boundaries

in the military where i spend a large part of my life, we were often reminded about the need to be clear about our physical boundaries. it's about space management, about rules, about exertion of rights, about sovereignty, etc. and we can be really anal about it. all the way down basics of who covers which side of the road. and as an instructor that trains mid-management senior officers in military tactics, simple questions such as "does this side of the road belong to you or your sister unit?" often throw my trainees off whenever we go into details of area management. after all, as senior officers, there is a tendency to want to focus on strategies and tactics rather than mundane tactical-level issues of area management and boundaries right? haha.

anyway, i want use this space not to talk about military men. instead, i want to simply capture what i observed over the last 2 days. and laugh about it. and certainly, they are directly related to the concept of boundaries, areas of responsibilities and how we need to manage this in real non-military life. here're the stories.

i was on leave 2 days ago and decided to take a walk at the beach in the morning. there was a hawker center and rubbish was strewn all over the floor. i supposed these were the aftermath left over by the crowd the night before. i noticed an uncle (presumably a china chinese from the way he dressed and his mannerism) was using a power water jet to clean the floor. and from what i could see, what he did was simply to use the water blasting out of his jet to blow the rubbish out if the hawker center onto the grass patch. he didn't seem too bothered about the rubbish being on the grass patch but took great pains and conscientiously make every effort to ensure no rubbish was left on the hawker center floor. hmmm...

fast forward. this morning as i was walking to work, i chanced upon a cleaner uncle who was sweeping the walking path. again, uncle was very "on the ball" and took care to sweep everything you can find on the walking path - leaves, flowers, tissue paper, rubbish, what have yous - off the path. thing was - he swept them into the grassy areas. and as i could not see any bins, dust pan, etc that would allow him to collect and dispose of the stuff he swept, i could only assumed that his focus was to clear the path and left whatever he cleared on the grass patch... and again, hmmm...

two different incidents. conceptually the same. both men were doing what they were doing, very conscientiously and very diligently. but... and  you cannot fault them for not doing their work.  hahahha...