Crossing Distances
-By Tan Mei Ching
The book, crossing distances, is not about crossing
distances literally. It shows the distances between people, for example
a generation gap is the most well-known one perhaps. But there are many
more to the distances between people other than generation gaps, and this
book addresses quite a few of them. It has also stories of how the people
cross the distances between each other.
However, some of the stories go by rather unexplained,
for example in "In the Quiet" , where a young teenager has to face the
pain of her good friend's death. This death comes as a great surprise to
both her and the reader, as just before, they had been happily talking
together. She finds that she cannot face that her friend is dead. She also
finds out that you never know how much you love something or someone till
it is gone. This is particularly true in Singapore as well, as many people
just adopt a cannot care less attitude, taking things for granted, especially
us teenagers nowadays. We take our luxurious lifestyle for granted, not
considering our ancestors' hard work and labour which have bought us what
we have today.
One touching story is Song of the Wild. The story
is about this boy, Loh Joon Beng, who came from a rich family. Alas, he
was a very 'ah beng' type, often going around extorting, bullying and even
stealing, this despite his parents stressing to him on etiquette. The writer,
an old lady, distrusted him. One day, she saw him going to the market alone.
She did not believe that his parents would send him to buy vegetables,
and being rather curious, she followed him.
Surprisingly, he just stood, face uplifted, listening.
He was listening to a wild lark singing in a cage. The lark belonged to
Mr Teo, a shopkeeper. Then, Joon Beng asked the shop keeper what price
the lark was. As everyone had a bad impression of Joon Beng, Mr Teo told
him three hundred dollars, as he distrusted him and thought he wanted to
torture the bird.
For the next few weeks, Joon Beng was unbelievably
transformed. He began asking around for work to do, and surprisingly to
all, did it quite well. Naturally, the writer was very curious, and thus
followed him one day when he went to the market alone again. Joon Beng,
as she expected, went up to Mr Teo and bought the lark.
The writer stood behind the boy as he brought the
lark to the field behind the market. To her surprise, Joon Beng released
the bird. Then, she realised that he had been touched, and changed by the
"Song of the Wild".
I felt it was a very touching story, the way Tan
Mei Ching described the wild gangster Joon Beng had been before seeing
that lark, and the boy who had emerged. He had been touched by that wonderous
singing of the wild lark. In a way, the lark's singing crossed the distance within
him, making his good side emerge.
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By: Lam Ziyuan