Pirate gold: on spending and thriftiness

 Some rights reserved by वंपायर

As Asians, we grow up inculcated with the value of thriftiness. We're taught to spend carefully and save up for rainy days - which is probably the reason financial crises are always tamer in Asian economies and corporations compared to those seen in the West.

And it's a brilliant thing, being smart about how we spend our money - as long as we view our money as a tool to reach our end goals and not hoarding it as an end in itself. There's a big difference between someone who says "I want to be a billionaire", period, and someone who says "I want to be a billionaire so I can build affordable housing for the poor."

Speaking of money, I stumbled across this literary quote today:

“And in a day we should be rich!” she laughed. “I’d give it to you, the pirate gold and every bit of treasure we could dig up. I think you would know how to spend it. Pirate gold isn’t to be hoarded or utilized. It is something to throw to the four winds, for the fun of seeing the gold specks fly!” -Kate Chopin, The Awakening

I read one blogger's take on it:

"...since reading The Awakening in college, I have been thinking about [this quote] as something other than a joyful statement advocating spendthrift behavior.  I’ve been thinking about all the things that pirate gold is, in our lives, beyond actual gold. The tiny things – tying cleats, reheating noodles, checking homework, driving to school on a rime-frosted morning, folding pajama bottoms – these are not things to be rushed through so that I can finally get to Life. They are the gold flecks of life itself. 

Only when we realize that these moments are the gold of life itself do we fully appreciate the gorgeousness of their flight.  And, of course, the startling truth of their impermanence: what passes more quickly than gold flecks hurled into the wind? I read Chopin’s words, now, as an exhortation to spend, not to hoard: our time, our love, our energy, our spirit.  We only have today.  Why save up for a future that is unsure?   

...I am aware of an instinct, in myself and in others, to sometimes hunker down, preserve, conserve.  As though somehow our energy and love are zero-sum affairs.  That may be true of energy, as I get older, but I’m sure love is limitless."

I thought about a certain person who once told a crowd:

"Don't hoard treasure down here where it gets eaten by moths and corroded by rust or—worse!—stolen by burglars. Stockpile treasure in heaven, where it's safe from moth and rust and burglars. It's obvious, isn't it? The place where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being." -Matthew 6:19-21 (The Message)

And I was reminded today of saving up - but for the right things. And learning to spend all the things I don't have to hoard. The things that multiply when they are freely tossed into the wind and shared, like faith and joy and love.

The more acquainted I get with the Bible, the more I find it to be full of radical, counter-cultural - even subversive truths that great minds from different eras and cultures and even different creeds and religions have echoed. Yes, there's plenty of timeless truths in there - but also plenty that turns conventional wisdom upside down.

The beauty of the human spirit

After a monotonous hour-long ride on a droning ferry, I finally step foot on Tioman - to find it much more bustling and developed than I had expected. I am greeted by a concrete jetty, rows of brick-and-concrete budget hotels, and swarms of local folk goin about their daily business as in any other small town. With the vast sea at my back I almost wonder for a moment if I'm really on an island.

We set off through the village as I silently ask myself why we travelled 5 hours from the concrete jungle of KL to see more concrete, and if Malaysian budget hotels can be any more aesthetically unappealing. A few Caucasian tourists stroll past, attired in casual beach wear, and the place starts to feel a little more island-y. Upon reaching our place of lodging I discover that we are staying in, alas, another concrete building.

I only finally discover the magic of Tioman when we head to the beachfront for a briefing at the dive center.

We arrive at the beach, a stone's throw away from where we were staying, as the familiar, comforting smell of salt water drifts along on a warm breeze. Facing the beach is a rickety wooden bar, and mellow acoustic rhythms of Jack Johnson drift from somewhere inside it. Under the makeshift structure, backpackers and tanned bar staff laze around on hammocks, while some others connect a guitar and a bass to an amp before live, funky island grooves drown out Jack Johnson's croons.

Next to the bar is Ray's dive center - another small shack where a group of divers have just returned from a dive and are unloading their gear. You can tell who the seasoned old salts are by their tans - rich, dark, golden brown hues - and how long they take to remove their gear. Those two factors aside, one could easily mistake one of the dive students, an Asian Channing Tatum look-alike who filled out his wetsuit marvellously, for an instructor.

Yes, KL is finally starting to feel very far away.

***

I see the world and live my life differently from most people - something that I pride myself on, most days, when I'm not going through the occasional bout of self-doubt.

Ask me about accomplishments like getting my PADI Open Water dive certification, and I won't rave about the deadly sea urchins or huge sea turtle I saw, although it was certainly a beautiful creature. I won't talk about how cold (or in my case, not very cold) the water was or how heavy the air tanks were.

In fact I probably won't have much to say about the dives in themselves - even though all the things I took away from the trip wouldn't have happened if not for the dives.

No, ask me about my diving trip and I'll tell you about my life-long battle with eczema and skin allergies, and how the very things I love - sun, sand, and sea - are all things that trigger my skin issues. I'll tell you how on this trip, my skin flared up worst than it ever has before - to the point of huge, red, scaly blotches covering my arms, legs, and back and my skin feeling sore and bruised when rubbed against. I'll tell you how the battle against the itchiness and discomfort is nothing compared to the battle against the thoughts that everyone is staring at you, and that they think you're a freak, even if they're probably not doing either.

I'll tell you that the beauty that made me stop and catch a breath was not in any of the natural wonders of the sea in all their pristine perfection - it was in a crooked, genuine smile of one of the local bartenders who said, "As long as you have a beautiful smile, nobody will care how your skin looks."

It was in the time one of the dive center staff, a tattooed, ex-navy took to bring me to the local clinic to get some anti allergy pills after his working hours. It was in the way we hitched a free ride to a clinic, and how the doctors didn't charge us for the meds or consultation, not to mention dragging them out of their homes at night after clinic hours - because "that's small island life - everybody knows everybody", and people help each other out.

It was in the tears of a mother of one of the children in our group learning to dive, as she shared her story of her own fight against the eczema her son used to struggle with and the frustration of trying prescription after prescription from doctor after doctor to no avail.

Maybe I take the fact that I've gotten to see so many beautiful places and sights for granted. I've traveled Europe, explored tropical seas (well, as much as an amateur dive student can, at least)... but as I always tell people, "it looks better in pictures". Maybe.

But the privilege of meeting strangers who inspire and restore my faith in the human spirit - the privilege of having their lives touch mine for a brief, but profound, moment - will always be, to me, far more beautiful than any sights I can lay my eyes on. Such beauty goes beyond the visible - beyond toothy grins, tattooed arms, or generation gaps - to a beauty not just seen but felt by the heart.

9 March - Today, happiness is...

Marks & Spencer's Italian Collection truffle chocolates at 1.30AM, listening to Whitley and reflecting on the day.

Cooking vegetable stew with Mabel, our usual deep conversations about life and the usual obsessing over cute boys.

"We just needed to let go of what was back home so we could actually have a life here."