Iegsaan Ally (email)
Please take a five rand coin and hold it up in front of you. Now think like a three-year-old and tell me what you see.
Well? I know you may be puzzled so I’ll rather tell you. You are looking at a piece of metal. It doesn’t matter how you turn it around, there is a section you can’t visualise. Sometimes you even may see two sides if you look closely, but you still miss something.
The interesting thing is that even though you are not seeing everything, you know what the missing parts should look like. In life too there is always something we are missing. In fact, those sections that we don’t see, sometimes can outweigh the parts we do see. Take DStv for example. When you are watching one channel there are a massive number of channels that you are not watching. For every one person that you relate to, there are a whole world full of people that you are not involved with. Possibilities are, in fact, endless.
Now look at the coin like someone who should know what a five rand coin should be. Question it, is it really worth five rand? Does the value change over time and does it cost five rand to make a five rand coin? What is the profit margin for making coins? Is it reality that we are seeing in front of us?
Now let’s apply this idea to everyday life.
Every person whom you meet, or even know, will have ideas, ideals, passions, ambitions and so on that you don’t know of. That’s the part of the coin that you are missing. People only show you what they want you to see. How much they reveal is their prerogative.
The same philosophy can be applied to situations. In every situation there is something that you are not seeing. Take for example the universal lecture that parents give their children on how difficult life can be. You tell them to work hard at school, get a good qualification, and make themselves marketable, because life is difficult. All they perceive is that it is just another lecture.
In a way I can’t blame them.
They don’t see the complexity of what you are talking about. When it gets dark, they switch on the light, when they get hungry they open the fridge, when they get bored they watch television, busy themselves with their phones, entertain themselves with any of the other amenities that parents have provided. They don’t see what parents have to endure to earn the money that pays for everything. Parents stress about merges, restructuring, retrenchment, an ever-changing economic climate, and to top it, petty office politics. This part of the coin parents often hide from their kids.
The next time you feel bored, think of the devastation of being caught in a flood, hurricane, oppression, war, famine and so on. Then, look back at your life, and your boredom suddenly will turn into heaven on earth.
