Mr Khurana, a teacher by profession, was in class
today, he was upset due to one of his students’ behavior and wanted to tell a
story to his students. He starts narrating the story, “A cruise ship met with
an accident and it called for evacuation of all its passengers. While the last
couple was trying to make their way to life boat, they realized that this was
the last life boat that could accommodate only one person, man immediately
pushed his wife behind him and jumped onto the lifeboat to save himself. The
lady kept staring at the lifeboat and shouted only one sentence to her husband." “What do you think she shouted”, teacher asks.
Most of the students responded saying – “I hate
you, I was mad and now I feel betrayed”.
Only one boy had a different answer, and he said
that woman must have shouted, “Take care of our child” and Mr Khurana started
nodding affirming that this was the right answer.
Mr. Khurana continued the story by telling his
students that the woman ended up dying while man came back home bringing up
their son single-handedly. Many years after, his son found man’s diary while
cleaning up his belongings. He started reading the diary and came to know that
his mother was already diagnosed with cancer and had short period of life left
when his parents left for a cruise expedition. He also wrote in the diary “How much I
wished that we could spend few more moments together, sinking to the bottom of
the sea hand in hand; but for the sake of our son, I had to let you die and lie forever
below the sea Alone”
The class was silent and Mr Khurana knew that his
student had finally been able to interpret the moral of the story. He concluded by saying, “Always maintain
your perspective”
Stephen Hawking, one of the most respected
authorities in the area of Physics, has said that our planet is a very average
star located within outer limits of one of a hundred thousand million galaxies.
Isn’t that a shift in perspective? Are
our troubles really high? Are the problems we’ve been experiencing on
day-to-day basis are as grave as we have made them out to be? Hence the lesson
is – “Always maintain your
perspective”
So today onwards, when your friend comes to you
and apologize, or your better half says sorry; keep in your mind that they are
not doing it because you are right and they are wrong; it’s because they value
people more than their ego. Next time, when you observe a very proactive
person at your work, or even at club who is ready to take up any task;
understand that they are not stupid but they understand the concept of
responsibility.
That average kid in your school who always used to be in dirty clothes and never completed his homework on time, never had his own parents
and was adopted by his uncle & aunt who couldn’t give him the attention and time he
deserved.
That only loner guy in your class whom
you’ve never seen having a real conversation with anyone except the teacher, was sexually harassed by his uncle at the mare
age of 9 and he became so fearful that he’d never interact with anyone except
his parents and teacher.
And the man who is sleeping like a baby between
two sleeper seats (second class train compartment) in train, is a soldier who had to go on an emergency leave
after doing his 24 hours guard duty because his wife was expecting baby in a day
or two!!
There is always a better, wiser, and more informed way of looking at these apparently negative situations. And it is very important to “maintain our perspective”
Did you also apply a one sided perspective to something that needed to be looked into more maturely, or when did you maintain your perspective when you encountered a negative situation last time, why don't you share that with us?
