In the END.....is it OKAY??

When I visited Penang Hill in March 9th & 10th 2007, to conduct a Bucky Workshop Session at Datuk Seri Lim Chong Keat’s Bellevue Hotel, my customer and friend Mary and her husband Chris invited us (Vasu and I) to her house at Batu Ferringhi. What caught our attention, was this phrase written on a whiteboard in her home for her 3 precocious and musically inclined daughters.
“In the END, IT’S OK .....
If it’s NOT OK, it’s NOT THE END.”

We like it very much. It’s struck a chord with us.

Perhap, I intuitively felt that it goes well with this story by Anthony De Mello, shared by him in his book Awareness entitled “Good Luck or Bad Luck, who knows?”

Well it’s the story of the Chinese Village Farmer.
Do you know this story?

A village farmer lost his horse. It ran away, when the barn door wasn’t closed properly.
The neighbors pitied him. “Bad luck.” Now he had no horse to help him in his farm work.
Well, as it turned out, a couple of days later, the horse came back, and attracted a strong young stallion back with it. “Lucky chap” the neighbors said.
His only son, trying to train the new found horse for work, tried to ride it. The horse being wild, bucked and threw him off. He fell badly and broke his leg.
Poor fellow, “Bad luck” once again “now the son can’t help with the farm chores”, said the neighbors.
The following day, the Emperor’s Imperial army marched into the village and rounded out all the able young men for military service. Seeing the farmers’ son with his leg broken, they excused him.
“Lucky chap” the neighbors said.

“Good luck or bad luck, Who knows?” the farmer thought.

"What is good luck seem to be bad. What can be bad luck turned out to be good."

Now I would add that “In the End it’s okay. If it not okay, it not the end.”

This reminded me or our Bucky group recent visit to Penang Hill (July 13th to 15th) for the event to billed as "Tribute to Buckminster Fuller" organized by Datuk Lim Chong Keat, and his staff.

But first I want to thank the Bucky Group members and friends who came along to support the event, and they took it very well despite the “little” challenges. How so?

Firstly, there were some chaos on our arrival, at Penang, in the morning. After some commotion to arrange the transport to Peggy’s uncle farm for their world famous durians, we made it. (Found out the location of the place, after figuring out his phone number, got several taxis and finally got there. Some members were getting impatient) Phew!

Lesson learnt? A good case of experiencing the order out of the chaos.

“NOT OK? IT”S NOT THE END!

Next it was "finding" our way to Penang hill. Our taxi driver friend was more interested in taking us for sight-seeing which we’re NOT interested. After some to-ing and fro-ing, we made it.

Here’s come the kicker: Accommodation-wise we were given a “campy” bungalow almost as bare as Old Mother Hubbard’s cupboard. Spartan, save the beds to sleep on! Location? The boondocks! 45 minutes walk. Bad luck?

Hmmm. . . if not for this location we would not have done the scenic long walk. We’d be too lazy to do so, to work off the many meals we seemed to be eating. Not a bad thing really. And the Bucky group were well trained for this, hiking MacRitchie Reservoir on sundays, etc. Good luck?

So, after one night at the "campy" bungalow, and some feedback, the kind lady at Bellevue took intitatives and made accommodation available for us at Bellevue instead.

3 rooms available? The ladies grabbed them all.

Bad luck to the guys?
As it turned out we’re later had room no 1. Five of us shared Bucky’s room

Food-wise, it was a case of bad luck, good luck again. Our meals got better by the moment.

Despite some murmurings, the Bucky group and friends were restrained and gracious. My heartfelt gratefulness you all.

Our Penang host and friends were profusely apologizing for their short-comings. It was a big event. They were coping their best under the weight. Like Dr. Ong Hean Tee.

Most importantly we enjoy the weather, it coolness, the mist wafting and caressing our faces.
Most importantly we enjoyed the tea and scones, at the English country manor.
Most importantly we’ve made new friends, the staff of Bellevue, who did their best to make our stay memorable.
Most importantly we had several good session with Medard Gabel.
Most importantly we learnt that good luck or bad luck, who knows?
It’s how we take it,
So IN THE END, IT’S OK. . . . . . . .IF IT’S NOT OK, IT’S NOT THE END