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Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Sorry for the Broken Eggs

"You build me up, you break me down," Tik Tok by Ke$ha.

Yes, yes, I have been away for almost a month now.

And I have come back just to share a short story I read from a book entitled "Life is an Open Secret" by Zabrina A. Bakar. And it goes like this:

There was once a kindergarten teacher who was in charge of a class of brilliant and hyperactive (figuratively, not ADHD) pre-adults. Since they were the most active of students, the class was the noisiest one in the kindie.

One day, a fight broke out in the playground during recess that involved two students from the aforementioned class. The teacher who was just about to sink her teeth into her healthy broccoli and tomato cheesecake noticed the commotion and broke up the fight.

The blonde male child of course screamed "He started it!" while the male child with black hair exclaimed "He called me fat!"

They were both brought to the principal's office where the Head of Children's Development demanded in a low but authoritative voice,"Tell me what happened."

"He punched me," said the blonde boy.

"He called me fat, and said that I looked like a hippo," said the teary-eyed black haired boy, obviously feeling the pain of the hippopotamus at being dissed with such an insult.

The next day, the class was quieter than usual, the aftereffect of the fight in full-flight. The teacher, ever-competent in her work of developing these children both cognitively as well as emotionally and spiritually (physically has been omitted to avoid offense towards the less-abled) came up with a plan.

She called on one of the girls to the front of the class randomly, without applying any favoritism and said "Class, today, we are going to do an experiment. I have an egg. Taylor will help me crack it. When she does, I want everyone to observe, look at what happens to the egg."

"Okay Taylor, you can do it now." When Taylor had successfully finished her given task, she went back to her place with a pat on her back by the teacher.

"Now, can anyone tell me you saw?" Several hands were raised.

"Yes Elle?" she pointed to a girl that had been raising her hand since morning.

"The calcium layer of the egg was successfully fissured and the albumen as well as the nucleus or the yolk as we call it spilled out, although the vitelline membrane was successfully kept intact."

Just managing to prevent her jaw from dropping to the very detailed observations made by Elle, the teacher replied, "Very good Elle."

"Now, the pierc de resistance (at this failed attempt at French, Elle shook her head), does any one of you know how to put the egg back in its shell?"

The class did not have an answer, not even genius Elle (not that she lacked the brain power, it's just that it was out of her zone of proximal development).

"Come on, who can answer me? I'm waiting.." the teacher teased quite unethically, although she did have her point, as we are about to find out.

"Teacher, we can't put the egg back in its shell. It's just not possible nor viable!" Exclaimed Elle.

"Correct you are again Elle! We can't put the egg back together. And you know why? An egg once broken remains broken," while turning to the two boys that fought the day before. "The same is true with words. Every time a word leaves a mouth, it can never return. That's why we should be careful of what we say to others. Words can be hurtful and may even ruin a future, like breaking an egg."

At this, the blonde-haired boy stood up, walked all of 5 feet to the weight-abled classmate and said "I'm sorry I called you fat."

"I'm sorry I punched you," answered the child.

The teacher smiled, and the class was back to its old noisy self again.

____________________________________________________________________

Of course, this is my own rendition of the story. But do you get my point?

The point that, once you say something, you can never take it back.
The point that it sometimes takes kids to show us conflict resolution.
The point that, no, the questions. Questions such as "How many eggs have I broken?" and "Have I apologized to the owners of those eggs that I broke?"

Here, I would like to apologize to anyone and everyone that have been hurt by my egg-breaking, or word blurting. I know that my mouth runs without having to consult my brain most of the times, and this results in a lot of hurt for others.

I truly am sorry, for I never say something that would hurt my friends intentionally (if you're not my friend, then that's a different story). Friends, family, if I have ever blurted something out of my mouth capriciously and it resulted in your feelings being affected in a negative way, I hope you find it in your hearts to forgive me, for I am nothing without you.

Sorry again!

Cheers!

8 comments:

mahpuzah said...

i enjoy reading your posts. your english is awesome. we all say things that hurt people sometimes.that what makes us human.the older you get the more eggs you will break...believe me.

anak pak man said...

mahpuzah,
thank you very much! ^_^
yeah, and the thing is that sometimes, you don't even notice that you've broken an egg. You just look at it and somehow it's been broken.. huhu

nuhan said...

dats what we call as "mata laser" la..

anak pak man said...

nuhan,
mata laser? saya kurang memahami..

nuhan said...

uh..nothing le newar..
"You just look at it and somehow it's been broken" = mata laser ah tuh..mana leh cmtuh..

anak pak man said...

nuhan,
klau cmtu, kna msok x-men la noh? hehe

mahpuzah said...

everybody does that...say hurtful things..we all learn from our own mistakes.hey that what makes us more mature and we no longer see things as in black and white only. all the best to you and happiness always!

anak pak man said...

mahpuzah,
i suppose so.. thanks! and all the best to u too!