And the answer is...

I just got back from watching Slumdog Millionaire. Such a feel good movie, where the good guy, after years of trials, tribulations and perseverance, gets his reward. In this case, it's the girl (Frida Pinto) and 20 million rupees. And he gets it all by adhering to his moral compass -- he's given the opportunity to cheat, but risks losing by picking the other answer, rather than win by cheating. So I don't think the answer given at the end of the movie is complete. To that answer, I would add free will or choice.

We're always faced with choices. As A.R. Rahman pointed out in his Oscar acceptance speech for Best Original Music Score and Best Original Song for Slumdog, "All my life I've had the choice between love and hate, and I have chosen love...And I am here." That choice is often not an obvious one, nor an easy one. But it is made easier if we have faith in that thing we call the human spirit. Or as some like to call it, the indomitable human spirit.

I've had the good fortune of meeting quite a few new people in the past couple of weeks while working on a food-focused issue of a magazine, including an architect, an artist and a wine master. I was somewhat surprised to find a common thread running through all our conversations -- a belief in, or search for the human spirit. Of course, I should not be surprised. Nothing brings out the human spirit more than challenge. And these days, if the news is to be believed, we are steeped in seemingly insurmountable challenges.

When in doubt, though, I like to believe in the positive outcome. Not because that's reality, but it is precisely because the reality of the moment is negative that the only option in which change becomes possible is to believe in a positive outcome. It sounds pollyanna-ish, but if someone were to go out and interview all the people who ever won a game, created or invented something, solved a problem or achieved anything that was remotely challenging, we would probably find a common thread -- hope.

So what is this hope? It isn't blind faith. Rather, it is action grounded in a belief. I was reminded of this the other day as I was watching another TED talk, this one by Sherwin Nuland meditating on hope (there's also an earlier talk by him on his struggle with severe depression which is very illuminating and inspiring as well). "The world will not be saved by the internet," he says. "The world will be saved by the human spirit. ... What I mean is this ability that each of us has to be something greater than herself or himself, to arise out of our ordinary selves and to achieve something that, at the beginning, we thought perhaps we were not capable of." I happen to think that the world will be saved by both -- the human spirit transmitted virally through the internet.

Last week, I had a thoroughly enjoyable meeting with artist Stanley Wong. He spoke of the inspiration behind the redwhiteblue series, his most recognisable series of personal works done under the name of anothermountainman (He is the selection for the "A" entry for our as-yet unpublished Little Cream Book: Inspiration, which features 26 artists from around the world speaking about the places where they find inspiration.). For this particular series, he chose as his medium the iconic red, white and blue striped or plaid plastic sheets that can be seen everywhere in Hong Kong -- from construction sites to the sturdy carry-all totes. For him, they symbolized the "anything's possible" spirit of Hong Kong in the 60s and 70s. When he started making his works in the 90s, Wong felt that Hong Kong people had lost that spirit. "It came back briefly during SARS, but two years later, people were back to speculating in the stock and property markets. We seem to have lost faith in our ability to create something from nothing, as well as the desire."

Wong hopes that his works will help people rediscover that spirit and rekindle that desire. As with all great art and stories, including Oscar-winning movies, they accomplish this by helping people exercise their moral imagination. And what is this moral imagination? In his talk, Nuland paraphrases the poet Percy Shelley: "A man, to be greatly good, must imagine clearly; he must see himself and the world through the eyes of another and of many others."

It sounds rather simple -- believe in good outcomes, act on that belief while also walking in the shoes of others (i.e. have compassion) -- but I think that's what ultimately makes difficult choices the answers that are written.

Artist Stanley Wong in his office. Love the lockers!