Monday, April 02, 2007

Coffee or the Cup?

I received the following from my Uncle Matt:

A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life.

Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups made of porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal. Some were ordinary looking, some expensive, and some exquisite. He told them to help themselves to hot coffee.

When all the students had a cup of coffee in their hands, the professor said,"If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap looking ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the best cups and worse, you were eyeing each other's cups."

The professor continued, "Now if life is coffee, than the jobs, money and position in society are the cups . They are just tools to hold and contain life, but the quality of Life doesn't change. Sometimes, by focusing only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee in it."


2 comments:

Leonie said...

Oh, how true!

Theresa said...

Beautifully put! I am printing this one up!