I've been seeing lots of posts about him on FB and on so this morning, while waiting for my gal to get ready, I listened to this. From an upcoming Asian American basketball player....
It's not him being a devout Christian that caught my interest here. It's how the people in his life impacted him. First, his family; his brothers who loved basketball too and played with him. Next was his coach who took him under his wings, be his mentor and his best friend (an opportunity, he said, which his brothers never had) and for 6 years gave him that sort of attention, polishing, training which enabled him to hit a higher note with his game. And then a coach which Harvard hired, after his freshman year, a man which revamped the coaching system there, and it enabled their basketball team to start to shine.
This guy has the humility to understand that human might alone is not enough to make it all come together. There are things which are out of our hands... I tend to agree with him that it's an angle of divine intervention.
The touching of lives... I think that's what missing a lot these days. We lead such busy lives. We seem to interact more, but these interactions seem to have more of a pseudo feel than real. We have very little time to invest in relationships, making a difference, impacting... We are more taken up by projects of grander designs, nicer sounding names. Investing time as what the Jeremy's first coach did is a long arduous task, one that does not bring you an instant measure of success. If anything, it's a long suffering and often times, thankless task. These past few months, i've been reminded again and again, there is this need there, young lives basically in need of good role models. For people who are committed to taking real interests in these young people; lije the role models, mentors and coaches who helped shape Jeremy Lin into NBA material.
And we need good and committed people. At my work place, our administrators never fail to tell us all teachers are the same... I think that's just an excuse. Teacher A walks in the class and the students continue to make noise while she teaches. Then Teacher B walks into the same class - all is quiet. Are both same? So, if our education system is seen to be on a decline, or our graduates seem not to meet market needs, we've got to ask ourselves whether it is in part due to the decline of real commitment. These days, we harp so much on the outward that we fail to see that it's what we do and think in secret which affect how we turn out. One reason whwellie schools seemed better in the past is back then, we seemed more able to do things more right. We had not only good and capable role models but they seemed more committed to their job in a truer sense, not like the tunjuk-tayang that seems so biasa these days.
Anyway, I am yet again, reminded of the selfless role models who have made all the difference in my life.
I went on to watch a couple more of clips on YouTube of Jeremy Lin in action. He's good. First Asian American to make it into the big league. Watching him, one tends to feel that an American Chinese is more American than Chinese. Now wouldn't it be nice to see the same kind of ability to integrate as Malaysians regardless of race over here too? For that to happen, I guess our politicians need to have their brains 'washed' first, I guess. And I hope too Jeremy Lin will not let success eat into him... At a time when we are reminded of Whitney Houston, how fragile everything can be too.
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