Thursday, November 30, 2006
i went shopping with my mum today at centrepoint for winter clothes.
amidst all the chrissmassy decor, twinkling lights, torpor-inducing hustle and bustle, there was the salvation army donation drive going on right outside the steps of centrepoint's main entrance like every other year.
The person shouting, " Salvation Arrrmmmy!" non-stop.
it was like a fairytale, you know the type you read about in novels, then there and then, you find yourself smack right in the middle of it... deja-vu in the weirdest sense.
you see the materialistic, rich, well clothed taitais within the departmental stores oblivious to the outside world. you see the old indian man selling the raffle tickets. the harried people queueing for taxis, doing shopping.
everyone in their own world.
then you hear the bell, the call of the salvation army man...
jutxapose it, i felt so in-between, literally in between the glass paned doors and also between the two worlds. both of which i belong to.
i didn't donate.
why?
because it's just a feel-good thing. you spend a chunk of money down at robinsons and buy back some guilt by dropping a few cents, a two dollar note down that box.
do we have to resort to such means to appeal for charity?
confounded-
i remember the days when i was only five and i dropped my precious fifty five cents into the salvation army's little girl figurine statue.
and so it comes back to this,
a full circle.
staring at our backs,
oh so wistful.
un moment à se rappeler
. a moment to remember.
