Saturday, February 17, 2007

Who Would Like This Twenty-Dollar Bill?
An extract from Like the Flowing River by Paulo Coelho



Cassan Said Amer tells the story of a lecturer who began a seminar by holding up a twenty-dollar bill and asking: 'Who would like this twenty-dollar bill?'

Several hands went up, but the lecturer said: 'Before I give it to you, I have to do something.'

He screwed it up into a ball and said: 'Who still wants this bill?'

The hands went up again.

'And what if I do this to it?'

He threw the crumpled bill at the wall, dropped it on the floor, insulted it, trampled on it, and once more showed them the bill- now all the ceased and dirty. He repeated the question, and the hands stayed up.

'Never forget this scene,' he said. 'It doesn't matter what I do to this money. It is still a twenty-dollar bill. So often in our lives, we are crumpled, trmapled, ill-treated, insulted, and yet, despite all that, we are still worth the same.'

***

Some of you would be wondering; what? extract from Paulo Coelho again?
Heh. I love his stories; and I love sharing my likes with others. =)

p/s: I didn't know separation could be so... hurtful. O Allah, please give me strength to face these storms. ='(

2 comments:

pink.allegria said...

eh i'm serious lah, kalau lah bukan CNY skrg, kite dah absorb myself in the library seh. ni cuti pey panjang. pastu library tutup! argh! *tarik rambut sendiri sakit*

pink.allegria said...

and yeah. separation MEMANG hurtful...