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 you learned 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;
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?
Appreciate and Give Thanks for Everything We Have,
Instead of Worrying about What We Don't Have !
Instead of Worrying about What We Don't Have !
Hei Dreamz
ReplyDeleteThat is so wonderfully expressed!! Like it very much indeed.
Have a super day and do keep so well. :)
That's a little like how I see Kashmir - a backward and not-so-wealthy area. Especially the "they have friends to protect them" part. Here we do. Where I come from, one can die alone, and the neighbours won't notice until the body begins to stink.
ReplyDeleteThat's a little like how I see Kashmir - a backward and not-so-wealthy area. Especially the "they have friends to protect them" part. Here we do. Where I come from, one can die alone, and the neighbours won't notice until the body begins to stink.
ReplyDeleteI had seen sky with full of stars before.. at a India, a small village. It really something nice.. something I could never forget.
ReplyDeletehi Rii, thanks, I also like it very much. Have a great day to you too !
ReplyDeletehi Ulla,
ReplyDeleteReally feel so glad to hear there are still places where "they have friends to protect them" and not "walls around", as it is really hard to find them in this materialistic n realistic world nowadays.
In the olden days of Singapore, we used to stay in Kampong (Village), though there was quite a distance apart from house to house, but the relationships with the neighbours were very close.
It has changed as years gone by...
Nowadays, most of us are staying in flats, although the distance between 2 families is closer now, < 20 inches apart (divided by just a concrete wall), but the 2 families might not know each other or might not even met !
There were many cases as what u have mentioned "the neighbours won't notice until the body begins to stink"...really feel so sad...
hi wensiong,
ReplyDeleteya, in singapore, we don't really have such luxury...as though already late night, we still could see lights in most places, thus it is hard for us to see a sky full of stars.
I still could remember some years back, once, very late at night, I lie down on a beach in one of those un-commercialised small resorts, looking at the sky upon me...Wow ! the whole milky way was just right in front of me ! It was so "gigantic" and clear, even could see the twinkling of the tiny stars....
haha..yap yap... that night at India.. My friends and I were discussing which one was a star and satellites. And it happened a friend bought a book regarding stars ( not sure why he bought book like this on trip). For the first time, I saw the 7 northern stars and the shape.
ReplyDeleteI can't imagine living in a place where you never see the stars - how awful!
ReplyDeletethat place is Singapore.. high-rise building everywhere..haha...
ReplyDeleteThat's right, what to do, we have such a limited space, besides, probably due to the weather, the sky is usually very cloudy at night.
ReplyDelete