observer

About

Inspired by the bus ride home while Hwee Chieh is on bus 969. Seated at the top deck, front row with the best view, she watches the world go by. She often thinks about the important individuals in her life—partner, family, coupled with the many rights and wrongs she has made along the way. It is a ride home filled with unanswered questions—What is a life well lived? Which yardstick should I use to measure myself? Who can decide what is the best for me? In a world that values us based on our output and “branding”, how can we become more than pixels on a screen, more than a product of labour?

Loud voices all around, claiming to know the answers to these questions. However, misplaced certainty is often more dangerous than ignorance.

This piece is Hwee Chieh’s attempt at these questions. She works hard, but sometimes she just wants to sit back, on her soft and cosy clouds, popcorn at the ready, and watch life unfold. Soaking it all in, she wonders how much of what she sees are signals and not truth? Observing, watching a movie of the world, indifferent but unjudgemental, this careful nonchalant gives her peace and calm. Moments like this, gives her strength, the courage to make hard choices, and the conviction that only she herself knows what is a life well lived,
for her.

Solitude might be scary, but it can be a shield, a moment of respite from the noises around us. Perhaps we could all use a moment like this, to properly close our eyes and find a kind of calm that is special to us. Who knows, maybe the answers lie within.

—written by Zack Chua