C2 - Lessons on Life

Lessons on Life
By Mickey Chuang at Apr. 24, 2007

To KNOW or MEET someone is daily event in our life. Have you ever felt that you are wrong about something, especially point of view on people? There's a story could bring us something to think it over.

『There was a man who had four sons.
He wanted his sons to learn not to judge things too quickly.
So he sent them each on a quest, in turn,
to go and look at a pear tree that was a great distance away.

The first son went in the winter, the second in the spring, the third in summer, and the youngest son in the fall.

When they had all gone and come back,
he called them together to describe what they had seen.
The first son said that the tree was ugly, bent, and twisted.

The second son said no it was covered with green buds and full of promise.

The third son disagreed; he said it was laden with blossoms
that smelled so sweet and looked so beautiful,
it was the most graceful thing he had ever seen.


The last son disagreed with all of them;
he said it was ripe and drooping with fruit,
full of life and fulfillment.

The man then explained to his sons that they were all right,
because they had each seen but only one season in the tree's life.

He told them that you cannot judge a tree, or a person, by only one season,
and that the essence of who they are
and the pleasure, joy, and love that come from
that life can only be measured at the end,
when all the seasons are up.

If you give up when it's winter,
you will miss the promise of your spring,
the beauty of your summer,
fulfillment of your fall.

Don't let the pain of one season destroy the joy of all the rest.
Don't judge life by one difficult season.
Persevere through the difficult patches and better times are sure to come some time or later.』

End story.

Ladies and Gentlemen, from this story I think all of you have already found something. I think you could do better judging on things about the society, the country, the peoples all around you. If you take some time to look at it with different aspect of view and think it over from time to time before you make the move. We could find the TRUTH and ANSWER you're looking for.

Thanks for listening.

~ END ~