7 hours and 2 cakes later.....

...and I think I am feeling better.

Out of the seven deadly sins, which one do you think is the deadliest? Is there such a thing as a deadly sin being deadlier than the other?

There is WRATH, ENVY, LUST, GLUTTONY, PRIDE, ANGER, GREED and SLOTH. I was chatting to a friend and I remarked that I personally think ENVY is the worst of them all. Without envy, you will not get greedy about accumulating wealth, or be angry that someone is richer than you and be proud when you are richer than the person living next to you.

Perhaps I've got the concept wrong, but I think it all starts with being envious. I was trawling through FB (something that I really should stop wasting my time on, since there isn't much on it apart from looking at other people's VIRTUAL farms) and people are driving beemers, and having gorgeous houses that should belong in between the pages of Impiana and flying off to exotic countries for the sake of their careers. For a second, I felt envious.

Well, to be honest, it lasted more than a second and I wasted a few hours of my life being up there on my angry cloud, lamenting on how my life should be more exciting. That I should be driving a bigger car, or have a nicer house or own a Prada handbag or two.

and then I thudded to the ground - reality check. I thought about that Thalassemia patient, whose Hari Raya clothes were bought by her teacher and who could barely scrape enough money just to get her blood levels checked at the hospital. I remember a child who was admitted for pneumonia who was wearing clothes that looked worse than my dishrags. I remember that pakcik whose knees hurt so much that he could barely walk, yet despite us insisting that we could get him financial help on the prosthesis, is still thinking twice about it because he couldn't afford to pay for the hospital admission.

I remember a particular kakak who lived deep in the kampung that she has to pay a 'kereta sapu' RM50 just to get the family screened for TB at the hospital after her husband died from it - an RM50 that a lot of us take for granted yet this woman can barely pay.

So I will drive my battered Kenari because it still serves its function as a vehicle carrying me from point A to point B. So I don't own an Aryani or a Ratu or Fareeda or whatever-the-current-trend is tudung because I still own a drawerfull of plain bawal headscarfs because it still covers my aurat no matter how cheap or out of date they are.

I will think of these people that I have met and I will remind myself to stop being envious of things that I don't have but to be thankful for the things that I do have.

and with that, a more cheerful Selamat Hari Raya everyone.