Category: Inspiration

This is a cool story, whether true or not!

An old man meets a young man who asks: “Do you remember me?”

And the old man says no. Then the young man tells him he was his student, And the teacher asks: “What do you do, what do you do in life?”

The young man answers, “Well, I became a teacher.”

“Ah, how good, like me?” Asks the old man.

“Well, yes. In fact, I became a teacher because you inspired me to be like you.”

The old man, curious, asks the young man at what time he decided to become a teacher. And the young man tells him the following story.

“One day, a friend of mine, also a student, came in with a nice new watch, and I decided I wanted it. I stole it, I took it out of his pocket.

Shortly after, my friend noticed the his watch was missing and immediately complained to our teacher, who was you.

Then you addressed the class saying, ‘This student’s watch was stolen during classes today. Whoever stole it, please return it.’

I didn’t give it back because I didn’t want to.

You closed the door and told us all to stand up and form a circle.

You were going to search our pockets one by one until the watch was found.

However, you told us to close our eyes, because you would only look for his watch if we all had our eyes closed.

We did as instructed.

You went from pocket to pocket, and when you went through my pocket, you found the watch and took it. You kept searching everyone’s pockets, and when you were done you said ‘open your eyes. We have the watch.’

You didn’t tell on me and you never mentioned the episode. You never said who stole the watch either. That day you saved my dignity forever. It was the most shameful day of my life.

But this is also the day I decided not to become a thief, a bad person, etc. You never said anything, nor did you even scold me or take me aside to give me a moral lesson.

I received your message clearly.

Thanks to you, I understood what a real educator needs to do.

Do you remember this episode, professor?

The old professor answered, ‘Yes, I remember the situation with the stolen watch, which I was looking for in everyone’s pocket. I didn’t remember you, because I also closed my eyes while looking.’”

This is the essence of teaching: If to correct you must humiliate, you don’t know how to teach.

If you go along with the premise that a nation is only as good as the aggregate of the calibre of its citizens then it becomes painfully clear that a nation of people with little integrity, ie. who can be bought by promises of government handout or, if in positions of power and influence, who can be bribed, is a poor nation indeed. And despite real or apparent material wealth, that nation is not long for this earth.

As those of us who recognise this truth would appear to be vastly outnumbered by those who have not yet learned it, then it well behooves us to hasten the learning of the lesson by the majority lest we join them in becoming one of the statistics of a perished society.

To that end I would like to direct your attention to a little booklet that has already achieved remarkable things, The Way To Happiness. A non-religious moral code it has garnered widespread approval and endorsement. It spectacularly turned Colombia around from being a trouble hotspot to one of the more desirable places to live.

I encourage you to read it and if you find it worth while, to likewise encourage others to read it. You can find out more here: https://www.thewaytohappiness.org/