Once, a father from a wealthy family took his son on a field trip, with the firm intention that he saw how poor the people of the countryside were and that he understood the value of things and how fortunate they were.
They were there for a full day and night on the farm of a very humble peasant family.
At the end of the trip and back home the father asks his son: "What did you think of the trip?"
"Very good dad!" Replied the son.
"Did you see how poor and needy people can be?" His father insisted.
. "Yes," said the son.
"And what did you learn?" The parent questioned.
"I saw that we have a dog at home, and they have four. We have a 25-meter pool, they have a stream that has no end. We have imported lamps in the yard, they have thousands of stars. Our yard reaches the limit of the house, theirs has the whole horizon. Especially, I saw that they have time to talk and live together as a family. Mom and you have to work all the time and I almost never see them. "
The father was speechless. And his son added: "Thank you, Dad, for teaching me how rich we could be."
Source: Unknown.
The moral of this story that is very easy to see, is about what we give more value to, if we give more value to visible goods, material goods, such as money, the house, etc., or if we give it more value to the invisible goods, because there are such goods, and there are those who do not even know that they exist or just hear about them, goods such as happiness, time, tranquility, good, etc.
The story does not try to belittle material goods, because they certainly have some value, just try to give the right order to things and place as superior what really goes in first place. Because it is truly intangible goods that have primacy in terms of value, being precisely that all wealth, all money, and all material goods, tend to try to get us to get those invisible goods such as happiness, time, or tranquility.
So, if you have only these invisible goods, lest this be considered less one, because you get the essence of wealth at once without the need for material goods. In other words, wealth is something accessory or complementary while happiness is not, and if you have the latter, it is enough to be called rich, not of matter and money, but of something much more important.
Finally, it also makes a contrast between what is naturally given to the human, such as the stream, the stars, nature, and an endless other things, and human creations susceptible to corruption and theft such as the house, the pool, etc., that it has no other object than to show us how naturally prodigious and rich the human is by being part of nature and not as a divided entity.
But tell me your; What do you give more value to?
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What a good story!
HaHa! Kids are especially good at this. They often tell you something different than what you expect them to. So this could be a lesson in anticipation.
I guess I'm more on the side of the materially rather poor people. It is no problem for me personally. Sometimes I think about money because I want to save something for my son. So that he can afford a trip and a stay in a foreign country. The stranger, the better. However, I think if he can just get on a plane, pay for his stay and be there without any obstacle: what's gained? Certainly not everything is a waste of time. He gets to know another language and culture etc. -
I have to think of the story of a young man who set off on a bicycle, the title of his journey was: "Saving Papua New Guinea by not cycling there."
He cycled for many weeks from Germany via Austria, Turkey, India, Tibet and from there to China, because there were difficulties with the entry or a country he would have had to pass through to get to Papua New Guinea. At some point he lost his bike, walked many miles, had difficulties with his passport in China, managed to get from there to Kazakhstan and eventually by boat back to Germany. The ship he took were run by a drunken crew from which he was amused and scared at the same time.
He never reached Papua New Guinea. But his travel video was of such captivating depth that I have never forgotten it. I wish for young people to have experiences from which they emerge strong and mature. As parents one must be strong and let them find their way ... giving them wings and confidence to make the right decisions when the going gets tough.
Interesting story. That also allows reflection.
Thanks for stopping by. Regards!
Spot on man!