Those who know say nothing

A father tells his children that sometimes things people know may never be put in words. But on the other hand, most would put so many words about things they don’t now. He says that knowing the difference is a sign of wisdom. And he tells them this:
“Those who know do not say. But those who say do not know.”
“Wow! That’s deep. What do you mean by that, dad?”
“Do you know the fragrance of a rose?” he asks.
They all know.
He says, “Now put it in words.”
All are silent.

Buying monkeys

A friend from Kuala Lumpur sent this story to me today. It's hilarious and, if read carefully, we may take a hint to our foolish nature. Don't we buy monkeys sometimes and get nothing in the end except, well, monkeys? Thanks Julie for sharing the story.

Once upon a time in a village, a man appeared and announced to the villagers that he would buy monkeys for RM10.The villagers seeing that there were many monkeys around, went out to the forest and started catching them. The man bought thousands at RM10 and as supply started to diminish, the villagers stopped their effort. He further announced that he would now buy at RM 20. This renewed the efforts of the villagers and they started catching monkeys again. Soon the supply diminished even further and people started going back to their farms. The offer rate increased to RM 25 and the supply of monkeys became so little that it was an effort to even see a monkey, let alone catch it! The man now announced that he would buy monkeys at RM50! However, since he had to go to the city on some business, his assistant would now buy on behalf of him.In the absence of the man, the assistant told the villagers. Look at all these monkeys in the big cage that the man has collected. I will sell them to you at RM35 and when the man returns from the city, you can sell it to him for RM50." The villagers squeezed up with all their savings and bought all the monkeys.Then they never saw the man nor his assistant, only monkeys everywhere!! !

The idiot called back

A drunken man was walking on the street with burnt marks on his ears. His friend asked what happened. "My wife left the hot iron on when she left. So when the telephone rang I wrongly picked up the hot iron.""Oh, I see, but the other ear?"

"The idiot called back."

Source: Anthony de Mello

Isn't it funny to catch ourselves 'drunk' from our own foolishness sometimes. And laughing about it can be healthy.

Your faith was strong, but you needed proof

Once I asked my good Danish friend, TJ, what her favourite song was, and she said, "Hallelujah". I listened to the song, originally composed by Leonard Cohen, and was instantly moved by the melody and lyrics. My favourite line is this:

Well your faith was strong but you needed proof....

Aren't we all like that sometimes? We profess our faith in the divine, in someone or in the system. But ironically, we need proof to support our belief. I'm listening to the song as I'm writing now just to remind myself of my foolish human nature.

The price of YOU

A father wanted to teach his teenage children a lesson about self value. He started by holding up a RM50 note. "Who would like to have this RM50?" he asked. Hands started going up.
He said, "I am going to give it to one of you but first, let me do this." He proceeded to crumple the RM50 note up. He then asked, "Who still wants it?" Still the hands were up in the air. "Well", he replied, "What if I do this?" And he dropped it on the ground and started to grind it into the floor with his shoe. He picked it up, now crumpled and dirty. "Now who still wants it?" Still the hands went into the air. "Guys, we have all learned a very valuable lesson", he said, "No matter what I did to the money, you still wanted it because it did not decrease in value. It was still worth RM50.

Many times in our lives, we are dropped, crumpled, and ground into the dirt by the decisions we make and the circumstances that come our way. We feel as though we are worthless. But no matter what has happened or what will happen, you will never lose your value. Dirty or clean, crumpled or finely creased, you are still priceless.... and especially to those who love you.

The pursuit of stupidity

Allow me to break the sequence of my storytelling. But first of all, I'd like to congratulate another good Danish friend, AC, for having been offered a job as social worker. I believe the world needs more caring people to work in this challenging field. As for my contribution, I'll stick to writing. And speaking of writing, someone asked me yesterday why I remain as one despite all its financial securities and headaches. My answer to her question was stupidity. I notice a funny pattern in my life that in order to get one thing right, I'll have to make ten stupid mistakes. So, to get two things right, I must commit twenty. Stupidity. Isn't that what defines our thinking and actions? So, here I am making yet another stupid mistake by becoming a writer and writing all the stuffs about human stupidity in simple stories. Oh, Albert Eistein said this once:

Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.

She talked to me

To my good friend, TJ from Copenhagen, Denmark, who has just become a social worker, CONGRATULATIONS! Here's a story for you:

A centre for people with physical disabilities was organising an opening of a new wing. A local politician was invited to officiate the ceremony. Several members of the press came too and also distinguished members of the community. In his speech, the politician talked about the government's concern for people with special needs and how he, as an elected representative, would always make sure they get maximum assistance. Next, it was the priest-in-charge's turn to deliver his message. He reminded the community to always have faith in God for He would choose the right people with good heart as leaders. Their speeches were received with loud applause from the invited guests. During reception, one of the reporters interviewed a physically-disabled old man who was the most senior member in the centre.

"Sir, what's your respond to the speeches we heard earlier?"

"For all I know, the politician was actually talking to you guys, the press. He was looking for good publicity. And the priest was talking to the politician for he was hoping to get more of the government's money. But one social worker who was sitting in front turned to to look at me for a moment. She smiled and winked. She talked to me and I understood her."

Sometimes, the simplest gesture can make a big difference. But again, it can be misinterpreted in a different culture.

A young western woman was in Hong Kong recently for a short holiday. She went to a Chinese restaurant for lunch one day and while waiting for the food to be served she saw a skinny stray dog standing outside. She felt pity for the animal and wanted to do something. She called the waiter to her table and asked him to cook some food for the dog, and that she would pay the bill. But because she didn't know a word of Chinese, she made up a sign language by pointing at the dog, her mouth and belly, apparently trying to tell the waiter to feed something to the hungry dog. The waiter nodded and dashed back to the kitchen. After several minutes, he came out with a huge plate of dog meat cooked in soy sauce.