"But there is service, and there is extraction disguised as honour."
Especially in a place like SIngapore, so small that there is likely only 1 Chor Pharn at a time.
You should kinda flip the script and come up with a post-cancer creative personal project where others can help you, and you can call on them to do so.
"I have known the strange intoxication of being useful in rooms where usefulness mattered. I have also known the quieter corrosion of being repeatedly drawn down because I could still perform under strain. For years, I thought the hard question was how to become useful enough. Now I think the harder question is how not to let usefulness consume the life that remains."
"The old covenant was simple: because I can help, I should. The new covenant has to be more exacting: because I can help, I must decide whether the help is truly mine to give."
For what it's worth your words are a candle in the wind these days. I wish you all the best in your fight against cancer. Also on a personal note we recently learned my dad has Alzheimer's which is a brutal disease. He carries lots of scars from so cal s water wars so what you shared resonated a lot. https://pioneeringspirit.xyz/stone-and-stream-a-lineage-in-motion-part-2
This is a lesson I'd hoped to take away from the pandemic. With hard-won experience, we (ideally) learn to prioritize systems over superheroes. That we cannot exalt superheroes if by doing so we choose to neglect foreseeable, sometimes recurring challenges requiring their heroics. One person is not an inexhaustible patch. May our institutions be pushed to plan, to treat redundancy as reinforcement and resilience.
I'm not sure what might bring you energy, but during the pandemic, I stumbled on an illustrator Twitter-verse, and the most vibrant and imaginative posts I saw were by this artist: https://www.genevab.com/illustration. Sending a bit of light-hearted light and color your way.
This is a profound reflection on what it means to serve. I am sorry it has cost you much but happy you can now share this wisdom with others and help them avoid the trap you have at times fallen into.
"But there is service, and there is extraction disguised as honour."
Especially in a place like SIngapore, so small that there is likely only 1 Chor Pharn at a time.
You should kinda flip the script and come up with a post-cancer creative personal project where others can help you, and you can call on them to do so.
"I have known the strange intoxication of being useful in rooms where usefulness mattered. I have also known the quieter corrosion of being repeatedly drawn down because I could still perform under strain. For years, I thought the hard question was how to become useful enough. Now I think the harder question is how not to let usefulness consume the life that remains."
"The old covenant was simple: because I can help, I should. The new covenant has to be more exacting: because I can help, I must decide whether the help is truly mine to give."
"To accept that there may be another role.
Or perhaps, for a while, no role.
There is dignity in that too.
Maybe even wisdom."
For what it's worth your words are a candle in the wind these days. I wish you all the best in your fight against cancer. Also on a personal note we recently learned my dad has Alzheimer's which is a brutal disease. He carries lots of scars from so cal s water wars so what you shared resonated a lot. https://pioneeringspirit.xyz/stone-and-stream-a-lineage-in-motion-part-2
This is a lesson I'd hoped to take away from the pandemic. With hard-won experience, we (ideally) learn to prioritize systems over superheroes. That we cannot exalt superheroes if by doing so we choose to neglect foreseeable, sometimes recurring challenges requiring their heroics. One person is not an inexhaustible patch. May our institutions be pushed to plan, to treat redundancy as reinforcement and resilience.
I'm so sorry you've received such terrible news.
I'm not sure what might bring you energy, but during the pandemic, I stumbled on an illustrator Twitter-verse, and the most vibrant and imaginative posts I saw were by this artist: https://www.genevab.com/illustration. Sending a bit of light-hearted light and color your way.
This is a profound reflection on what it means to serve. I am sorry it has cost you much but happy you can now share this wisdom with others and help them avoid the trap you have at times fallen into.