For a while now I have shaken and stirred, thrown around and burnt the wok. Some patina is building up and I feel the wooden handle becoming part of my body.

As I float here, thinking of the dish I deliver to you this week, oh almighty void, I am hesitant to pick up the sauces I usually use. Do not worry, I will elaborate.

I have recently taken up a new endeavour, one where partnership and communication happens far away from words and text. Outside of the comfort zone of this tiny island in the cyberspace. And within this new adventure, I have found a dangerous dichotomy: having to lead when there is no experience at all on how to lead. And then it dawned on me! This is where vulnerability shows strength and arrogance, as well as false confidence, are immediately uncovered, kicking you in the back.

So if we start thinking….

Let me back up, I thought about this already now. So, instead, YOU think about when you were faced with the responsibility of leading without understanding. Tip-toeing your way around. Think about a situation where you expected someone to lead, knowing that they might be lost.

What I have found, is that a nonchalant way of accepting and indulging in mistakes is the way forward. So when I see someone trying to cook a dish in a wok, with the flame bursting, hot oil sizzling and my endless library of sauces facing them, I will step back, put a hand on their shoulder, smile and let them lead. Will we get burnt? Maybe. Will it be too spicy? Let’s see! Will it taste mediocre at best? Probably.

So what I am trying to say is: when we are facing a dish that requires a lead, make mistakes. And if you are not leading, let mistakes happen. The best way is to smile about them. Maybe sprinkle a little sesame seed on top, you will be surprised how good this will look even when the overall dish hasn’t reached perfection.

And always remember: I’ll be here with my spices and a smile so we can save that dish together.

History favours the bold, not the stupid.

Within the next 17 minutes, go be exact, another week will be completed. A lifecycle we cannot escape. However, we keep turning. As long as the air enters and leaves us, we are bound to finish the week. So here I am, trying to me it work. Being tentative.

This week is all about trying. What’s your connotation of trying? When you hear the word, what happens in your mind? Do you see something failing or succeeding? Do you see hard or easy labour? It is actually stupid of me to ask, everyone is defining comfort and hardship differently. For some, a doctors appointment is a hard thing to do. Maybe it is hard to remember that your Papa Shanghai has prepared another dish for you, hot from the stall of spicy thoughts. But don’t you worry, I’ll be here.

To reach a cycle of full completion is never really necessary, don’t you think? We are bound to keep going. Not necessarily with that same task or assignment, but with everything else. Air keeps flowing, the thoughts keep rambling and I keep on serving those dishes. Maybe we can find inner calm within this thought. Perhaps it’s time to change “trying”. Let’s be tentative, we are not complete. And let me say this, writing, it’s being tentative. Doing your job is tentative. We are trying, we are probing. Maybe, in the end, trying to make a sense of it all.

The only thing important is how we go on about this trying, tentative behaviour. Are we experimenting, discovering, uncovering, probing, researching our next moves, our next seconds? Or are we intimated by what my come around the corner.

The air keeps flowing, make the best of it. Turn tentative and trying around, for your sake.

And while I finish this, I wanted to check for my dearest customers. I know who you are, kind of. I see you coming by my stall every week. And let me just say, I value you and cherish your attention to my tiny space in the food stall of ideas which is the internet. So for all of you, I have prepared something special. It’s still in the works but I would like to reward you with the most spicy of dishes. Short stories, the hotpot of Papa Shanghai’s mind. So I’ll create a special section for all of you. So reach out to me, if you feel addressed. I will forward you the secret phrase for this very special tiny VIP menu.

Take care of yourselves out there. Papa