Divine discontent and counting blessings

"What I would like to have is that we be blessed with a divine discontent. Always not quite satisfied with what we have, always driven to do better," Lee Hsien Loong said at his National Day Rally speech earlier last week.

J and M know this feeling well. Not only are they driven, they put themselves on tough roads and make their journeys well.

"At the same time" the PM added, "that we have the wisdom to count our blessings, so that we know how precious Singapore is, and we know how to enjoy it and to protect it."

Last week has been a truly happy week for us. It started with M's getting Academic Excellence award at her Founders Day. She also got citations for her leadership contributions as the vice chair of the school's Peer Support Board and her sporting achievements in softball at the school and national level. 

Then, we had an awesome joint birthday party with her grandpa: FM 75.16, we dubbed it. Her friends showed up in force. They composed a song specially for her. J organised party games, and toasted her. D did everything else. Friends mean a lot to her, and she means a lot to them.

Grandpa F is 75 and hard of hearing nowadays. Still I am so glad he still had enough amplification in his hearing aid to hear his big brother M's touching and funny speech. Later the weekend, I even managed to get him into the pool to do some Aqua-Walking, an activity he continued to do in Malacca, that really gladdened my heart.

Then, of course, J got conferred the President scholarship. He deserves it, and yet he has not become big headed about it. As Mrs Tan wisely said to him, in front of us, "it's just the start."

Photo from President Tony Tan's Facebook 

It's a new journey for him now. Well, beginning right now with a 9-day exercise in the Brunei jungles, on a 2-day ration, and a third of that all alone. It will test him and it will grow him, no doubt.

M will shortly be on a new journey too. She will soon be concluding her penultimate term in secondary school, and just as 2015 was a big finish for her, 2016 will be as well.

Then, as only He can, the reading at Mass last weekend was from the book of Ecclesiastes. A book of wisdom that is so wise it mocks wisdom, human wisdom that is. 

The happy week has been experienced. New journeys has started. And may we continue to be blessed with divine discontent. And every now and then, when contentment happens, we count them. 

Goodbye, GOATs

Though an avid reader, I couldn't say I've read Goethe, the German literary legend. I did watch a biopic on him (on a recent Saudia flight) so can appreciate this great man's poetry. That said, I am not a big fan of poetry. I would however count myself a sports fan. I could watch most sports competitions. I could watch most sports movies and of course enjoy reading sports stories, esp that penned by one of my favourite columnist, Rohit Brijnath at the Straits Times, who started his column with Goethe, as the Rio Olympics got underway earlier this month.

"If Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the great German writer, had arrived in Rio for one last look at Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt, he might have felt moved to write a celebratory poem. Goethe, after all, wrote that "I love those who yearn for the impossible" and in spikes and Speedos, over somewhat similar distances of the 100m and 200m, the long-legged Jamaican and long-armed American have repeatedly and lyrically done just that.

Goethe wrote one of his finest poems in his 70s and as these relatively sporting geriatrics exit the Games they, too, are ambitious even if ancient. Phelps is 31 years, five Olympics and 18 golds old; Bolt is a 29-year-old, four-Games, six-gold relic. Together they have more gold than Brazil has collected in 21 Games. It makes you think that if the German writer's works were often set to music, then these men will probably be set in stone and steel. In fact in Germany, years ago, a statue of Bolt emerged which was impossibly impressive: It was made of iron bolts.

For the Jamaican and American this word, impossible, has long been a familiar friend. Impossible, they first said, it was for a man so tall to run so fast. Impossible, we thought, as Phelps whipped himself on the blocks with his own arms. Impossible, they claimed, that a man could win the 100m by a margin so delightfully vulgar. Impossible, we insisted, that a human could even consider eight golds at a single Games.

Now we have to bid farewell to all this, now is the goodbye Games, now is the final look at Bolt sauntering and grinning and exploding, now is a last glimpse at Phelps pounding the water in triumph. Now is everyone's chance to watch these swan-song swims and these so-long sprints on "live" TV. If Singapore doesn't get to see them it will be impossibly annoying.

But the world is in the mood already. In recent days the New Yorker has offered us a lively piece titled How Fast Would Usain Bolt Run The Mile? and soon we will ask how quickly Phelps could swim to Cuba. There is nothing, after all, we believe they cannot do because they have proved there is nothing they will not do.

It took 13 years for Asafa Powell, Justin Gatlin, Tim Montgomery, Maurice Greene, Donovan Bailey and Leroy Burrell to lower the 100m world record by .11 of a second. Then Bolt did all that in a single race. Phelps' feats flirted equally with the impossible: He broke both the 200m butterfly world record and the 400m individual medley world record eight times each. How great they have been will only be fully understood when they have gone.

If they represent the best of land, and water, then Lin Dan, Kohei Uchimura and Wu Minxia have for a while been the artists of the air. At 32, the levitating Chinese badminton star is chasing his third Olympic gold; at 27, the Japanese gymnast who returns to land only after powerful aerial ballets is chasing a second all-around gold; at 30, the Chinese diver has won gold every year since 2004, a case of perfect harmony from a synchronised diver.

They won cleanly, coolly and captivatingly, both of them amiable evangelists who brought us closer to perfection and restored respect to the Games even as they provoked argument. Phelps could swim multiple events, Bolt was a sprinter with only two individual events. Who was greater?

"He is not a human being," said Uchimura's coach once and we understand, for such precise elegance is alien to most athletes. The Japanese star will probably stay till the next Games for they are in Tokyo, but as Lin and Wu say ciao in Chinese, entire eras of sporting greatness will come to a close.

Yet for all their appeal this is still the Phelps & Bolt Show. They won cleanly, coolly and captivatingly, both of them amiable evangelists who brought us closer to perfection and restored respect to the Games even as they provoked argument. Phelps could swim multiple events, Bolt was a sprinter with only two individual events. Who was greater? Could six golds on land equal 18 in water? Separating them is still the most impossible of feats.

Phelps kept taking breaks but returned as if he could not adjust to land. Bolt never quit because standing still seemed sinful. They kept going, swimming and running, as if they are terrified they will quit without having completely explored their talent. They kept going because they are swimming and running, they set the limits in their sports, they decided what is possible for them and thus impossible for others.

They are not as fast as they were for neither has broken an individual world record since 2009 and yet they are fast enough when it matters. In short, they know how to race, to summon talent, to gather it, to own a moment.

Phelps' training for the 2012 Olympics was "a joke" and yet he won two individual golds. Bolt's body was disobedient and yet Justin Gatlin could not beat him at the world championships last year. They cannot precisely tell you how they won but only that they just know how to win.

As evening sets on their careers, there will be mourning. Yet there remains something audacious and refreshing about these ageing, beaten-up athletes who did not take the safe way out: They did not go out on top but came back to discover how far that top could be stretched. It is possible, of course, that they might lose in Rio, but it will be impossible to ever say these men have failed."

Photo credit: Getty Images

Phelps concluded his participation this Olympics (his fifth) with yet another gold, his 23rd. Fittingly, it's won with his teammates in the 4x100m medley relay, an Olympic event the US team has never lost in. RIght after that, Bolt open his Rio account with an unprecedented 3rd Gold in the blue ribbon men track event, the 100m sprint. He will probably win a couple more before the track events conclude.

Photo credit: Getty Images

Both will likely bow out after these, and we are lucky to have enjoyed them these past two decades.

Life when lived in pursuit of a higher goal, exceeding oneself, for the betterment of humanity, becomes truly worth living. When that happens the accolade, Greatest Of All Time, are bestowed. I think two athletes have done enough to be called GOATs.

Strange bedfellows: Ibrahimovic, Mourinho and United

I had supported this club before I even turned 10. There were champions before but in the 70s, United was largely a cup side until they found Ferguson who took them on a winning streak that lasted over two decades and over 40 trophies. Within that time, he built three maybe four champion teams. Inevitably he retired, twice in fact. The second time for good, and finding his successor was thought to be an impossible task. It turned out to be so in reality. I had hoped for Guardiola, the only manager that I felt truly bested him not just in match victories but in how they won. But instead they settled for Moyes, who was an adequate manager who coached an average seat to finish in the top ten each year in the Premier League. He did exactly the same to a champion team! United finished a mere 7th. Talk about the manager leading a team to his level. So he left because we set our sights higher. Then came van Gaal, a champion manager. He was never quite liked anywhere he managed despite delivering results. It was the same here in this club. He delivered the FA cup, but was let go, to be replaced by Mourinho a coach I never liked for his style of play of his teams but I do respect his track record of winning. Then he brought in Ibrahimovic whom I have never really seen play but knew he was good but had an ego to match, and that may destroy the team spirit. Then again, we had Cantona who without a doubt Ferguson built his first champion team around. 

So with all these thoughts swirling in my head, I watched the first Mourinho-led United play a premier league match. In the first half, they played like a Mourinho team. Tight, boring and looking to not let in any goals and hopefully win by that one odd goal. They did score that one goal. Mata (not Mourinho's favoured one) ironically did him the favour, out of a lucky rebound from poor defending. 

Then they began to play in the second half. Rooney scored with a difficult header. And Zlatan scorched one from outside the box. Until then, I was already quite impressed with his contribution; he played like a gladiator, no a martial artist, esp in his fearless physicality and attractive back flicks.

We won the game 3-1. Mourinho's first Premier League victory for the club. Zlatan opening his EPL account in style. And we begin the 16-17 season at the top of the table. Not a bad start, at all.

Pragmatism, persistence, passion

The following article appeared on Asia One. Understandably, lots of column inches on and offline are being dedicated to Jospeh Schooling and his historic win. I shared one on my Facebook post, "  No one could have scripted this better: a first gold for the nation, in Olympic Record time, besting the legend Phelps who himself was on a quest to be the 1st man ever to win four consecutive Olympic gold in this event and last but not least, doing it in a intensely competitive pool where the second placed couldn't be split apart. Well done!    ". This story below tells of how pragmatic planning, persistence and passion mounded a precocious and precious talent into a world beater. Many parallels to draw from.....

RIO DE JANEIRO - Joseph Schooling was just 13 years old when he first met his idol Michael Phelps, but was already hatching the plans that led to one of the greatest boilovers in Olympic swimming history.

Neither Schooling or Phelps knew it at the time, but that brief encounter helped inspire Schooling to not only win Singapore's first Olympic gold medal but also slay his childhood hero in his final individual race, the 100 metres butterfly, at Rio on Friday.

Schooling was already Singapore's best age-group swimmer with ambitions to represent his country, but his goals suddenly changed in 2008 after he met Phelps, who was in the tiny city-state attending a US training camp before the Beijing Olympics, posing for a photo with him.

Photo credit: Reuters 

By the time Phelps had finished re-writing the records books in China, Schooling's mind was already made up. He too wanted to be an Olympic champion, but to do that, he knew he had to leave home.

His parents contacted Sergio Lopez, who won a bronze medal for Spain in breaststroke at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, but was making a name for himself as a master coach.

Schooling moved to Florida to train and live at the Bolles School, where Lopez had just been appointed head coach, and they got to work straight away.

Lopez adopted a patient approach with Schooling, resisting the temptation to get him in the gym to build more muscle, focussing instead on his technique to allow his body to grow naturally.

By 2011, Schooling was starting to make a name for himself. He won two gold medals at the Southeast Games in Indonesia and qualified for the London Olympics in the 200 metres butterfly, but didn't make it past the preliminaries.

Schooling was faced with a dilemma in 2013 after his finished high school. He had been offered a scholarship at the University of Texas to train under Eddie Reese but had also been enlisted to start two years of National Service, a statutory requirement for all Singaporean men.

The Singapore Sports Institute asked that Schooling be allowed to defer his service for three years in order to prepare for the Rio Olympics and the ministry agreed.

"They listened to what we had to say, that he was a special talent and these people don't grow on trees. They're once in a lifetime, particularly in small nations," Sport Singapore's head of high performance Richard Gordon told AFP.

"One of the unique features of Singapore is National Service and if there's one thing that we're very proud of is to give him the opportunity to keep swimming."

That decision paid off. With Lopez having laid the groundwork, Reese began to apply the polish as Schooling grew and matured, training and racing against the world's best in relative anonymity.

He was already a sporting celebrity in Singapore but by remaining in the US, Schooling was also spared the daily scrutiny most sports stars experience, rather than living life in a fishbowl.

He won a silver medal in the 100m butterfly at the 2014 Commonwealth Games then became the first Singaporean man in 32 years to win a gold medal in swimming at the Asian Games in South Korea.

In 2015, he showed that he was going to be a medal contender for Rio when he finished third at the world championships in Russia, albeit with Phelps absent.

No Singaporean had ever won an Olympic medal in swimming so Schooling's bid captured the imagination of the whole country.

Already an economic powerhouse with one of the world's best education systems, the Singaporean government has begun investing heavily in sports and knows the impact Schooling's win will have on nation.

"Winning isn't everything but it does have a galvanising impact and it inspires and that's important," the President of the Singaporean National Olympic Committee Tan Chuan-Jin told AFP.

"The ecosystem is important because no athlete can succeed without it. And at this high level, it's not just working hard, it's also working smart."

The Singaporean President Tony Tan flew to Rio to sit poolside when Schooling won the gold medal in front of a global audience which had expected to see Phelps win his last race but instead witnessed one of the biggest sporting upsets ever and Singapore"s greatest sporting moment.

"People talk about the Kennedy moment when Kennedy was shot," Gordon said.

"This isn't as tragic as that but this is Singapore's Kennedy moment, where people will remember when Joseph Schooling won gold at the Olympics.

"Now the focus will be on Joseph Schooling and how did Singapore do it."

Intensely magnificent

The circle of life is an incredible phenomenon. I think J was 13 when he could outrun me. M is not yet 16 and she's now outrunning me as well. It's nature's way of letting us know that we've done well, raising kids who are now faster, stronger than us. 

Beyond having her as my regular running mate this year, I've also had the pleasure of chatting with M on our drives. I feel somehow we always end up discussing something profound. Something about the circumstances, her attentiveness, her interpretation of my ideas that allow us to conclude most conversation with a message of note. 

Just last weekend, we spoke about how all it took was '20 seconds of courage' for one to commit to a difficult even seemingly impossible task. But once the courageous decision has been taken, the journey has started and one has to finish it. M knows this well. As a toddler just 3 years old, she resolved to toddle her way back from her play school like her other schoolmates. One step out of the school, and her journey has started and one that is completed with determination, and I'd add magnificently so, especially with her studies and softball at both school and national levels no less!

Her brother is on his own journey as well. He has chosen intense paths, in scouting and now in the Singapore Armed Froces and one that is endorsed by no less than the powers of the land.

D and I do count our blessings that not only have our kids physically surpassed us, they have also been enabled, endowed and encouraged to exceed us as they do the right things. It's right, isn't it? That the apprentices should exceed their masters; most recently, it's obtaining excellent awards on their school Founders Day. In the end, it's all because these young ones of ours had the courage to start on a purposeful journey, however intense, and to finish it. And when done well, the outcome is, well, magnificent. The key though is always to have the courage to start and the determination to see it through.