2024-07-31 at

aging and the origins of behaviour

I recently helped my dad with some chores. He's close to 80, and still driving and flying around doing religious organisational work. I wonder if he's slowed down over the years, or if I just got ridiculously competent in comparison. Ah, the folly of youth.

It dawned on me that I took after my grandfather, whom I have never met. The reason appears to be thus. Granddad was a soldier in the KMT, and a disciplinarian ... at some point they say, he ran most of GuangDong's administration. So, granddad heavily disciplined his kids, causing all manner of anxiety-related issues among them. Most of them entered Christian ministry as a vocation - I am not sure if that is directly related, but we do know the kids got Christianity from the British schools that granddad sent them to, when granddad worked as a consultant for the British in Malaya, weeding out the commies. ( Chinese schools = more commies. )

Anyway, so my generation was raised as first-generation-natural-born Malaysians, by anxious first-generation-immigrant Malaysians. I guess over time I just figured out that one way to manage anxious people is, to assert an authoritative stance towards them.

It is very interesting how this became an early skill for me, part of what propelled me into leadership positions in school and life after school.

Now I am 41. I wonder how foolish I will be in my seventies, if I arrive then.

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