My world is too small

Even in a big Bangkok, I experience how small our world is, or maybe it is better to describe it as how limited our world is.

I am sitting in my room and there is a familiar knock at my door.  I know that it is one of my neighbours and I know which one.  I am thinking - "Oh, no!" - as I know how long he can go on for.  Well, in he comes for a serious matter.  And what is it?  He has come to accuse me of calling him a liar, which I didn't.

This arose out of a conversation I had with another neighbour in my building, a friend.  The friend was describing to me how a person I know has had a brain tumour.  When i worked out who he was referring to, I just said he doesn't.  When next meeting the guy, my friend confronted him with this, asking why he said he had a brain tumour when I had said he didn't.  The guy took this as being confronted with being called a liar.  So off to my room, he stormed.

Well, I never called him a liar and this all arises out of hearsay.  I am clear that I do not want to get involved in the small world of my building and all its talk and dramas.  This is not why I am here but I know very well that such smallness is part of Bangkok for many guys who come here and have nothing to do.  In the end, what transpired was that the guy was upset that my friend did not remember who he was and that he never told my friend he had a brain tumour.  So why am I having to entertain this visit?

The point of sharing this story of my week is not to vent but to share a real life example of how small or limited our world can be and how much energy we waste on things that do not really matter.  The trouble with a lot of western guys who come here to their paradise to retire is that they have nothing productive to do and so become bored.  Boredom leads them into mischief and so they get into various dramas and troubles.  It would seem they have lost sight of there being a whole world out there that demands and needs our attention.  Challenge is refocus and put your energies where they are best placed and not in narrow self-interest and entertainment. 

There is no photo this week as how do you picture a limited, narrow world held by so many?  I am sure we all have our own picture which we can place before us.