Saturday, October 8, 2011

(537) A virtuous woman

Here we look at two elderly women. A comes from a wealthy family. B comes from a poor family. A lost her mother but her father remarried three times. B lost her father and her mother remained a widow till death.

A is well educated for her age group and is trilingual. B has had a few years of night school and is only conversant in two Chinese dialects. We would think that A should have lasting advantage over B. The truth is not so.

A spent her life working at supplying money towards overseas education for her six children. B is a homemaker with no great ambition but loyally supports her children in whatever way she can. A thinks that she is smarter and better at earning money than all her children. Thus she lords it over them. So while A in turn quarrels and finds fault with each of her children, B is in harmonious relationships with her four children.

The final attitude difference is towards mobility. A refused to believe her deformed knees require surgery. In time to come, facts overcome her strong will, she ended up in a wheel chair. B is co-operative with her Doctors and is open to dietary changes as well as food supplementation. Her children encourage her to walk every morning. She steadfastly disciplines her body over pain and weakness. In her twilight years she has excellent stamina and walking ability. Considering she has had arthritis over twenty years, she is doing very well.

I will rephrase a Confucious saying: "A woman without any money making abilities is a virtuous woman".

No comments:

Post a Comment