Lessons to be Learnt Everywhere

Last Friday, on my way to work on the MRT, I noticed this boy with Down’s Syndrome sitting opposite me rearranging his school bag. He was a student of MINDS Special School. MINDS stands for Movement for the Intellectually Disabled of Singapore, a non-government run organisation that has been helping the intellectually disabled in Singapore since 1962.

When the boy board the train, he started removing practically everything from his bag very carefully, item by item and placed them very neatly in two piles on the seat next to him. He took out a couple of exercise books, a lot of art drawings, a Spider-Man notebook, a Spider-Man drawing, a box of colour pencils and a lot of other stuff which I couldn’t identify. What caught my attention was not his disability but the calm and unhurried manner that he went about with his task. He took his own sweet time and seemed to be enjoying what he was doing, scrutinising his possessions and stacking them neatly in two equal piles.

As I was watching him carrying out his task, the train began to get crowded and I was quite sure that sooner or later someone would approach him and ask him to remove his stuff from the seat. True enough, a stern and rugged looking man in t-shirt and shorts, holding a copy of newspapers got into the train carriage and walked towards the seat. The boy looked up and the man told him to remove his items from the seat. The boy nodded and began putting his stuff back into his school bag. I was so surprised when he kept his things in exactly the same slow, systematic and unflustered manner as when he removed them. He picked up his multiple drawings carefully, one at a time, then his exercise books, then his Spider-Man drawing, then the Spider-Man notebook, then his box of colour pencils etc, etc.

By then, I was getting a bit worried as I was quite sure the man would lose his patience and yell at him to hurry up. But guess what? The man just stood there quietly watching the boy pick up his things from the seat piece by piece, one item at a time and when he saw the Spider-Man items, he asked the boy if he liked the comic character. The boy grinned at him and replied very excitedly “Ya, I like Spider-Man!” The man then asked him if he had seen the movie and the boy said he had.

After the train had gone past three MRT stations (a good five minutes), the boy finally kept everything in his bag. He had also reached his destination. He and the man said good-bye to each other and he got out from the train. The man finally could sit down to read his papers and immediately exclaimed to his companion “That boy is very neat!” And there I was smiling so brightly, having witnessed the entire incident.

Why journal this incident? One, the boy had more zen mind than me. He was so focused on his one task, nothing could distract his attention, not even when under pressure. Such strong one-pointed concentration. I often buckle under pressure and lose my concentration. I wish I could live my life in as calm and focused manner as him. Two, I judged that man by his looks but he turned out to be quite a friendly and very patient man. Three, I’m glad to be living in a country where people are tolerant and understanding towards others with physical or intellectual disabilities.

I rarely say this…but I am proud to be a Singaporean. ^_^