terror

My female owner is shaken by the news of a 28-year-old Singaporean woman who died as a terrorist hostage in Mumbai.

There are many reasons why the news hit her hard, no doubt, possessing similar demographics is one. Looking at the victim’s Friendster account, my female owner had no doubt that the victim was an ordinary Singaporean who went about life minding her own business , just that she was caught in the wrong place at the wrong time and the scent of life was sniffed out from her abruptly. No one would ever expect her to die as Singapore’s first terrorist hostage victim.

Another reason is because of my female owner’s previous work. What was once theoretical knowledge gleaned from case studies, trainings and role-plays have now become reality. No amount of training can adequately prepare one to deal with the harsh realities, cruelty and consequences of terrorism.

My female owner received a further shock to her system when she stumbled upon a video recording of a gunshot scene in Mumbai. Hey, the gunshots she heard were real, the bleeding hand belonged to a human being, capable of feeling pain and shock, the chaos experienced by countless caught on film was real. No longer an enactment for a stupid training video or a thing of distant history. This is fresh, real-time happenings. No denying the trauma being inflicted directly on the victims at the scene and scores of secondary victims.

Confronted with the fragility of life, the uncertainty of tomorrow and the brevity of peace, how would you choose to live your present life?

Certainly by not revisiting the memories of the past and wishing you can rework the regrets and mistakes, or foretelling the future and hoping that things will change for the better, but by relishing in the gift of the present, by embracing whatever that life has to offer, because cliché as it sounds, it is not how long you live, but how you live your life.

It’s a choice that lies within everyone.