A good man

My mother said to me, 'If you are a soldier, you will become a general. If you are a monk, you will become the Pope.' Instead, I was a painter, and became Picasso.

We knew that J wasn't going to be a Picasso, nor a Mozart. 

Grandma C, who is a keen observer of life, surmised his gifts well ; she said, "J is a good fast learner and gives his all, applying his learnings". We are glad to have helped him grow into this passionate young man. From the time he was a wee boy, we had indulged his interests. We gave him great latitude and even encouraged him to go to extraordinary lengths, be this in collecting bugs and Pokemon cards, or even his initial penchant for the colour green. As he grew, these pursuits also became more meaningful: scouting, his faith, his sense of community service. 

So, God didn't bless him with artistic genius. He gave J much more; His gift to J was to ground him in doing good well, and D is very much the instrument of all these grounding.

We all know that the Military, especially a good one, is a formidable Organisation aimed at training men such that they can be mobilized to perform heroic acts to fulfill an ultimate purpose. Both Alexander the Great and Napoleon Bonaparte are quoted as saying they fear an enemy and in turn prefer their own army to be sheep led by a lion rather than lions led by sheep.

So the tradition of becoming a soldier is far more than the training to be operationally ready. Though that is what J has just completed. The larger agenda must be to find the lions amongst these soldiers who can lead, lead with courage, with integrity and with purpose. I was told by the officer in command that they evaluate the recruits on many dimensions (including peer review) and they name the best recruit. J was named the Top Recruit in his company. I can understand why being a soldier suits him. Physical training is like his fitness routine. Field camp is like an adventure. And looking after his fellow section mates comes naturally. 

As one of the 13 best recruits, he led the BMT roar for the nearly 4000 new soldiers at the floating parade square today, in the presence of his grandparents, parents, sister and friends. 

The BMTC school motto is to transform boys into men. My boy has indeed become a good man.