A Cup of Coffee
A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got togetherto visit their old University of Notre Dame lecturer. Conversationsoon turned into complaints about stress in work and life.
Offering his guests coffee, the lecturer went to the kitchen andreturned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups -porcelain, plastic, glass, some plain looking and some expensive andexquisite, telling them to help themselves to hot coffee.
When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the lecturersaid: "If you noticed, all the nice looking, expensive cups weretaken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is butnormal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is thesource of your problems andstress. What all of you really wantedwas coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the bettercups and are eyeing each other's cups."
"Now, if Life is coffee, then the jobs, money and position insociety are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life,but the quality of Life doesn't change."
"Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy thecoffee in it."
A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got togetherto visit their old University of Notre Dame lecturer. Conversationsoon turned into complaints about stress in work and life.
Offering his guests coffee, the lecturer went to the kitchen andreturned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups -porcelain, plastic, glass, some plain looking and some expensive andexquisite, telling them to help themselves to hot coffee.
When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the lecturersaid: "If you noticed, all the nice looking, expensive cups weretaken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is butnormal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is thesource of your problems andstress. What all of you really wantedwas coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the bettercups and are eyeing each other's cups."
"Now, if Life is coffee, then the jobs, money and position insociety are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life,but the quality of Life doesn't change."
"Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy thecoffee in it."
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