The day before yesterday our local daily ran a news item: Lai Jiansheng, a 66-year-old passerby greeted Chen Fuchao, a man heavily in debt from a failed construction project, who had been contemplating suicide on a bridge in Southern China, with a hand shake and pushed him off the ledge. Chen survived, suffering spine and elbow injuries. Lai ‘mentally ill’ as he was quoted, walking shoeless (!?) to the hospital for his pills, was fed up of Chen’s selfish activity in which traffic in the city had been backed up for five hours and the police had cordoned off the area. Sounds weird? No. To me, it’s like punishing others for one’s own choices.
Our life today is the result of our attitudes and choices in the past. Our life tomorrow will be the result of our attitudes and the choices we make today. A couple of days back a story was circulating on the email, which is worth pondering. An elderly carpenter was ready to retire. He told his employer-contractor of his plans to leave the house building business and live a more leisurely life with his wife enjoying his extended family. He would miss the paycheck, but he needed to retire. They could get by.
The contractor was sorry to see his good worker go and asked if he could build just one more house as a personal favor. The carpenter said yes, but in time it was easy to see that his heart was not in his work. He resorted to shoddy workmanship and used inferior materials. It was an unfortunate way to end his career.
When the carpenter finished his work and the builder came to inspect the house, the contractor handed the front-door key to the carpenter. "This is your house," he said, "my gift to you." What a shock! What a shame! If he had only known he was building his own house, he would have done it all so differently. Now he had to live in the home he had built none too well.
So it is with us. We build our lives in a distracted way, reacting rather than acting, willing to put up less than the best. At important points we do not give the job our best effort. Then with a shock we look at the situation we have created and find that we are now living in the house we have built. If we had realized, we would have done it differently. It is the only life we will ever build. Even if we live it for only one day more, that day deserves to be lived graciously and with dignity.
Every human being is selfish and I am no exception. My collection of books and sharing it with only a selected few speaks volumes. Like the foolish boy who had a bag full of beautiful marbles who was quite proud of them. In fact, he thought so much of the marbles that he would neither play with them himself nor would he let anyone else play with them. He only took them out of the bag in order to count and admire them; they were never used for their intended purpose. Yet that boy carried that coveted bag of marbles everywhere he went.
Well, there was also a wise boy who wished he could have such a fine bag of marbles. So this boy worked hard and earned money to purchase a nice bag to hold marbles. Even though he had not yet earned enough with which to purchase any marbles, he had faith and purchased the marble bag. He took special care of the bag and dreamed of the day it would contain marbles with which he could play and share with his friends.
Alas, the foolish boy with all of the marbles didn't take care of the marble bag itself, and one day the bag developed a hole in the bottom seam. Still, he paid no attention and, one by one, the marbles fell out of the bag. It didn't take long, once the foolish boy's marble bag developed a hole, for the wise boy to begin to find those beautiful marbles, one at a time, lying unnoticed on the ground. And, one by one, he added them to his marble bag. The wise boy thus gained a fine bag full of marbles in no time at all. This boy played with the marbles and shared them with all of his friends. And he always took special care of the bag so he wouldn't lose any. Selfish and careless, the foolish boy lost all of his marbles and was left holding the bag.
Aren’t we sometimes like the foolish boy? Our wardrobes full of clothes, shoe racks full of shoes for years which we do not wear but store or allow them to tear rather than share, food and household items which we do not consume but throw.. and so on.. BUT NOT SHARE! I am reminded of a quote by Oscar Wilde, a 19th Century Irish Poet, Novelist, Dramatist and Critic "There are many things that we would throw away if we were not afraid that others might pick them up".
Our life today is the result of our attitudes and choices in the past. Our life tomorrow will be the result of our attitudes and the choices we make today. A couple of days back a story was circulating on the email, which is worth pondering. An elderly carpenter was ready to retire. He told his employer-contractor of his plans to leave the house building business and live a more leisurely life with his wife enjoying his extended family. He would miss the paycheck, but he needed to retire. They could get by.
The contractor was sorry to see his good worker go and asked if he could build just one more house as a personal favor. The carpenter said yes, but in time it was easy to see that his heart was not in his work. He resorted to shoddy workmanship and used inferior materials. It was an unfortunate way to end his career.
When the carpenter finished his work and the builder came to inspect the house, the contractor handed the front-door key to the carpenter. "This is your house," he said, "my gift to you." What a shock! What a shame! If he had only known he was building his own house, he would have done it all so differently. Now he had to live in the home he had built none too well.
So it is with us. We build our lives in a distracted way, reacting rather than acting, willing to put up less than the best. At important points we do not give the job our best effort. Then with a shock we look at the situation we have created and find that we are now living in the house we have built. If we had realized, we would have done it differently. It is the only life we will ever build. Even if we live it for only one day more, that day deserves to be lived graciously and with dignity.
Every human being is selfish and I am no exception. My collection of books and sharing it with only a selected few speaks volumes. Like the foolish boy who had a bag full of beautiful marbles who was quite proud of them. In fact, he thought so much of the marbles that he would neither play with them himself nor would he let anyone else play with them. He only took them out of the bag in order to count and admire them; they were never used for their intended purpose. Yet that boy carried that coveted bag of marbles everywhere he went.
Well, there was also a wise boy who wished he could have such a fine bag of marbles. So this boy worked hard and earned money to purchase a nice bag to hold marbles. Even though he had not yet earned enough with which to purchase any marbles, he had faith and purchased the marble bag. He took special care of the bag and dreamed of the day it would contain marbles with which he could play and share with his friends.
Alas, the foolish boy with all of the marbles didn't take care of the marble bag itself, and one day the bag developed a hole in the bottom seam. Still, he paid no attention and, one by one, the marbles fell out of the bag. It didn't take long, once the foolish boy's marble bag developed a hole, for the wise boy to begin to find those beautiful marbles, one at a time, lying unnoticed on the ground. And, one by one, he added them to his marble bag. The wise boy thus gained a fine bag full of marbles in no time at all. This boy played with the marbles and shared them with all of his friends. And he always took special care of the bag so he wouldn't lose any. Selfish and careless, the foolish boy lost all of his marbles and was left holding the bag.
Aren’t we sometimes like the foolish boy? Our wardrobes full of clothes, shoe racks full of shoes for years which we do not wear but store or allow them to tear rather than share, food and household items which we do not consume but throw.. and so on.. BUT NOT SHARE! I am reminded of a quote by Oscar Wilde, a 19th Century Irish Poet, Novelist, Dramatist and Critic "There are many things that we would throw away if we were not afraid that others might pick them up".
Long ago, one of my friends with whom I used to share and unburden my thoughts often, advised me not to be too analytical or criticize/judge too harshly about anyone including myself for, then living a normal life would be quite difficult. So, sharing my books with only a few wouldn’t amount to too much of selfishness I suppose…here I go again, it’s ‘my books’! I DEFINITELY NEED TO CHANGE MY ATTITUDE and if at any time in the future, I choose to donate my books then I will most certainly post another article.. bragging about my great act of unselfishness of course!
Last but not the least, here is a story about four people: Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody.
There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about that, because it was Everybody's job. Everybody thought Anybody could do it but Nobody realised that Everybody wouldn't do it.
It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody have done.
Confused? hope not……
Last but not the least, here is a story about four people: Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody.
There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about that, because it was Everybody's job. Everybody thought Anybody could do it but Nobody realised that Everybody wouldn't do it.
It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody have done.
Confused? hope not……
Beautiful article, excellent write up. cheers. :-)
ReplyDeleteTime to ponder......According to me we need the right blend of selfishness and magnanimity
ReplyDeleteShukriya..shukriya..olivia.
ReplyDeletelove you
Yes Reema, you are right..
ReplyDelete