Please bear with me for this lengthy entry, and yes, I do have stuff to say. Indeed, yesterday was one of the most eventful in a long time. After a game of tennis with 3 other smu friends, we picked up a good girl friend of ours for dinner at the French Stall at little india. After a dinner that was grossly overpriced for french hawker food, we decided to check out the ridiculous array of stuff at mustafa. And that's where the life of our girl friend was changed forever.
After 2 hrs of scouring the whole place for snacks, goodies, electronics, perfume and knick knacks we decided make a move at 11 plus. Prior to that, our friend had purchased a mound of snacks amounting 30 bucks from upstairs. The moment we stepped outside the building, my friend was stopped by one of the staff, presumably a house detective. In her right hand was her wallet and underneath it, quite conspicuously, was a stick of unpaid mascara. I immediately stepped forward to explain that it was obviously a genuine mistake and we'd just head back and pay for the damn thing. The guy shook his head and insisted that she had to go see the store manager and only one of us could follow. So 3 of us waited while one went up with her. A gruelling 1 hr later (within which I was disbelievingly cursing and swearing at how undiscerning and inflexible the system was), the friend that followed her emerged alone with a shadow draped over his visage. He said 'I really dunno what the fuck she was thinking man'. Well, it came to be that she did have every intent to shoplift. The house detective had caught her peeling the label off the mascara earlier to avoid the detector at the exit and she admitted to it. The police were called in and she spent the night in the holding cell before being bailed out by my friend at 6am today.
My point in narrating this ludicrous episode is to demonstrate that there really is a thin line everywhere that separates success from failure, a positive outcome from a really really absolutely screwed up one. Firstly, I could have reminded her just before stepping out to pay for the damn thing but I just forgot to (of course it's not my responsibility to, but the fact is I noticed her holding the mascara earlier and could've reminded her to pay for it before leaving if I had been more aware). I mean, just a few words of a ostensibly trivial reminder from any one of us would've have prevented that disaster and her life wouldn't have deviated from its steady course.
Secondly, she could've got away with the act quite easily I believe (perhaps now I'm not too sure anymore). She did everything right such as peeling away the tag and walking out with absolute nonchalance, not even bothering to hide the item (which may be a smart idea just in case she got caught she could've said that she didn't bother hiding it so it was obviously a mistake). The only thing she did not do right was avoiding detection in the early stages of the act - she was seen peeling off the label. This second point also serves as a lesson to everyone of us: in our various undertakings in life, we must take care not to slip up in the preparation stages as well as the details - in short, the means must be executed as meticulously as we're willing to ensure achievement of the ends. It was that pernicious oversight that turned potential success (I'm not endorsing theft here - I mean success in a general way) into a devastating fiasco.
Thirdly, it's only a sheer thread that separates good from bad, morality from immorality. She can easily afford a mascara that costs 16 bucks; moreover, she just blew 30 bucks on chocs and snacks. And as a person, she's one of the nicest girls around really, with a rare sense of elegant wit and charm to boot. So, how are we to judge her? Do we even have the right to judge her? Well, let's take this for instance: if we witness a shoplifting incident by some hopeless gangster minah, we're likely to pass some kinda judgement in our heads, if not verbally: ah it's just another one of 'em... can't afford don't buy la... stupid minah ruining her already screwed up life. But the thing is, my friends, isn't my friend here facing the exact external situation as the hypothetical, if not stereotypical, example of the minah? Well, for one, I'm not ashamed to admit i'm just a normal partial human being who would find it exceedingly hard to label my friend as a criminal and condemn her in the slightest fashion. So, is my friend, an ex-rj double degree smu scholar any less immoral and bad than the lousy minah? Naturally, in the case of my friend, I'll think that it was a moment of ridiculous folly that she decided to commit that one-off impulsive act and unfortunately for her, she cocked up big time - she's just a victim of folly, impulse and herself. But with other petty criminals, I'll probably look at them with an eye of disdain and say: he asked for it man. Hence, this is the thin line I'm talking about which ostensibly separates the immoral from the not-so-moral, the bad from not-so-good - a shady line which may in fact be a figment of our biased imaginations. Maybe, it's time we start embracing the objective realities in life and start effacing the constructed realities in our minds; suspending judgments and prejudices.
Somehow, committing the act and getting away with it sounds and feels almost fine sometimes. However, it's a totally different story when you freakin get caught - you'll probably start questioning yourself, wallowing in highly-emo introspection, and do some deep soul searching after being exposed with your pants down and getting into big time trouble. Indeed, along the different paths each of us chooses to take in life, we will invariably encounter situations that seem harmless to 'tweak a little' and cut corners for gain; but, which may also ultimately result in graver than grave consequences. As an afterthought to this entry, let me say these 3 obvious things that some or all of us may inadvertantly forget from time to time when complacency creeps in: 1) don't do it which may screw up your life no matter the gain cos it may always swing the other way 2) if you're gonna do it anyway, pls pls pls don't fuckin get caught 3) if all else fails, pray for forgiveness as the only way now is up.
Amigos, let not such a disaster befall any one of us; and if it does happen to anyone, God forbid, no one shall be left behind.
