Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Point of View


This is an old story I just came across. If you haven’t read it, you should.


One day a very wealthy man took his son on a trip to the country with the purpose of showing him how poor people live. They spend a couple of days and nights on the farm of what would be considered a very poor family.


On their return from their trip, the father asked his son,

“How was the trip?”


“It was great, Dad”


“Did you see how poor people live?"


“Oh, yeah”


“So, tell me, what did you learn from this trip?” the father asked.


The son answered,” I saw that we have one dog and they had four. We have a pool that reaches to the middle of our garden and they have a creek that has no end. We have imported lanterns in our garden and they have the stars at night. Our patio reaches to the front yard and they have the whole horizon. We have a small piece of land to live on and they have fields that go beyond our sight. We have servants who serve us, but they serve others. We buy our foods, but they grow theirs. We have walls around our property to protect us, they have friends to protect them.”


The boy’s father was speechless.


Then his son added, “Thanks Dad, for showing me how poor we are”