I received secondary education in a school sponsored by Church in Hong Kong – St. Francis of Assisi’s College. During that age in Hong Kong, Form 1 to Form 5 was for HKCEE examination while Form 6 to Form 7 was for HKAL which in turn for university enrollment. I repeated in Form 4 & Form 7; therefore, for an average student, it took 7 years to complete and enter university but it took me 9 years. It is not easy for a below-average youngster to walk the same road from home to school for 9 years (Guys, it is not for work!). I am always the record keeper for this school!
For this reason, I am very familiar with the school song – Prayer of Saint Francis,
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me bring love.
Where there is offense, let me bring pardon.
Where there is discord, let me bring union.
Where there is error, let me bring truth.
Where there is doubt, let me bring faith.
Where there is despair, let me bring hope.
Where there is darkness, let me bring light.
Where there is sadness, let me bring joy.
O Master, let me not seek as much
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love,
for it is in giving that one receives,
it is in self-forgetting that one finds,
it is in pardoning that one is pardoned,
it is in dying that one is raised to eternal life.
I am not a Christian. But by keep singing this song for 9 years, I am moved by the lyrics. However, I did have a question. You may think about an aged 21 youngster without any social experience, is it too demanding to understand fully how the principles in the lyrics work? Luckily, the song sounds delighting and is always in my mind. And the questions still remain in my mind too – why and how?
Today, I receive the daily Stoic as usual and read it twice. I found the answers to the questions in theory after all. I thought if I got a chance to read the following speech, I would have a better life as it could help me save a lot of time to get through every single lesson in the below-mentioned speech. It is the speech made by John Roberts, the Chief of Justice of the Supreme Court. I extract it as follows:
“…. from time to time in years to come, I hope you will be treated unfairly, so that you will come to know the value of justice. I hope that you will suffer betrayal because that will teach you the importance of loyalty. Sorry to say, but I hope you will be lonely from time to time so that you don’t take friends for granted. I wish you bad luck, again, from time to time so that you will be conscious of the role of chance in life and understand that your success is not completely deserved and that the failure of others is not completely deserved either. And when you lose, as you will from time to time, I hope from every now and then, your opponent will gloat over your failure. It is a way for you to understand the importance of sportsmanship. I hope you’ll be ignored so you know the importance of listening others, and I hope you will have just enough pain to learn compassion. Whether I wish these things or not, they’re going to happen. And whether you benefit from them or not will depend upon your ability to see the message in your misfortunes.”
It is actually another version of displacement thinking – displacement acting.
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