If you have Nothing to Say, just Shuddup.

“A wise man fears and departs from evil;
But a full rages and is self-confident.”

“Wisdom sits quietly in the heart of him who has understanding;
But what is in the heart of fools is made known.”

Proverbs

So Jordan and I were having this conversation the week before Commencement. I was telling her about my trip to Switzerland last year, with Eugene. Now, I really wanted to go and see Switzerland, legendary country which has done Everything Right and is Racially Harmonious and has Traveling Youngsters and Community Service and Nice Mountains and all that. Well, actually it was between Switzerland and Sweden, because Sweden developed Democracy over a span of 200 years with gradual accumulation and is one of the best places to live in in the world today.

So at the time, Eugene and I flipped a coin to see if we were going to Switzerland or Sweden. The lot fell on Sweden. But then we kept looking up flights and Switzerland was cheaper. So we went to Switzerland. I wasn’t sure if my mum would take kindly to me traveling alone with a guy, even though he was just a friend, so I decided I would present it as a fait accompli after the fact, so that she would a) know, and b) not worry. However, I decided to tell my dad, so at least one of them would know where I was.

Jordan said, wisely, “You know the Bible doesn’t just tell you not to say false things, right? Deception is also a sin.”

I thought about this. “You’re right. Cos lying by omission is as bad as telling a lie. It has the same effect.”

So, actually, if I had told my mother categorically, “I am not going to Switzerland,” then I would be lying. But she would believe the same thing as if I didn’t tell her I was going to Switzerland, if I was indeed going to Switzerland.

So I did lie.

Anyway, as it turns out, the first day I am in Switzerland I get a rather mysterious email from my dad that my mum “found out” that I was in Switzerland (I wonder how that happened, Dad…………) and was OK with it as long as I was safe. And for the rest of the trip I felt a lot less guilty.

In Switzerland I met a very interesting Singaporean man who had moved to the Alps. “Why the Alps?” I asked.

“Well, look outside your window. Isn’t it beautiful? I wanted to live closer to God, very close to the sky.”