All Men Are Shallow.

I don't really have a picture of "shallowness", so here are some shallow pieces of glass, with a shallow depth of field. :)

About a week ago, we went to fetch Yurong's sister, Peirong, from the airport and headed to Changi Village for supper after that. Then on the way there Timothy and I were (unsurprisingly) making a lot of noise. I think we were trying to do that tourist arriving in Singapore for the first time kind of thing, and of course most people who know us would find it irritating. Hahaha. But that's all unimportant, because in the car Peirong suddenly commented loudly that all men are shallow. And of course, it was something that we latched onto for the rest of the night, and the suppers we went for this week as well; making rather emotional statements about our shallowness and debating the idea of shallowness in men, as well as seeking definitions and clarification as to which aspects of our lives were shallow.

And so, I'm blogging about men being shallow now. Hahaha I think it's something I've been thinking about for most of this week, and I decided to write my conclusions down now before the week is over. I think saying that all men are shallow is a very sweeping generalization to make, the sort of thing you'd expect any girl to do, but then again I kind of agree with the fact that men are shallow. But I don't think men are the only shallow ones, I think everyone is shallow, myself included.

It's not just the normal "shallow" stuff we all know to be "shallow". Not just the conversations about the weather, or about your day, and the other superficial stuff. Not just the interests and obsessions with material things and movie stars and musicians and arguments about good music/movies/books or bad music/movies/books. I think all these are shallow, because they amount to nothing more than white noise. At the end of the day, all of these things don't matter.

But then I think that even the friendships that we make, the people we call family, the arguments about philosophy and human psychology, even debates about political and economical situations, I think all these are shallow as well. At the end of the day, albeit a really long day, none of these will matter because everything fades away in the end. A hundred years from now, I doubt anyone would remember me, or my best friends, or my family members, or even my ideas on philosophy.

Then you would argue that we have historians and literature and classical music and that we would live on in the written World and our legacy is handed over to our future generation and all that. But if the only thing I'm remembered for when I die is for my work on Biology for example, is that not shallow as well? That we remember people not for being people, but for contributing significantly in one area or another? The scientist who discovered penicillin for example, is forever remembered as "the scientist who discovered penicillin".

Of course, being remembered is not as shallow as conversations about the weather, but it's still shallow because you could leave your legacy in this World, but your legacy is all you leave in it. And it's all that will be remembered because as humans we forget things and this includes other humans as well.

It's kind of like the pieces of glass in the picture above. Sure we can make all sorts of beautiful cups and candle holders and ornaments with the glass, but at the end of the day the glass is still glass. And at the end of the end of the day the glass too will decompose to be sand again. And isn't life just us trying to make beautiful things with the sand in our lives? (What a crazy analogy hahaha)

So I started wondering what wasn't shallow. And I think it's when we realise that we are shallow that we aren't shallow (Irony hah). When you're wrong in everything you're doing, then realising that you're wrong would be the only thing right. And I think that's what a relationship with God does, it's about realising that you are insignificant, that all your Worldly contributions, obsessions and possessions amount to nothing more than grains of sand. That you are nothing more than a grain of sand. God can be the only thing unshallow in our lives because he would be the only one who would never fade away or forget. Responding to God wouldn't be shallow because God is not shallow(unlike men). If we are imperfect and shallow, then it's only natural to want to aspire towards something perfect and deeper in our lives, and that's who God is, the perfect person in our lives.

Okay I think I need sleep and I have no idea what I just wrote. It was written more for myself really.