You’re an Original

Many years ago, I bought a book titled “You’re born an original, don’t die a copy”. It was authored by John. L. Mason.

I love the nuggets in this little book. Nuggets such as –

Leave everyone a little better than you found them
The door of opportunity are marked “Push”
The person with imagination is never alone and never finished
and many others…

And there is even alphabets for originality!
A for Attitude, B for Believer, C for character, D for decisive, E for effort, F for fearless, G for gratitude, H for honesty, I for ideas, J for joy, K for kind-hearted, L Leadership, M for merciful, N for nonconformity, O for objective, P for pray, Q for quiet-time, R for responsibility, S for sensitivity, T for tenacity, U for unhesitating, V for vigilant, W for wholehearted, X for e(x)ceptional, Y for yielded and Z for zealous!

The author ended with “A Final Word” -

Be the original person God intended you to be.
Don’t settle for anything less.
Don’t look back.
Look forward and decide today to take steps towards His plan for your life.
And remember 1 Thess 5:24 that says,
“Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.”

Talking of original, I met one very “original” woman on board MH638 on Mothers’ Day from Changi Airport to Kuching International Airport. She has a couple of alphabets for originality.

The woman was seated one row in front of me. She has a classy look, probably in her late 40s/early 50s. She was in a T-shirt and a jeans – yet, she just looked very classy and professional. She started reading the moment she settled in her seat.

When the air-stewardess collected the tray after lunch, this classy woman opened the overhead compartment above her seat. Just as I thought, with my height, I could lend her a helping hand, she had already climbed on the seat and stood on the seat and began her searching for her bag!

She is indeed very original! I would never dare to do that in a plane!

I tried to be original too. I took a close watch of her for my own interest. I wanted to make sure that I have enough time to avoid falling objects on me! Clearly annoyed by my look, she stared back at me.

Indeed, very original!

Finally, she was done with her business. She sat down and began her reading.

“Ouch….” that was my original scream of pain. Also, very original, with no pretense. It was such pain on my injured knee.

The woman pushed the back of her seat so hard and so abruptly and so originally that it hit my knee. I am tall, my knees touch the back seat. A sudden and fast push hit hard on my knees.

She looked back – no expression, no apologies, and she was fast enough to continue her reading leaving me with the pain to manage.

Very, very original woman, indeed! I wonder whether she was reading “Don’t die a copy!”