Standing Women Pledge

Michelle challenged me to stand for something based on this pledge below.

Last May hundreds of thousands of women and girls, along with the men and boys they love, in 75 countries and on all continents of the world stood together in parks, on beaches, in churches, at graduation ceremonies, in their backyards and at school yards or anyplace they could find to stand in a global wave of humanity in support of a better world for our children.

We invite women and their families everywhere to take this "stand" with us again, on May 11 at 1 p.m. local time for just 5 minutes, to rekindle the world with our common vision.

We stand for the world's children and grandchildren, and for the seven generations beyond them.
We dream of a world where all of our children have safe drinking water, clean air to breathe, and enough food to eat.
A world where they have access to a basic education to develop their minds and healthcare to nurture their growing bodies.
A world where they have a warm, safe and loving place to call home. A world where they don't live in fear of violence-in their home, in their neighborhood, in their school or in their world.
This is the world of which we dream.
This is the cause for which we stand.

To learn more and register your standing, go to the Standing Women website at http://www.standingwomen.org/

What do I stand for?

I stand for the people who suffer from prejudice and bullies' attacks. I stand for the kids who aren't accepted for who they are because they're "different". I stand for people who feel oppressed by the societies' standards who feel forced not to follow their own hearts' callings or their conscience. I stand for the spirit of love, of giving people a chance, of realizing that we're all somehow connected in this big big world.

Meant To Be?

One of the stories that often happened in the past (read: during my grandmother's generation and sometimes even during my generation) was a forced breakup of a couple since the parents disapprove of the relationship. There may be numerous reasons as to why the parents did that. Some of the reasons may be reasonable, some may not. Let me tell you a romantic story of my Mom's uncle.

When he was young, he fell in love with a neighbour girl. Unfortunately, the neighbour was a native Indonesian and his traditional Chinese parents forbid him to have anything to do with her. Then then introduced him to a girl and they eventually got married. Decades went by...the neighbour girl got married, as well, and had plenty of kids and grandkids.

I don't remember anymore whether my Mom's uncle got a divorce or his wife died, but in the end he met the neighbour girl again and found out that they still loved each other. They ended up being together once more in their old age...how romantic is that? ;-D

I don't know whether they got married or they just lived together, but the story proved to me that if some people are really meant to be, no matter how long it takes for them to be together and no matter how many obstacles they have to face to be together, they'll end up together anyway! I can just imagine how happy they must've been that they finally got a chance to be together again, even after their skin had wrinkled!!! ;-D

I also have a sad story about a forced breakup that happened recently. A friend of mine has an elder brother and this guy had been seeing a girl for years. However, the girl's parents disagreed to her choice. Last time I heard from my friend, the girl had been married off to a guy. She tried escaping from the arranged marriage, but I guess in the end she didn't have any more choice.

I think parents sometimes have valid reasons for not approving their kids' choice of spouses, but sometimes they can be wrong. After all, they're only humans and sometimes they dislike their kids' spouses merely due to personal reasons or even prejudices. All in all, I'm glad that my parents approved of my choice of spouse and they supported me wholeheartedly. ;-D