There is a saying, "What God proposes, man disposes". The following "Hokkien" interpretation of the creation of man seems to have this in mind:
On the very first day of creation, God brought into being the cow. He had a plan for this beast, and so He told the cow: "Ah Gu (cow), your job is to go out to the field with the farmer I will soon create. You will provide the brute energy to pull things. You will also provide milk for people to drink. You are to work all day under the sun. In return, you will only eat grass. For that, you will have a life span of 50 years."
Ah Gu objected. "What? I will have to work all day in the sun and I get only to eat grass! On top of that, I have to give my milk away. This is a tough life and you want me to live 50 years! I'll take 20 and you can have the remaining 30 years back!"
God agreed.
The next day, God created the dog. He said to it: "Ah Kow (dog), I have created you for a purpose. You are to sit all day by the door of your master's house. Should anyone come in, you are to bark at them. In return, you will eat your master's leftovers. I'll give you a life span of 20 years."
Ah Kow objected. " What? I have to sit by the door all day and will need to bark at people, and what do I get? Leftovers! This isn't right. I'll take 10 years and you can have the remaining 10 years back!"
God agreed again.
On the third day, God created the monkey. He said to the monkey. "Lao Kao (monkey), your job is to entertain people. You will make them laugh, act stupid and make faces. You will also do somersaults and swing on
trees to amaze them. In return, you will get to eat bananas and peanuts. I'll give you 20 years to live."
Naturally the monkey objected. "This is ridiculous, I gotta make faces and make people laugh. Let's not even
come to the part about the trees and somersaults. Tell you what, I'll give back 10 years of my life to thank you for my existence and I'll take 10. What do you think?"
God agreed again.
On the forth day, God created humans, both man and woman.
God said to them: "You are my best piece of work, for that, you will only need to sleep, eat, sleep, play, eat, sleep again and do nothing else.You will get to eat all the best things and play with the best toys. All you need to do is enjoy life! For this kind of enviable life, I'll give you 20 years."
Just like the rest, the humans objected.
The ____ (fill in the blank... if you are a guy, say the siow Ah Lian spoke up; if you are a gal, say the gong Ah Boy opened his big mouth) told God: "What? All I need to do is relax and enjoy myself and I have only 20 years to live? Tell you what, you've 30 years back from Ah Gu, 10 years from Ah Kow and another 10 from Lao Kao.
"You probably don't know what to do with all those lives. Why not I take them all and I'll have 70."
God, in his infinite kindness and wisdom, agreed with a smile.
And that is why we humans eat, sleep, play and enjoy life for the first 20 years of our lives. We then work like cows for the next 30 to raise our family. We next sit outside the door and bark at people for the next 10 when we are retired.
And finally, we make faces and perform monkey tricks to entertain our grandchildren for the final 10 years.
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