“The world is not round”

More than four hundred years ago in Europe, the orthodox view is that the world is flat. Any suggestion otherwise was considered to be sacrilegious, and punishable by death. Today, the accepted view is that the world is round. Now, to say that the world is not round will not condemn one to eternal damnation, but surely, to eternal shame. Despite the world being more liberal than ever, we are still bound by orthodoxy, from what we do to what we think; the way we dress, speak – everything are to be tailored to suit the cultural script, intertwined with our usual uninteresting routines.

Our lives are determined by orthodoxy from the day we were born. When we reach the right age, our parents send us off to school and we work hard to score decent grades to get into a decent college to get a decent degree. We waste a good ¼ of our lives to earn a decent degree and another ¼ working a decent job earning a decent wage. As we are halfway through our life, we realize that we have only another ¼ of our lives remaining to do what we have always aspired to do because the last ¼ of our lives will probably be spent on sickbeds. But it has become too late by then, because at this halfway point of our lives, we’ll be too busy making sure that our children goes through the same process we did. Every penny we earned is invested in our children to ensure they go through the same routine – school, college, work, marriage, kids.

What we do every day has become a routine – no surprises, no excitement anymore. Nine-to-six at work and back home; seven-to-one at school and off to tuition; weekends off, lazing at home. Everything has to be done according to convention.

In a couple of year’s time, I’ll be a quarter of a century old. For as long as I have lived, I have adhered to the orthodox like everyone else. I went to a decent school, and I managed to score some decent grades, and I will be graduating with a decent degree in a year’s time. What is next? Orthodoxy commands that I shall get a decent job find a decent man and build a decent family with him. But a friend of mine posed this question (or rather a statement) a few days ago: can you imagine working from nine-to-six every week days for the next twenty five years?

The society has become too used to routine and conventions. We sleep at night, and work during the days; we eat breakfast, lunch and dinner – it’s unorthodox not to do any of these. Routines give us order but it is superficial and contradicts our true nature. This contradiction creates a tension and chaos deep down inside us, because the true nature of a human being is one of individuality.

Deep down inside every one of us, there is a yearning to break free from this routine but so engrossed are we with our conventional lives that we forget how to live our real lives, our own lives. We synchronized our superficial lives with that of others, creating a “normal and regular” life – a life no different than others, but at least it is “safe”.

I want to break free of this “safety net”. I want to defy routine and orthodoxy – do things that I make me contented with my life. I want to be able to say, when I’m at my deathbed that I have lived my life, not lived a normal conventional life.

I could imagine myself in Egypt, going through Tutankhamen’s treasures; in China, searching for Qin Shi Huang’s burial site; or in Greece looking for the Lost City of Atlantis. I could get hunted down by a certain Imhotep, but who cares because I will be enjoying my life and who knows, I might meet my Indiana Jones.

Or, I should be working on a warp engine now. Fighting the Borg in an inter-galactic war should be more interesting than a legal battle in the court. Well, live long and prosper is a definitely a better phrase than may it please the court. I might end up being tortured in the hands of a certain Klingon but the chance to be in an adventure with James T. Kirk (Chris Pine’s version for obvious reasons), to go where no men has gone before, is just too difficult to pass.

Well, those are probably far-fetched dreams. I shall start small, by proclaiming that the world is not round.

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chiewee is currently preparing for the LAWASIA Moot Competition. Reading about underwater treasure salvage (for the purpose of the competition) has reignited her interest in archeology. She is toying with the idea of a full time salvage venture into the Straits of Malacca in search for sunken vessels from the Malacca Sultanate era – her idea of against routine and orthodoxy. Her first foray into unorthodoxy was when she used a stapler to crack the shell of boiled eggs – an act motivated by her laziness to get a spoon from the kitchen. You would have realized by now that she has gone a little bit kuku. She is becoming extremely disillusioned with her routine and now is at the lowest ebb of her life. She is looking for inspiration and divine-intervention to get through these trying times.