Busy, Blind or Death

Busy, 忙 -Mandarin we pronounce it as "mang". Blind, 盲- Mandarin pronunciation is "mang". Death, 亡 - Nope it is not pronounce as "mang" but "wang".

In old days, Taiwanese singer Sylvia Chang sang a song 忙與盲(Busy and Blind). If you are not familiar with this song, please see the original lyrics below. (Sorry no English translation).

曾有一次晚餐和一張床　在什麼時間地點和那個對象我已經遺忘　我已經遺忘　生活是肥皂香水眼影唇膏許多的電話在響　許多的事要備忘許多的門與抽屜　開了又關　關了又開如此的慌張我來來往往　我匆匆忙忙　從一個方向到另一個方向忙忙忙　忙忙忙　忙是為了自己的理想　還是為了不讓別人失望盲盲盲　盲盲盲　盲的已經沒有主張　盲的已經失去方向忙忙忙　盲盲盲　忙的分不清歡喜和憂傷　忙的沒有時間痛哭一場

I love this song very much as it reflects the life of a city girl like me. It talks about people who chase over results and life become robotic. Sometimes, we are so busy until we are blinded on the directions we are heading. It says here that, because of busy we’re unable to distinguished happiness or sadness in life. And because of busy, we don’t have time for us to cry.

We always claim that it is a fact that city people have a busy life. We are busy with our work and we have no time for our family, children, everything and ourselves. We are so busy, we rush in everything we do. We eat, yet our mind is somewhere else thinking about work, boy friend dates, family commitment and so on. Most of the time, we didn’t even know the taste of the food we eat. We are so busy and used to the fast pace and that we didn’t chew our food properly. Same applies to every other thing we do. Physically we are doing one thing and mentally we are busy thinking on the next thing. Busy, that we never see what is now. Aren’t we blinded, living this way?

To me, it is not only busy and blind (忙與盲). It is busy, blind and death (忙,盲與亡). When we are blinded with busyness death follows. Why I termed it this way? When we hide behind the excuse of busy for everything, it means death of heart “亡”. It is so simple for us to tell someone or even ourselves that “I’m busy” and so we ignore the incident happened to us as if we have nothing to do with it. We forget or ignore the dinner with our beloved parents, because we are busy. Relationship dies. We don’t waste a single minute in enjoy the happiness and go through the sadness. Emotion dies. We stop giving to other because we don’t have the time. Love dies. We haven’t got the time to even care about our health, busily and blindly chasing over the material things (that we think is so valuable) and one day death comes, and realized there is nothing but emptiness.

Next time, before we tell others or ourselves that “I’m busy”. Stop and think twice, are we really that busy, or we simply reluctant to stop and look at now and be alive? I believe busy is just an excuse. I think if I can embrace the “stop and look at now” practice more, I will have much more time, my world would have more colours and I’ll be living more present. So let’s us keep the “busy, blind and death” away and enjoy the beautiful life of now.