Alex Tang
Articles
- General
- Theology
- Paul
- Karl Barth
- Spiritual Formation
- Christian Education
- Spiritual Direction
- Spirituality
- Worship
- Church
- Parenting
- Medical
- Bioethics
- Books Reviews
- Videos
- Audios
- PhD dissertation
Spiritual writing
- e-Reflections
- Devotions
- The Abba Ah Beng Chronicles
- Bible Lands
- Conversations with my granddaughter
- Conversations with my grandson
- Poems
- Prayers
Nurturing/ Teaching Courses
- Sermons
- Beginning Christian Life Studies
- The Apostles' Creed
- Child Health and Nutrition
- Biomedical Ethics
- Spiritual Direction
- Spiritual Formation
- Spiritual formation communities
- Retreats
Engaging Culture
- Bioethics
- Glocalisation
- Books and Reading
- A Writing Life
- Star Trek
- Science Fiction
- Comics
- Movies
- Gaming
- Photography
- The End is Near
My Notebook
My blogs
- Spiritual Formation on the Run
- Random Musings from a Doctor's Chair
- Random Sermons from a Doctor's Chair
- Random Writings from a Doctor's Chair
- Random Spirituality from a Doctor's Chair
Books Recommendation
---------------------
Medical Students /Paediatric notes
Serendipity
on serendipity
Conversations with my granddaughter
Dr Alex Tang
Hello little one,
It is a joy watching you rediscover the world afresh every morning. The word
that comes to Grampa’s mind in watching you is serendipity. It is a long word
but it just means discovering or enjoying something good by chance or mistake.
Serendipity happens not by searching but by being alive to the moment. From the
moment you wake up you are full of energy and want to rush to play with your
toys and stuff. Grampa cannot catch up with you anymore. And sometimes Grampa
wonders if you have a spare battery hidden somewhere because your energy is
boundless.
Each day is a day of discovery and of learning new things, enjoying new
experiences, and new sensations through your senses. By playing through the day
you are learning much. Through serendipity your learning of new things and new
skills increase by leaps and bounds. Every moment brings new objective lesson to
be included in your ever increasing knowledge of the world around you.
Little one, you reminded Grampa that big people has made learning a chore; a
legalistic way to acquire new skills and knowledge. They call it schooling or
formal education. They force all the little children through it so these
children can become productive members of society; which usually means they get
good jobs and make a lot of money. Schooling tells the children what they should
learn, when they should learn it and how they could remember what they were
told. Basically schooling produces little clones of conformist worker drones for
the factories. Schooling has become synonymous with learning. And this type of
learning kills off serendipity.
Learning, little one as you have so ably demonstrated, is play. We learn through
playing. And everyone enjoys playing. It is fun and energizing. There is
laughter and joy. And there is serendipity. And before you know it, everyone has
learned something new. How Grampa wish that big people realizes that and return
learning to playing. We really learn more about the world, values and character
by playing than through memorizing huge chunks of textbooks for examinations
(which we promptly forget after the examinations anyway).
So play on, little one. You will realize one day that life is a big game. So do
not take it too seriously, play it well, and have fun along the way. Who knows,
serendipity may come along and brings you wisdom to finish this game well.
28 August 2014
more conversations here
