QR Codes and Sexy Apples

QR codes are everywhere in Singapore. These two dimensional matrix barcodes are a quick way to get a lot of information about a product. It’s quick and so it should be, ‘QR’ is abbreviated from the words ‘Quick Response’ after all. I came across a QR code today at Changi Airport with the writing ‘Scan QR code to discover some of our best kept secrets’ written underneath it. This QR code promised to tell a story, to reveal a secret.

We’ve met a lot of people over the last few days in Singapore, people we hadn’t met before and probably never will. Like our taxi driver of Indian heritage who drove a taxi because his job allowed him to drive a car. Taxes imposed on private cars prohibited him from owning one, so he drove one for work.

Or the older businessman from Sydney by the hotel pool. He was a quietly spoken gentleman, but one could tell he was also lonely. He simply wanted a yarn and Minna provided a listening ear. You see, we all have a story to tell and perhaps even, like the QR code at Changi Airport, a secret or two to share.

The thing is, of course, that people don’t have QR codes we can scan in order for us to quickly download their stories. Getting to know someone and listening to their story takes a lot of time.

At times I can look at Minna sitting across the room and know exactly what she’s thinking. That’s one of the many joys of being married to her for the last 25-years. At times she still, however, surprises me with insights and experiences that I hadn’t heard before. Our stories are multifaceted and complex and it takes a lot of time to get to know another person.

So, we need to sit and listen to one another. This is another one of the pleasurable experiences of travelling. Often there’s plenty of time, whether at airports, train stations, or by the pool. At such places there are always people with stories to tell and insights to share.

Earlier today I admired massive reproductions of wood block prints by the late Singaporean artist Lim Mu Hue on the wall at Raffles City, depicting various aspects of theatre. Near the artwork there was a plaque with a quote from the artist himself: ‘Human life is a poem, it is an art in its truest form. It needs not any make up, or any acting. Its characters are constantly being renewed and the plots are ever changing and creating themselves.’

That’s what makes life interesting. The people we meet are far more interesting than the most intriguing characters in a play. And we are married to them and we work with them and we spend our Sunday mornings at Church with them. But in order to have Lim Mu Hue’s insight into people, we need to slow down, sit down and listen to someone’s story. It’s well worth it.

We need to do this, because we people are a funny lot. We often present to others a souped up version of ourselves, dressed in our Sunday best and with a smile to die for. It often takes time to get to know the real ‘us.’

We are a bit like the apples I saw for sale today in a Singaporean department store. Two apples, dressed in what could have passed for lace, in a see-through plastic container. Packaging overkill yes and at $8.99 just a tad overpriced. I guess it was an attempt at making apples look sexy. Take away the climate changing packaging and the wallet-breaking price tag, however, and what you are left with are two apples; two fruits that are just perfect as they are, without the lace and the packaging and especially the sky-high price.