The Long Life of Wooden Rice Paddle
This morning,
the children told me that the whole rice in the big rice cooker was burned to
black. The metal coil inside the rice cooker was melted. It became totally
unused. The reason was that its power switch always came up, so a person here used
the end of the wooden rice paddle to press it permanently down, so it was
pressed throughout the night.
The rice was supposed for the next morning breakfast and lunch. Why don’t we
cook the rice in the early morning? We wake up at 4 am, and the electricity
failure was around that time. So there might not be enough time for the rice to
be cooked at all for breakfast at 6am. The electricity sometimes comes only at
9am. So people commonly have to cook the rice late at night.
But the person
who used the wooden rice paddle to press down the switch button was very sleepy
and busy with other tasks, so she had forgotten to remove it. So the rice
cooker was turned up permanently, and its auto switch off was also spoilt. So the bottom was burned and melted by the powerful and continuous electricity at night.
Thank goodness it stood on bricks and a metal table. So nothing else was
burned. But the smell of burning felt in the air. But it was already
midnight; we were sleeping. I could smell some. But I thought the smell came
from the neighborhood.
I say this
wooden rice paddle long life since it was made of wood, but it was not burned
at all. In here, a wooden rice paddle was used to stir the rice so it cooked
evenly and later to scoop up the rice. So it played an important part in our
lives.
Previously, we
charged the battery overnight with a small inverter. The next day, that
inverter was also burned down. The smell filled up the whole Dhamma Hall. Thank
goodness, nothing else was burned.
Why all these
problems occurred here? Not only here, it occurred in many places due to
unstable electricity and the poor quality of electronics, So, those good ones
are imported overseas, and they are expensive compared to local products.
In Malaysia, I
do not need to see these kinds of problems because the electricity is there
almost 24 hours a day. Here, when there is no electricity, the traffic lights
are not working, so the cars have to learn to give way or not give way to others.
What kind of
Dhamma lesson can I share here? This is a saṅkhāra-condition thing. No matter
how much we try to make our lives better, sometimes we have to face serious
conditions like the ones above. Whether we buy a new rice cooker or repair that
inverter, the life still continues.
Normally, I tell the people here: Old things must go! New
things will come! So, we just have to let go of old things, even the emotions of regret and worry about them, and move on with new things and conditions in our lives.
We cannot always live with worry and regret about such
incident! Just try to be more mindful and reduce such accident of overheating
electronic and electricity things.
Finally, I am glad that wooden rice paddle still in a
workable condition! Something good comes out from bad things!
