Lovely photo of father and daughter. Good that his crown is still black. He copes better than me. My hair turned gray rapidly after my elder daughter developed problems in P2. For the next six years, I didn't know what was the problem. I only instinctively knew what to do based on how my Father above guided me before. I watched how some other parents were helpless. There wasn't much I could do to help them. It was a 24/7 job. They will have to submit to God to do it and I can't even tell them that except indirectly.
You take your prayers to God and what does he do? Most times, he tries to play for time with you. During that time he reshapes your prayer. Sometimes he propose completely different ones, but when he prays and ropes you in, that's completely different. Like in this case. Meanwhile he allows thousands of people to die, their families to suffer unspeakable anguish. Right now I am thinking of the primary school kids in a Jap school that were washed away by the Tsunami. God throws a starfish back into the sea even if most others he lets them dry out and die. Many are angry with him, but even more do not care because they are safe and fed, complaining to their government for more and better.
Let's put God aside for the moment. Nitcharee has won our hearts because of her character. She is strong and determined. We want to help her because we are a society that practice tough love. Recall Vivian Balakrishnan passionate speech of his family, that is the kind of love we are proud to give. We are in the business of helping people to help themselves. We are always looking for signs of determination, perseverance and strength. If we catch evidence of it, we pour out our resources for them generously. If we don't get any of such cues, we appear stingy and heartless but always waiting for a positive signal from them. Sometimes we lose patience with such people and turn away. Worse, sometimes we hardened our hearts against them, judge them as incapable of making a strong character and only wanting handouts forever.
Today we are able to explain anything without God. Of course, I am wrong. We choose the explanations we prefer and unaware, we make a life out of it - a godless life.
Another teenager was featured in ST too about the same time Nitcharee was given prominence. He was as deserving as Nitcharee. I thought we would also open to him with generosity but it didn't happen. From the divine angle, Nitcharee was chosen but not this young man. Many young kids up north in Japan weren't chosen either. The Tsunami took them leaving their parents to grieve many lifetimes over for them. I remember that teenager from SP in prayer too, but I could sense he wasn't chosen. Not this round anyway. None of these is final. Life goes on, even beyond the grave. There will be a happy and totally unexpected conclusion which we cannot yet understand.
I want to leave somethings about Nitcharee for me to remember.
The Princess, who is the second daughter of Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej, was here yesterday on a one-day private visit.
'I am happy and excited,' said Nitcharee, who tried to stay upbeat even though she was heard crying in pain earlier in the room.
She hopes to continue her studies here after she recovers, said the father. Her ambition now is to be a psychologist, so that she can help other accident victims recover from their trauma.
'Tan has grown very attached to the doctors and nurses here, and feels that she is getting the best care she can get,' he said, using his daughter's pet name. (Every doc and nurse wish their patient was like Nitcharee, which my late mom at TTSH was. She gave away practically all the flowers to the nurses who cared for her. Stalk by stalk)
'The doctors told me that she is a very strong and determined girl and the outlook is very positive.
He said Nitcharee, who was a top student in high school and an avid basketballer, is a 'superstar' to him for staying brave after the accident.
He expressed his gratitude for all the well wishes and donations from members of the public here. Support, both emotional and financial, has poured in from as far as Norway. 'I never expected so much warmth and generosity - Singapore is really a wonderful country,' he said.
Back home in Trang, Nitcharee's classmates from Chulaporn School are organising a fund-raising drive to pay for her prosthetic limbs.
However, Nitcharee says she draws most of her strength from her father.
'I tell her that if she does not look down, she won't know her legs are gone,' said Mr Peneakchanasak. 'So she must keep looking up and forward, and she will be able to live her life like any other girl.'
Nitcharee also reminds me of Robert Oppenheimer vs Chris Langan in Galdwell's book "Outliers" Some are favored and some aren't.
Nicharee draws most of her strength from her father. Sounds like my children, but I am anxious for them to draw their strength from my father, the eternal one. I feel it even more urgently the way Esther spoke to me about it sometime back. And what is God's response to my prayer? "It is none of your business" followed by too many Biblical references to support that! He is a very difficult God. Yes, Mother Teresa had also discovered him to be so too. Well, it was difficult to go to the cross too wasn't it? And it was done.
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