What are we really, today? Are we on the right path to happiness and fulfillment, breaking our backs by seeking to possess all the trinkets we are being offered, for a price, today?
Can we close our eyes to what surrounds us, forgetting or blatantly erasing all the suffering and needs, unless it directly affect us or rock our complacent compulsions?
Do we really know or understand what is to be rich or poor? Do we have the right to exact from others what we have not earned ourselves, through hard labor, saving efforts, imagination and self control?
Can we close our eyes to what surrounds us, forgetting or blatantly erasing all the suffering and needs, unless it directly affect us or rock our complacent compulsions?
Do we really know or understand what is to be rich or poor? Do we have the right to exact from others what we have not earned ourselves, through hard labor, saving efforts, imagination and self control?
Is being poor, according to the standards of today,
such a tragedy and a curse?
What does it mean to be poor, today?
A rich man, wanting that his son could learn
what it is to be poor,
took him to spend some days with a farmer´s family.
The boy spent three days and nights
living in the countryside.
Going back to the city, still in the car,
the father asked him: how was it?
Good! Answered the son, kind of aloof and distracted.
The father insisted: did you learn something?
Yes! We have a dog. They have four.
We have a pool, with treated water, covering half of our patio!
They have a river with crystal clear water,
myriads of fishes and other beautiful things!
We have electric lights in our garden,
but they have the stars and the moon to illuminate their nights!
Our garden ends at a wall. Theirs reaches the horizon.
We buy food. They cook it.
We listen to CDs. They listen to a perpetual symphony of birds,
crickets, and other small animals!
All that, at times, together with a neighbor´s song
while he works his land!
We use microwaves.
What they eat has the “slow fire” flavor.
We live caged by walls, alarms on.
They live, almost always, with open doors,
protected by their neighbors´ friendship!
We live connected to the mobile phones,
the computer, the TV!
They live connected to the sun, the water,
the sky, the green of the countryside,
the animals, their shadows, their families!
The father was impressed by the wisdom of his son.
Finally, the son concluded:
Thanks for showing me how poor we are!
We are becoming poorer as the days pass.
Poorer in the Nature´s observation,
which is the greatest making of God!
We worry a lot about HAVING, HAVING AND HAVING MORE,
instead of being concerned, ONLY, with “BEING”.
And being better every day, more!
May God bless you, today, and always, Amen!
such a tragedy and a curse?
What does it mean to be poor, today?
A rich man, wanting that his son could learn
what it is to be poor,
took him to spend some days with a farmer´s family.
The boy spent three days and nights
living in the countryside.
Going back to the city, still in the car,
the father asked him: how was it?
Good! Answered the son, kind of aloof and distracted.
The father insisted: did you learn something?
Yes! We have a dog. They have four.
We have a pool, with treated water, covering half of our patio!
They have a river with crystal clear water,
myriads of fishes and other beautiful things!
We have electric lights in our garden,
but they have the stars and the moon to illuminate their nights!
Our garden ends at a wall. Theirs reaches the horizon.
We buy food. They cook it.
We listen to CDs. They listen to a perpetual symphony of birds,
crickets, and other small animals!
All that, at times, together with a neighbor´s song
while he works his land!
We use microwaves.
What they eat has the “slow fire” flavor.
We live caged by walls, alarms on.
They live, almost always, with open doors,
protected by their neighbors´ friendship!
We live connected to the mobile phones,
the computer, the TV!
They live connected to the sun, the water,
the sky, the green of the countryside,
the animals, their shadows, their families!
The father was impressed by the wisdom of his son.
Finally, the son concluded:
Thanks for showing me how poor we are!
We are becoming poorer as the days pass.
Poorer in the Nature´s observation,
which is the greatest making of God!
We worry a lot about HAVING, HAVING AND HAVING MORE,
instead of being concerned, ONLY, with “BEING”.
And being better every day, more!
May God bless you, today, and always, Amen!
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