PSA: Lord of Relief Teaching – Return of the Piglet King

Previously, on The Life and Chronicles of Laremy Lee…

I’ve been pretty busy the last fortnight with various deadlines and the like.

It’s a happy problem; work means income, though that doesn’t usually arrive until much later.

But my schedule this week’s a bit clearer, arranged on purpose because I’ve returned to SAJC this week to relief teach for another three weeks. I started on the Monday that just passed (22 Jul) and I’ll be here until Mon, 12 Aug.

Concurrently, I’ve been running a poetry workshop for some students in the Victoria Junior College Integrated Programme.

It’s been pretty cool to be back at my alma mater, meeting old faces and reliving the days of my youth.

Nostalgically

It also makes me remember how, when was I was younger, I always wanted to be older. Now that I’m older, I miss being young.

Smile like you mean it.

I guess the grass is always greener on the other side.

Viva la Victoria

The advantage of being useless

山木自寇也,
膏火自煎也。
桂可食,故伐之;
漆可用,故割之。
人皆知有用之用,
而莫知無用之用也。

Mountain trees self-destruct,
Lamp tallow self-immolates.
Cinnamon is edible, so it is cleaved;
Varnish is useful, so it is cut.
All men know the advantage of being useful,
but none know the advantage of being useless.

— 莊子 [Zhuang Zi], Zhuang Zi, “Transactions in the World of Men” (“人間世”).

On the brink of thirtydom

Janet picks up her fortune cookie,
Then puts it down, turns to her friend:
“Don’t bank too much on youth. Your rookie
Season is drawing to an end.
John, things we would – when young – not think of,
Start to make sense when, on the brink of
Thirtydom, we pause to scan
What salves and salads cannot ban,
The earliest furrows on our faces,
The loneliness within our souls,
Our febrile clawing for mean goals,
Our programmed cockfights and rat races,
Our dreary dignity, false pride,
And hearts stored in formaldehyde

— Vikram Seth, The Golden Gate

No worries – no anxiety. Just reading a very good book and felt those were awesome lines.