10/27（Tue.）Life is easy. Why do we make it so hard?（Toshi）

[Rock]

Yeah, Boss Toshi, your topic is thought-provoking. I think everybody has a say about it.

It would be simply stupid if the fisherman just followed the businessman's idea to pursuit the happy ending of money. The moral of the fable, or parable, is clear: Don't waste your precious life time to blindly follow the values of the secular world.

However, the idea of putting things down and living an Utopian life is more or less Utopian itself. In the real world, there are so many dirty jobs to be done, and people always want to escape. To be honest, I think my job is one of them, too. But, do we have a choice?

And do you think a real fisherman would take this story seriously? Fishing for a living is not as easy as we think, I'm afraid.

[Iris Wu]

"Is life easy or hard?" It's the question of mindset. Life does not change, but how we see it can change. You can be the fisherman or the businessman, either one has its own hardships and rewards. The day to day life of a fisherman or a businessman could be mixed with deprivation and happiness. I guess I don't believe there is "happily forever after" type of life in the real world, but "The only thing you sometimes have control over is perspective. You don't have control over your situation. But you have a choice about how you view it."

[toshi]

Questions for discussion updated!!

[Rock]

Version 1:
The happy fisherman, still lying on the beach, said, "You, idiot, I missed all that sh*t you have suffered. I have been enjoying the free time all my life here!"

Version 2:
The happy fisherman, still lying on the beach, said, "Well, I guess my story is plain. You live a much more fulfilling life. I may need to worry about the next 30 years of my life now!"

The original story is a fisherman-businessman conversation. It easily leads us to the intended conclusion because we tend to think that businessmen care about only money. The other story, the fisherman-fisherman conversation, is balanced; they are both fisherman . Do you think the always-happy fisherman is wiser than the hard-working one?
I personally prefer the ending of version 2 because I've been brain-washed to believe in diligence as an universal virtue, and winter is coming. But everyone dies in the end, so does Ned Stark. My smoking friend always tells me, "What's the difference?"

[Kat C]

Back to the speaker and his insight, I think the years in Bangkok was crucial to forming his philosophy. He had tried both the "modern" and the simple, and then it was clear to him which lifestyle he preferred. One's appreciation of life's joy often comes after having experienced its hardship. I agree with what Kooper said about choices. And we will see more of them in the process of understanding the world, learning new things and ways of thinking (not necessarily through traditional education), trying out different lifestyles, and then finding out what we really need and want (two different things) to be happy. And it's different for everyone. To me the most important thing is everyone gets to make their own choices.

[Kat C]

I really enjoyed James's talk and the discussion he led yesterday. It was excellent! Thanks, Iris, for putting the session together. You rock!

[toshi]

Attendance Figures: 16

- Host：Toshi

- Participants： Amy, Andy, Flora, Gavin, Iris, Julian, Kat, Ken, Kooper, Luis, Shirley, Shong, Steve, Tina, Wen-han

Thank you for coming!
Hope you enjoy the night!! ^^

[Iris Wu]

Thanks, Toshi and James! And thank everyone for all your comments in this thread and in the meeting discussion.
One of the best nights I have ever had at YoYo! I guess this i's why we love YoYo, it's more than just English!

Notes:
For your reference, a more complete version for the phrase ("大隱於市") I mentioned in the discussion is "小隱隱於野 , 中隱隱於市 , 大隱隱於朝".

[Luis Ko]

what i don't like in this speech is that the speaker says there's no productive, instead destructive, knowledge in university for him. of course if he's only trying to explain the difficulty he experienced back in university, if it's really for him only, then it's totally fine. however, he continues mentioning something like, "we" destroy and "we" poison blabla.

it somehow sounds to me that he is trying to depreciate those so called "mainstream value", so as to have better position to convince people what he is doing now, natural living, is a right thing to do. and don't forget the speech's title is Life is easy. Why do we make it so hard? it's just like a trend or a promotion, of 農村生活體驗 sort of activity, in disguise, i would say.

is New York City really as attractive as people think? according to Kat, it's not.
is the life of a farmer really that easy? if you ask a real farmer, the answer probably is not, either.

anyway, call me a sceptic if you like.

but then again, i do agree what toshi thinks about after knowing the Thai farmer's story. if we are not satisfied with our life, what will we do? how do we deal with it? how can we change the situation? dare we make a change? these kind of questions are really worth thinking. period.

[Leon]

Totally agree with Luis.
Maybe his speech title should change to "Life is easy. Why do I make it so hard?"

[Rock]

Yeah, and does the farmer working on the paddy field with his water buffalo or a tiller? Is he living in a house without electricity? What company supports TED?
Maybe he is just sentimental and really in love with green things. He looks like a good guy, anyway.

[Iris Wu]

I do agree with the above three gentlemen that life is about choice, we can choose what we like, but we don't need to put down people who chose another path or devalue another route which you don't want to take.

[Rock]

I do agree with the above three gentlemen that life is about choice, we can choose what we like, but we don't need to put down people who chose another path or devalue another route which you don't want to take.

Sorry, Iris, but we didn't mean to put him down. Actually, his career is much more successful than mine, and I'm pretty sure his life is much better than mine in every way, too.
What we were discussing is about the video, the way he conveys his idea, and the idea itself. It's just like we sometimes say that we don't like 蔣中正 or 孔子, but of course we cannot devalue them in anyway. They are great people of the history; no matter how many people dislike them cannot change the fact.
And once again, this is a great topic for discussion, many thanks to Toshi. If the topic were about Mother Teresa, then all our opinions would just be "yes, yes, yes," which would seem a little boring to me. It's doesn't mean that Mother Teresa is not important, either.
My apologies if I have offended anyone. I'm just practicing my English here, and my English sucks. It goes wrong sometimes, grammatically or semantically.

[Iris Wu]

Hi, Rock, I guess I did not make myself clear. Language is really not my strength.

I meant I agreed with Luis, Leon and you on the part that this Thai farmer can choose his path, life style, but he did not have to put down the value of university or higher education or technology which even he himself was using it to "broadcast" his beliefs/ideas. I did not think you guys put him down, as you said, it was "like" and "dislike". I thought I understood you guys correctly, didn't I?

[Rock]

Oh! What a relief!
I kind of worried that people may think my points are aggressive, so I "對號入座" by myself. Now I read your post again and it's so clear that you didn't mean it. Your language is perfect; my reaction was weird.
BTW, how do you say "對號入座" in English?