How relevant are you actually?

We don't get what we want. We can't make the difference that we thought we could make. So we pack up and move on to other places.

Everyone does it - hobbyists, professionals, politicians. How many jobs have you changed?

Some say people hop for the money. Yes, and whether its money or high positions, its all about relevance. Money makes you relevant - especially to your dependents. You earn money, buy food, feed the family, and you're relevant. No relevance means you're just baggage, good for nothing. Money's just a means to an end.

Relevance leads to feelings of self-importance. Self-importance feeds the ego. Sometimes its harmless, like the thought that if I don't provide for my family, they will suffer. Nothing wrong with that. You are just acknowledging the fact that you have dependents. From that you develop a sense of responsibility.

However its the one we all know too well that's to fear. Relevance that panders to flattery and self-aggrandizement. It springs from jealousy if you come from underpriviledged backgrounds, and from the habit of excess if you come from privileged backgrounds. In my village we talk about the "OKB syndrome." OKB stands for Orang Kaya Baru or the nouveau riche, someone who has recently acquired riches, often unexpectedly, and suddenly demands respect from his neighbours only because he now has a bigger car or a conferred title. You may have called him Mat for a dozen years and now he can curtly tell you, "Excuse me, its Datuk Ahmad."

And with that, he pumps more air into his relevance balloon and develops new fears that it may go unnoticed. Like magic, he now has baggage he never had to carry before.

A lot of people dedicate their whole lives chasing after wealth and position, only to drag around a heap of new baggage as they struggle to satisfy their exaggerated sense of relevance.

That's the world. Some people are destined for bigness. Some are destined for smallness. As a renunciate, I think I am destined for smallness. To put it bluntly, irrelevance. That's fine. I'm just passing through, appreciating the scenery of life, and trying not to be overly attached to it.

I think life is like good coffee. If we could only have one cup in our life, only when its savoured without all the cream, sugar and the obligatory biscotti will we have truly known what good coffee is.