No absence of beauty..

Annie always remind me that "there is no absence of beauty, only lack of discovery". I thought about this phrase on my way to work and I find that in this digital and Internet age, a lot of people tend to forget to discover the beauty in something they have.

Let me give you an example. When I was young and poor, I tend to truly treasure a lot of my possessions: books, music cassettes, computer games and even small little things like a "lead" pencil. I love to read and love music. I would save money to buy something I like. Most of the times, the things I bought did not turn out as I expected - the book is written with difficult English; the songs is not to my taste or the computer games, which cost RM50 that time, turned out to be something that I was not used to playing. At that time, that's the only book, song and games that I have. Like it or not, I still have to read it, listen to the music or plough through the computer games. And as I forced myself to read/listen/play, I discover the beauty behind the writing; I get used to the rhythm of the song; and I discovered unexplored worlds in the games. The more I read, the more I love the style of writing. The phrase above struck a deep chord with me. There is no absence of beauty.. it's just me, myself, not discovering the beauty behind a creation, a novel, a piece of music, a gaming world.

Today, most teenagers or adults alike has easy and free access to music, movies, TV series, softcopy of books and games. They don't need to save money to get them. All they need is a bit torrent software and time to download these from the Internet. It's all free, right? Just fire up the software, go to sleep and the next day, you will get access to the music, movies and games. For fellow Malaysians, we could buy the whole TV series for maybe a few ringgits. Not a lot of money.

Because of these easy access, people tend to throw away something that they don't like. They forget to discover. How many times did you delete the song that you downloaded which you previewed for only 5 second and found that you didn't like it? Or how many times do you find yourself uninstalling a games or software that you only played/used for 5 minutes? Or fast forward a movie to the end just to see the ending and then throw the CD away? How many of us truly go through the ordeal of listening to a unfamiliar tunes or movies or books to discover the beauty inside it, as the artist, directors, authors meant it to be?

The next time you listen to a song and decide to press the "Next Track" button, remember the phrase above. We must always strive to discover the beauty behind a creation.. be it a song, book, movie or even LIFE itself!