Humbly Proud

Yesterday, one of my kids made my eyes moist.

No, no, no. He didn't make me sad. But humbly proud.

Humbly proud? That's an odd combination. How can one be humbled but proud at the same time?

Yesterday was Pasar Malam night. And we decided to bring both of them out.

To prepare them for the trip, I gave each RM5. They can buy whatever they want.

But before we go further into the story, let me tell you about my kids.

The first is G. He's mildly hyperactive. He had only started to learn speaking at 5 or 6. And he prefers speaking in English.

At school, he has difficulties making friends because he's frequently in hyper-mode. His social skills aren't really there yet as he finds it difficult to differentiate what is right and what is wrong. And he loves to make experiment, which unfortunately resulted him being not easy to make friends with. Some even took opportunity to bully him.

Some of his behaviours would be seen as disruptive and troublemaker. Once, a teacher caught him knocking several teachers' cars with his plastic food container to learn the hardness of the cars.

The second is J. Not going to talk much about J as the story is more of G. But he loves his brother even though he loves to irritate him.

As we reached the Pasar Malam, a beggar was laying down on the street, pretty much blocking the way. The traders didn't really trouble him because he is likely to be in hire of a local gang eager to milk off Malaysians' soft hearts.

Before I get to say anything, G took out a note, RM1 and dropped it into the bag that the disabled beggar was using as his collecting bag. As I saw him doing it, although I had tried to stop him, my eyes actually moisten.

I was proud, because he was not selfish. I was humbled because he was willing to help those that I had trouble helping.

Maybe one day, when he is older, when he understands the world better, I will let him know of the darker side of humanity. But until then, allow me to be proud and yet humbled of him.

Note:
While J didn't give the beggar anything, it was not because of him being selfish, but I gave him a piece of RM5. Maybe I will give him a separate test on that in the future.