Vignettes—An Introduction and Note to my Readers

I have always believed that the most important thing in my life is to leave a legacy, not just of material wealth, but of values, not just to my family but to all my readers, in Singapore and the world, for as long as my works are read. A huge ambition indeed!

And then something happened that gave this ambition new urgency and immediacy. In August 2009, I escaped a horrible death in the narrowest possible of escapes. I was waiting for a taxi by the roadside outside my condominium, to meet friends for dinner, when a sports car, rounding a corner, went out of control, spun crazily towards me, missed me by mere inches, and crashed into a tree beside me. Dazed, I picked myself up from the ground without a scratch.

Since then, in a near tragedy-turned-epiphany, I have been profoundly moved, both by the sheer good luck of it all, and the urge to waste no time in working on my intended legacy of values. They are simple values—of kindness, compassion, tolerance, a sense of humour, a zest for life, a passion for truth, goodness and beauty, and most of all, of always keeping faith with one’s beliefs and convictions, that is, of being one’s authentic self to the very end, warts and all!

And I will begin by sharing these values with you, the readers of my website, under the rubric of ‘Vignettes’. Since, in a less direct way, over the years, I must have conveyed similar values through my novels and short stories, this new endeavour, derived entirely from true experiences, may be said to be on a parallel track with my fiction.

I have written, and will continue to write, as long as I can, short, simple, from-the-heart articles and stories, based on a whole range of personal experiences, including recollections of my childhood and observations of current events in Singapore and the world. And they are exactly that and no more—personal reflections, with no pretensions whatsoever to any philosophical or literary purpose.

Indeed, they are little haphazard pieces, each standing on its own. They have no unifying, overarching theme, covering, instead, a wide diversity of unrelated topics, whether of religion or common superstitious beliefs, death or the amazing manifestations of the will to survive, scientific technology or the enduring power of traditions, human idealism or human faults, follies and foibles, all conveyed through simple musings and anecdotes.

They have no overall permeating mood, swinging, instead, from serious to light-hearted to playful, from gently admonitory to downright harsh and scathing, from wildly celebratory to unrelievedly gloomy. So one moment, I’m sharing with you my sobering thoughts on the meaning of life, and another I’m enthusing about the sheer pleasure of watching babies or eating a special home-cooked laksa or recollecting a most memorable romantic encounter!

In short, with the characteristic self-indulgence of a writer, I’ve given myself the widest possible ground for the free roaming of sense, mind, heart and spirit.

Despite its rather chaotic nature, I hope ‘Vignettes’ will have some interest for those of you who, like myself, continue to engage this very complex, often perplexing, but always fascinating thing called Life.

You will see a random excerpt of Vignettes each time you visit catherinelim.sg, or you may choose to read all available pieces using the links below.

1. Brebowathi's Hair
2. Happy Birthday, God
3. A Moral Quandary
4. MM's Admission Of His Mistake Re Mandarin Teaching In The Schools
5. Remembering Ah Kong Fondly
6. Swearing With Gusto
7. 'Why Don't You Get Into Politics?'
8. For All Mothers
9. 'Do You Love Me?'
10. My Favourite Word
11. With God At The Negotiating Table
12. People Who Need People
13. The Three Last Words
14. 'Are Your Characters Based On Real People?'
15. My Wonderful Ah Soh
16. The Littlest Things
17. Falling In Love---Regularly
18. The Ten Commandments Plus One Caveat
19. 'Please Advise Me; I'm At The End Of My Tether'
20. A Doggerel For A Diplomat
21. An Eternal Debt Of Gratitude
22. A Gastronomical Chauvinist
23. The Fork In Doreen's Road
24. The Obs Ob
25. Please, Pope, Say It's Not True
26. A Toast To Grandparenthood
27. A Shocking Case Of Taboo-Breaking
28. The Question
29. A Woman's Revenge
30. I Like Singlish
31. The Collector
32. A Much-Loved President
33. Oh, Those Annoyingly Contradictory Proverbs!
34. A New Feminism
35. A Most Awful Scenario
36. Great-Grandmother With Bound Feet
37. My Runaway Imagination
38. An Impossible Ideal?
39. The Thin Line
40. What Do Hugh Hefner And Mother Teresa Have In Common?
41. God And The Big Bang
42. The Best Advice
43. The Euthanasia Debate
44. 'Just Think Of How Far We Have Come!'
45. The Loveliest Love Poem
46. A Portrait Of My Mother
47. When A Child Dies
48. The Cabby's Complaint
49. A Techno-Bodoh In Singapore
50. A Climate Of Fear In Our Society?
51. Stan's Stunning Story
52. The War Of The Sexes And The Henpecked Husband
53. The Sincerest Form Of Flattery
54. 'Be Selfish, Yes, Be Very Selfish'
55. A Requiem For Myself
56. Feasting At A Smorgasbord Of Religious Goodies
57. No Greater Shame
58. Ghosts
59. An Intellectual Parlour Game
60. The Sheherazade Strategy
61. Lee Kuan Yew, Sui Generis
62. Regrets? Aplenty!
63. 'How Can You Like Him? He's Gay!'
64. The Other 5 Cs In Singapore
65. Adultery, By Any Other Name
66. Scorpion
67. Coping With The Guilt Of Abortion
68. That Something Called Nothing
69. Gotcha!
70. The Juggernaut Of Science
71. The 24-Hour 'Cooling Off' Period Before Polling Day: A Sign Of Pap Insecurity?
72. The Bugis Street Habitue
73. The Information Quandary
74. For All Aspiring Writers
75. Home, Sweet (And Sweetest) Home
76. That Cheating Game
77. The Wife
78. 'Why Should I Die For My Country?'
79. A Most Desirable Trait
80. An Inconvenient (And Ugly) Truth
81. Remembering Poor, Mad Ah Han
82. Touch
83. 'There, But For The Grace Of God, Go I'
84. The Laughable---And Likeable---Humsub
85. In Praise Of Filthy Lucre
86. A Good Woman In Singapore
87. God And Henry Ford
88. Managing One's Own Death
89. An Obscene Arithmetic
90. The Enduring Lure Of The Fortune-Teller
91. No Atheists In Foxholes
92. Thank You For The Example
93. The Dirtiest Words In The PAP Vocabulary
94. Wonderlust
95. My Favourite Person
96. That F Word
97. My Moral Advisory
98. The By-The-Way-Fiancee
99. God In A Parallel Universe
100. Is Singapore A Humorless Society?