Fragility

To that which is perhaps most fragile we regard as invincible.
To that which is most easily broken we constantly abuse in the belief that it is unbreakable.
To that which is most porous we project impenetrability.

We become confronted with fragility only when death visits. At times we find the fortunes to flee its hand as it seeks those around us - at times close, at others distant. But with each encounter, and as we stare at this faceless image or watch the trail of his garments flutter past, we realise how powerless and insignificant we are - for all the myths we have created about our own invincibility. And each time that hand sweeps past our shoulders we're jostled into sobriety: I could have been the one, that the next one could be me ...

Life: we live believing we'd do so forever; we build castles on sand; we subscribe to the myth of immortality.

And when it ends there will never be 'again' - that the opportunities we lose will be lost forever, the 'nevers' would be. The absence would become immortalised.

Death is a sober reminder ... that we should unsubscribe from the myth of success and find the things that truly matter. Death is a greeting card to remind us that we all share - regardless of the empires we've built - one inescable destiny: mortality. And what remains of us will merely be dust in the wind.

A succession of tragedies pervades the air and they're happening to people I care most about. And with each incident, I find my eloquence escapes me, my intellect ceases to reason, that words fade along with their authority, and I personify helplessness.

"My dear friend Seow Hwee, I'm sorry for your loss. I know anything I say remains cliche. I know not how to help nor what to do but to tell you I'll be here as I've always been. And believe me when I say I feel your pain."