To all my chinese friends, wishing you Gong Xi Fa Chai. If you were born in the year of the rabbit, you should be smart,articulate,talented, virtous and people may find you attractive, well, in what ever way…..so they say. How I wish I could be such.
In Malay mythology the rabbit is overly confident and arrogant. And at times suffers from superiority complex to the extent of looking down on his peers. As one Malay folkslore related how a running race between a rabbit and a tortoise ended in the tortoise as the winner. It was supposed to be no match at all. Upon starting ,the rabbit dashed passed the tortoise in a race that could see the latter beaten to ashes. But as arrogance swarmed, the rabbit upon seing the finishing line feets away, while the tortoise snailing hours away behind, decided to take a rest and subsequently dozed off.
However the tortoise realising his handicap, treaded on, persevered with consistent pace and never thought to win but determined to cross the finishing line. And as you may guessed the rabbit had overslept only to wake up to find the tortoise had already crossed the finishing line and won the race.
Though, it is just a folkslore and fun to read to the kids and seldom taken seriously, there are some moral bearings to reflect. How overconfidence and arrogance may oneday smacked one on the face. History had it how, earlier in the last century, as a result of over reliance and trust on the size and might had sunk and turned the Titanic into watery grave in the Atlantic ocean. There is no perfection in life more so guarantees for the future. Therefore my advice is not to be too confident in making judgements or decisions as an unexpected turn of events may spell disaster. Move on with care and deligence. While confidence helps, overconfidence sometimes kills.
Happy and prosperous New Year. Many good months ahead. Wassallam.
hanafimamat
