I find this a very nice story.
One day, the father of a very wealthy family took his son on a trip to the country with the express purpose of showing him how poor people live.
They spent a couple of days and nights on the farm of what would be considered a very poor family.
On their return from their trip, the father asked his son, “How was the trip?”
“It was great, Dad.”
“Did you see how poor people live?” the father asked.
“Oh yeah,” said the son.
“So, tell me, what did you learn from the trip?” asked the father.
The son answered:
One day, the father of a very wealthy family took his son on a trip to the country with the express purpose of showing him how poor people live.
They spent a couple of days and nights on the farm of what would be considered a very poor family.
On their return from their trip, the father asked his son, “How was the trip?”
“It was great, Dad.”
“Did you see how poor people live?” the father asked.
“Oh yeah,” said the son.
“So, tell me, what did you learn from the trip?” asked the father.
The son answered:
“I saw that we have one dog and they had four.
We have a pool that reaches to the middle of our garden and they have a creek that has no end.
We have imported lanterns in our garden and they have the stars at night.
Our patio reaches to the front yard and they have the whole horizon.
We have a small piece of land to live on and they have fields that go beyond our sight.
We have servants who serve us, but they serve others.
We buy our food, but they grow theirs.
We have walls around our property to protect us, they have friends to protect them.”
The boy’s father was speechless.
Then his son added, “Thanks Dad for showing me how poor we are.”
Isn’t perspective a wonderful thing? Makes you wonder what would happen if we all gave thanks for everything we have, instead of worrying about what we don’t have.
Appreciate every single thing you have, especially your friends!
“Life is too short and friends are too few.”
7 comments:
Not to burst your bubble, but here is how Sofia responded when I sent it to her (this was a while back - I first saw it on another blog):
i imagine you identified with the boy, right?? unfortunatedly being poor is not as glamorous as they make it sound here. Farmers are usually poor, sure they have 4 dogs, but they need them to protect their animals, they do not "own a land that goes beyond sight' as it says here (most times they work for somebody else), they grow their food, this is nice but they have to exchange it (usually for a miserable price) if they need to buy some other comodity; sure they have friends (but this is usually what poor people really have, some other poor people as friends).
Yikes is your "dear" trying to tell you something?
A real boy would not be making those comments :P
Agree with Richard's Sofia. In the unabridged story, the father would surely have the boy disowned...for stupidity. :\
Richard : Perhaps... perhaps....
ole Wolvie : Really? Sometimes kids can see things adults can't.
Anon_X : Well... as it is mentioned, all a matter of perspective. And besides, being rich is not everything, being poor is not nothing. In fact, being rich can be nothing cos one end up not knowing how to do anything, whereas being poor can be everything as one get to do many things on his own.
It is a matter of perspective.
The thing is, perspective changes with experience and bias. The boy in the story is making assumptions. E.g. "These people live on this huge field, so it must be theirs." (After all, his family owns the land his house is on)
As for the moral of the story?
I assume the dad was trying to get the boy to appreciate what they have. It did not seem to work to me.
Only the part about "Having friends to protect them" and "Serving others" hints on wealth other than money.
Very nice site! »
Post a Comment