Cheese?
In 2006, I read the book Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson. Wikipedia has a very good synopsis of this book, and for those who want to be spared the trouble of reading the book, I urge you to pay a visit there. In the story, cheese is a metaphore for all our desires while Hem and Haw represents our human weakness of, well, hemming and hawing while confronted with obstecles in our lives.
If I were to sum up the whole book into 1 sentence, it’d definitely be: In pursuing our goals (cheese), always anticipate change and change ourselves accordingly. Sounds simple, isn’t it? It is, but sadly, I believe, life is not that easy. Changing means leaving our comfort zone. Changing means uncertain future. Changing can be painful.
I guess I am trying to say is that the book, to me, seems incomplete. The book tells us not to stay still, always be moving forward in pursuit of the cheese. Perhaps, it is wise to stand still and wonder, what do I really want?
In different stages of our lives, we will, without a doubt, have different dreams, ambitions or goals. These are the things which motivates us to take a step forward, to better ourselves, to achieve our targets. But sometimes, human ambitions can be unrealistic. Sometimes, we have outgrown our dreams. Sometimes, we have ambitions forced to us by our parents. Sometimes, we do not even know what we really want!
Things which deemed to be utmost important to us in the past, upon hindsight, can turn out to be such silly, petty, worthless joke. Our thinking and behaviour in the past may reek of immaturity, irrationality and ignorance. What we want in the past can become a very insignificant part of our personal history.
Is life all about learning? Is life all about becoming a better person? Is life all about understanding the chaotic harmony of the mysterious Cosmos? Is life all about uncovering the veil of unexplored territories? Is life all about heeding the words of scriptures? Seems meaningless sometimes, doesn’t it?
But the truth is, we are fully capable of choosing what our cheese is, and under logical circumstances, nothing is impossible. I guess life’s greatest joy is knowing that we have limited time and power, but our cheese, may it be feta, cheddar or parmesan, are within our reach. All we need to do is to ask ourselves what we want, and go for it.
What I want is to have some cheddar to go with my crackers.