Exploded Eggs

You’ve heard of fried, poached, hard-boiled, soft-boiled, half-boiled or scrambled eggs, but have you heard of exploded eggs? Probably not, but that’s what I had a couple of days ago. And it’s not something I want to have again.

Let me tell you my story. My intention was to hard-boil six eggs and I decided to do it rather late at night, so that I would have it handy the next morning. To avoid the eggs from cracking with the initial heat on the stove, I kept a really low flame to heat the water before letting it boil. The plan was all well and good – except that I forgot about the eggs and went off to sleep.

When I woke the next morning and went to the kitchen, there was this really strange odour and I kept thinking, “Something smells like it is burning.” Well, what do you think I discovered when I went to the stove and wanted to boil water for my morning coffee? You guessed it – exploded eggs! The low stove flame was still burning, the pot was crisp black inside and I had exploded six eggs on to the floor, on the stove top and plastered on the walls next to the stove!! My first reaction was to switch off the flame and profusely thank the Lord that the whole thing had not broken out in flames during the night. (Talk about God’s protection – how we take it for granted!)

What a sight – dark brown egg-white and yolk spewed all over the place together with egg shells splintered into a million pieces. What a start to my day. The cleaning took quite a while and I couldn’t get rid of the “eggy” smell. I rang my sister to tell her the story and she recommended “Febreze” which I thankfully had at home (great for removing odours; it’s supposed to be for clothes, but it did a wonderful job on my stove, floor and walls).

I was thinking later – there HAS to be an object lesson in this experience, other than the obvious one, not to forget what you leave cooking on your stove. Well, thankfully the flame was really low, so it took all night for the water to disappear and for the eggs to start burning. But that is precisely where the object lesson was, I thought. It’s never wise to have anger or resentment quietly seething within us. The “heat” may seem harmless, but it eventually eats into us and there comes a point when everything burns up and, yes, explodes. You know what I mean. Hmmmm… must remember my exploded eggs the next time I have issues to settle …. Great story for counselors and communication gurus to use, don’t you think?

Supremacy

Perhaps it was just inaccurate translation. Or perhaps there was no really suitable word found in English. But it really irked me. “Supremacy” was a word that was continually bandied around at certain political meetings, with speakers screaming out for the recognition of their so-called supremacy status. It was supposed to be the translation for “ketuanan.” I decided to look up the thesaurus and the words associated with or explaining “supremacy” gave me no comfort either. It included ‘preeminence, primacy, superiority, domination, incomparability, hegemony and dominance.’ It also suggested words like – reign, rule, authority, power and control.’ To crown it all – the antonym was stated as “inferior!” So now, that begs a question – the rest of us are inferior?

No, it is not acceptable at all. Every man and woman is created in the image of God and there is a brotherhood of man that needs to be embraced. It’s a mindset and value that needs to be learned and taught to our children. Life on planet Earth requires a respect for one another that accepts the differences and celebrates the sameness. It’s our duty as fellow humans to see each other as God sees us. Sure, we may fail every now and then, but it’s a goal we need to work at. Together.

I may be reminded that our (Malaysian) Constitution provides for “special privileges,” but lets get this straight – that special privileges is just that, it is NOT supremacy. My feeling is that generally, the average man in the street has no great demands for supremacy and wants to just carry on his life in harmony with and respect for others. To be God-fearing would be to recognize that fact. Unfortunately, self-serving, ambitious politicians use any means to gain ground. The cry for supremacy creates a great divide and is that what we want? Let us be careful with the words we use. God’s call to us is to “love one another” as He has loved us. Who is supreme but He!