Short and Small

Life's Lessons - Joseph Mattappally

I think it is time, space and costumes which are the most shrinking three things in this universe. It could be because of our continuing crazy lookout for ‘short and small’ everywhere. There lived a Tom who had great problem reaching the office in time. The Boss threatened to fire him if he didn't do something about it. Tom went to his doctor who gave him a pill and told him to take it before he goes to bed. Tom slept well and in fact beat the alarm in the morning early by almost two hours. He had a leisurely breakfast and that day he drove cheerfully to his office. 'Boss', he said, 'The pill actually worked! 'That's all fine' said the boss, 'but where were you yesterday?' Same has become the case with us too. In our frantic run to compress everything into small or short, we miss not only yesterdays but tomorrows too. If we take our communication strategies for example, it has now become ‘structured codes meaning something else’. ‘We will do it’ means ‘You will do it.’ ‘We are a team’ means ‘I am not the only one to be blamed.’ ‘That is a good question’ means ‘I do not know anything about it.’ Deepak Chopra, the great thinker and writer once said, “I love you simply means I trade you.” So goes…

I have heard the story of an English school teacher, looking for rooms in a small town in Switzerland. He asked the local school headmaster to make recommendations. He showed her several different places and she finally settled on a small cottage not far from the town centre. However, on her way home, it occurred to her that she didn't notice a Water Closet (WC); so she immediately sent an email to the headmaster asking if there was a WC in or near the cottage. On receiving the email, the headmaster was troubled, because he was not totally familiar with many English abbreviations. He then decided to ask his friend, the local parish Priest, who concluded that the lady was referring to a ‘Wayside Chapel’, so they sent her the following reply: ‘I am delighted to inform you that the WC is situated only 2 miles from the cottage you rented, and it is set amongst a beautiful grove of trees with wonderful scenery, and it is capable of seating up to 250 people, however there is also standing room for another 100 people. In fact, sometimes it is so busy, we actually have people standing outside the open doors peering inside to observe the various proceedings inside! The WC only opens on Wednesdays and Sundays. My father recently donated a bell and the bell rings every time somebody enters the WC’. The Email had a Post Script too which read, ‘Remember to bring your camera, as I am sure you will want to keep a memento of your visit to our WC. Our newspaper editor attends every session of the WC and he usually publishes selected photographs in our town newspaper ‘The Sentinel’. 

It is Benjamin Disraeli who said, “Life is too short to be small.” As Albert Einstein once put it, “Small is the number of people who see with their eyes and think with their minds.” They should be right, as we reduce ourselves to the minimum, we unknowingly miss our ability to expand. 

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