To see him gone is tragic really, especially since he was not an old man. I don't know his age exactly, but apart from his grey hair, he did not look all that old. He still had many years left in him, if the world were a just place.

Dr. Ng Kok Chin was the orchestrator and organizer of Ainan's education at Singapore Polytechnic. When he fell into a coma, so too did Singapore Polytechnic: they stopped being supportive the moment Dr. Ng Kok Chin was out of the way. So, it was made most clear to us that it was he and he alone who supported Ainan's presence at Singapore Polytechnic and not anyone else there.

Dr. Ng Kok Chin believed in Ainan and championed him. We are grateful for that and will always remember his warm, gentle ways.

I wish he had been able to see what Ainan is becoming - but he never did and never shall. He would, I feel, have been pleased to know that his intervention was leading to greater things, for Ainan.

I have one sad memory of Dr. Ng Kok Chin that I feel I should relate. On one of the last occasions I ever saw him - perhaps the last, in fact - he spoke of how thankful he was that he held a job as an academic at Singapore Polytechnic. He was thankful because his job was secure, even in tough times. So, he told me, he did not have the fear of recession that many workers have. He knew that his job would always be there for him. He knew that he would be safe from retrenchment.

It is sad that, at the virtual end of his conscious life - for shortly thereafter he had the brain operation from which he never recovered - all he was thinking about was the security of his job and how that nothing would take it away from him. Little did he know, that something would not take the job away from him - but him away from the job. He had but days of consciousness at that time. Then he was gone, never more to know the world.

The memory is a sad one, for he was clearly planning for a future that was never to be. He was thinking of his job security in the years ahead and of how his particular kind of appointment would allow him to weather it. He had, it seems, no inkling that his conscious world was almost at an end and that his life, for all reasonable definitions of life, was soon to be ended - indeed, only days later, it was.

Whatever plans he might have had, that now will not ever be, I am committed to making one plan come true - for my own reasons, it is true, but he might be pleased to know it, too. Dr. Ng Kok Chin clearly planned to aid Ainan to his greatest fulfilment. He clearly planned to help him in whatever way he could. He wanted to see Ainan reach his potential. Well, I plan, at least, to do my best to ensure that that happens. Perhaps, I feel, that would have pleased Dr. Ng Kok Chin - for he could not have been more involved in helping Ainan along the way, than he was.

Thank you, Dr Ng Kok Chin for all that you did to help Ainan. We shall ever be grateful.

Rest in peace, my friend - for more than a mentor to my son, I considered him a friend, by the end. Thank you and goodnight.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 6 and Tiarnan, 4, this month, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.htmlI also write of gifted education, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, megasavant, HELP University College, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, Malaysia, IQ, intelligence and creativity.

You can get my blog on your Kindle, for easy reading, wherever you are, by going to: http://www.amazon.com/Boy-Who-Knew-Too-Much/dp/B0042P5LEE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1284603792&sr=8-1

Please let all your fellow Kindlers know about my blog availability - and if you know my blog well enough, please be so kind as to write a thoughtful review of what you like about it. Thanks.

My Internet Movie Database listing is at: http://imdb.com/name/nm3438598/

Ainan's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3305973/

Syahidah's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

Our editing, proofreading and copywriting company, Genghis Can, is at http://www.genghiscan.com/

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.)

On the brevity of life.

People tend to think of their lives as great epic novels. Sadly, however, most of us turn out to be short stories.