One week ago I blogged about “Life is like a cup of coffee”. Go and read it before you read further…..
Why this title?
So why this blog is titled “Life is a like a box of chocolates”?
Here is how the story goes. Last Monday, I posted the following in my Facebook wall:
TehTarikKaki (me):“Mentally very very tired. Monday blues…just half a day gone already so stressful. “Hopefully less stressful” in next days and weeks.”
KY (one of my FB friend):”I thought life is like a box of chocolate?”
TehTarikKaki (me):“chocolate? yeah, sweet and sticky and got stuck in every lubangs (spaces) in between my teeth. I need a kopi o now kau kau one (black strong coffee). Teh tarik kurang manis also ok”
I did some research on the phrase “life is like a box of chocolates” which I heard many times but the actual meaning was not fully understood. So what does “life is like a box of chocolates” means?
Forrest Gump
This famous quote actually came from a 1994 award winning movie “Forrest Gump” which was starred by Tom Hanks. The line as spoken by Forrest Gump, reads in the script as follows:
“I could eat about a million and a half of these. My momma always said, ‘Life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.'”
The most common interpretations of this phrase are:
- A box of chocolates contains many different flavours that you normally couldn’t identify unless it is specified in the label. If chosen randomly, you don’t know what flavour you are going to get. Thus, like life, your choice of chocolates could bring surprising results
- You will never know what you are going to get in life
- Life is like a box of chocolates – full of nuts!
- This means that there is always something new and a lot of it
Do you agree with this interpretation? Actually I am quite agreeable with the above interpretation. My notion is life is like a cup of coffee, you need to embrace it fully and it is also like a box of chocolates, it is full of surprises or uncertainties.
What did my Facebook friends say?
Few days ago, I posted the following in my wall in Facebook:
TehTarikKaki (me): ”Life Is like a Box of Chocolates… You Never Know What You’re Gonna Get! Agreed? Yes or No? LIKE?”
Many LIKEd the post and I received 5 comments as below:
WLL: ”u mean those with filling inside? black magic types..cherry, almond, liquor, coconut? i prefer dark choc. so life is more like dark chocolate..its bitter sweet and u will grow to like it more and more..”
KWS: “Like, but not really agree .. Chocolate too sweet lah.. many things in life is better than chocolate lah.. why nota box of RM100 notes? can do many things..”
TCH: “Life is just like a ‘Present’ or a gift which wrap with beautiful wrapping paper. We won’t know it without open the ‘Present’ except we open it n see it by our self…BTW, I love white chocolate, chocolate with almond and date from middle east, chocolate with hazelnut…yummy……..: D”
DHK: “chocolates come with different size and shape and you will only know what is inside when you bite it and taste it,you may like it or dislike it”
EY: “Have you tried putting a piece of chocolate into a cup of coffee? It melted n blended into it. That is life.”
TehTarikKaki (me): “EY, I have yet to try it. Will do it soon!”
My surprises in life
There are many surprises (at least something you never expect or could never imagine that will happen) in your life. And there are two things which are certain in life i.e. death and taxes (unless you live in a tax-free country like Brunei). All other are all uncertainties. My example “little” and “big” surprise are:
- I do not practice my profession for a living now (after the economic crisis)
- I regularly “met” or “reconnected” with long lost friends in Facebook, which I have not met for 20 or even 30 years
- I asked a (never contacted before) Facebook friend for her album of chocolate photos to be put in this blog. To my surprise permission was granted without hassle. And here are the photos, don’t you find them cute? Here is the Sherena Chng’s photo album of chocolate in Facebook.
- The biggest surprise of all today is I receive a box of chocolates as a gift from a dear friend! I have yet to open the box and really do not know what are inside the box. Big surprise to me but warm at heart. Here is the album:
My two cents
To many life seems to be randomness, lack of order or I would rather call it uncertainties. For example, on a Monday morning before you go out of your house, there is no way for you to know before hand whether the Monday is going to be a blue Monday!
A dear friend told me: “Everyday is just a day, it is made blue or red or green or yellow or white or black or purple…by yourself. Why not make it colourful like a rainbow with your talent for yourself and others?”
This should be the mind set we adopt everyday in facing the world as life is like a box of chocolates. When you open a box of chocolates, there are rows of non-differentiated or sometimes different design of chocolates. They might or might not look the same, and yet you know some are filled with cream, some with caramel and some with coconut. When you pick up one chocolate, you never know what will happen! Once you picked up one chocolate, think: “Have you tried putting a piece of chocolate into a cup of coffee? It melted n blended into it. That is life.”
Tags: blue, box, chocolates, coffee, Facebook, life is like a box of chocolates, Monday, surprises, uncertainties
