Tan Sri Dr Lin See-Yan
“For the love of learning”
TheStar, 27/8/2016
My father knew the world was changing – and changing fast. He also sensed that the “young” needed to articulate a life-purpose, in order to bring about greater life-satisfaction. Just like millennials today, it is not enough to just “find a fun job” – a purposelessness closely tied to worldly prosperity, alarmingly devoid of true satisfaction.
Or, what the existentialist French philosopher Jean-Paul Sarte evocatively termed, the “nausea of existence.” My father’s message to me was simple: for heaven’s sake (I can still hear him say), use that love of learning to avoid this sensation of purposeless living. Indeed, in today’s uncertain world, it will be hard to find a better life-purpose, than what the great composer Johann Sebastian Bach called: “sanctification and service” – yes, to do good and to serve.
My father wished that for me. And now, as you all graduate to begin anew, I wish the same for you: to do good and to work for the public good.
Photo: UTM Creative Media@UTM57thConvocation
