I remember explaining once the origins of Tom Yum to a disbelieving youth. Which youth, I can’t remember. But my explanation I can. Tom Yum originated from a cannibalistic tribe in the innards of Thailand. When the westerner came over to explore Thailand (then called Siam, cause they wanted everyone to go away), they inadvertently discovered the tribe.

The first foreigner who came into contact with the tribe happened to be named Tom. So as the story goes, chop chop, the tribe had their first taste of western cuisine (literally). And they loved it! They kept saying how yummy the dish was. So they sent a few of they best linguistic scholars over to the big city to do some grocery shopping. Top of the list was yummy Tom’s. Or in their broken English, “Tom Yum“. And that was how the dish was invented.

Over the years, the supply of Caucasian / western explorers declined. So, they settled for other meats like chicken, prawn or fish. And because such meat was much easier to acquire and handle, the modern, more civilized version of Tom Yum no longer includes human meat. However the traditions of including human fingers in the dish still carry on, but have been replaced by a healthier, fiber enriched vegetable aptly named “Lady’s Finger“. Apparently women’s finger’s were softer, therefore better favoured.

That said, I originally intended this post to be about an analogy about cynicism and its function in life. Just to let you know, cynicism is a general distrust of the integrity or professed motives of others.

So if life was a bowl of Tom Yum, cynicism is a bowl of tap water. When we first started having Tom Yum, we loved the new taste, but sometimes we bit into the spices, and the Tom Yum suddenly tasted super sour, or super spicy. We feel betrayed, so we vow to be careful the next time. But the Tom Yum seems so saturated with the mix of taste that we start to be overwhelmed. So we pour in some tap water to dilute the taste, make it more bearable.

Some of us live life without adding any water. Most of us do. And sadly, most of us also add to much water. Now life is so vile and bland that it holds no interest for us anymore.

I do not condone the use of cynicism. Nor do I condemn those who do. It makes life more tolerable, but never better. As the analogy goes, cynicism is portrayed as tap water. Reason being that like tap water, it has bacteria and viruses that eventually make you sick.

I may not like what life throws at me everyday. But I certainly do not want to ever be so cynical and realistic that my heart dies and I’m left with only an existence to survive, and no life to enjoy.

p.s. I don’t think Tom was very yummy.

I was doing an assignment today. My body is already in crisis mode. Don’t know what’s happening, but it’s refusing to shut down. Anyway, an idiot popped up on msn and tried to talk to me. Many of you know that I hate idiots. I think God thinks that this fellow is also an idiot. Before you lash at me for my overly judgmental statement, try reading the conversation I had with that… erm… thing:

Just in case you still don’t know what’s happening, it’s a robot on the other end. It’s trying to get me to click on that link so that it can phish my passwords or something. So DON’T FOLLOW ITS INSTRUCTIONS. And yes, you can agree with me now. It is an idiot.