Family

Beside all our aspiration for greatness and success, dream to soar onto the pinnacle of material wealth and naughty inclination to court and be courted, there is another humble yet equally important thing in our life: family. Somehow, in all our undertakings, we can rest assure that if we were to fail, our family would be there to cushion our fall from grace. Or is it so?

As I grow older, my perception of family is a sacred if not ideal, representation of human compassion and trustworthiness, has changed, unfortunately to a darker shade. What was once held as an unconditional giver, free from self-interest, I have now doubted. Somehow, there is a feeling that every member has a personal agenda in exploiting the virtues of the family to achieve his or her own end. Almost unbelievable as it seems, we often come across news such as that of children squabbling for inheritance, attempting to alter the will of their deceased parents to their own interest at the expense of others.

Then again, backstabbing is far from being uncommon. Sentences like,"Your cousin is a liar. Don't you listen to him!" seems to flow effortlessly from the mouth of the subject's own blood brother. What sort of folly is this?

Time and again, perfection is but an ideal in this world. Family, despite being the venerated building block of the society and nation, is flawed in its own way. Man is doomed in his achievement. His darkness is upon him. In the modern world where individuality prevails over common interest, the bonds between family member is further attenuated. Sons leave their mothers to decay in old folk's home at the behest of jealous daugthers-in-law. Mother discards newborn baby in trashcans so that she can pursue her dream without being "tied" down by the responsibility to a child.

I am a conditioned pragmatist. Man is turning into machine to such cold brutality that he treats family with increasing indifference. Here ends my indictment, a painful memoir of the foreboding to come.