Ian On The Red Dot

About three weeks ago, I started work at a new company. Every morning, I would have breakfast with my father before going to work.

One of the images etched in my memory that I associate with a young couple in love who have just started their marriage and family life together is that of my mom and dad kissing at the door of my HDB flat before my dad leaves the home to fight the battles at work to provide for the family.

Somehow, watching the scene in the movie 300 where Queen Gorgo tells Gerald Butler’s King Leonidas to ‘Come back with your shield or on it’ before he heads off to fight the Persians invoked that memory of my mom and dad at the door.

Each morning, when I am having breakfast, I will see young couples having breakfast together before heading to their respective offices. In the mundane activity of two people having a meal, I find something terribly romantic.

I am attracted to the image of two people working in harmony, like two dancers who have perfected their routine, to find seats and purchase their food; as they sit across each other nourishing their body, the space between their gazes filled with unspoken support and encouragement for what lies ahead; the joining of hands as they leave the table to work separately in their own jobs yet together towards a shared future filled with their hopes and dreams and the final, hesitant, almost regretful, unbonding of their fingers as they part at the junction.

In those moments when I look up from my cup of coffee and see such couples, my heart longs for the chance to create such memories of a young couple who have just started their marriage and family life together working towards a shared destiny.