Recently I came across the summary of a talk given by a Christian Bishop in Kerala. I would have missed the concerned news and content except for my wife who read it out. She knew that I appreciate good messages. The Bishop asks us to visit any grave and read the inscriptions on the tombs. He said that only two things are written in all tombs in common - the date of birth and the date of death of the diseased. Nothing else! He further said that those are the only remarkable things in that lives and people do not live at all. If we split a full span into three stages, at teen we have time and energy but not enough money; at working age we have money and energy but no time; at old age we have money and time but no energy. According to me, the common factor in all these three stages is our undeterred attitude to assumptions on which we set our goals.
I’m reminded of a family who went on to visit ‘Apple Computers’ headquartered in Cupertino, California in USA. The year was 1999. That time, ‘Apple’ was emerging into a great pride of the nation. The family was at the main building gate. They wanted a full family photo at the background of the main building. It was then that they saw a man getting into a car parked nearby. The father took no time to turn to him and request a help. The man paused a moment as the iPhone was handed over to him. The man however took a great deal of care composing the photo, backing up a few steps several times, tapping the iPhone screen to lock focus, then said, "Smile!" as he snapped the photo. He handed back the iPhone and they said, "Thank you, sir." The man stepped into his car, closed the door, and drove away. The family looked at the photo that the man had taken and all agreed that it looked great. The family went on their way, but the Apple staff, who crossed the spot to witness all these was given an unforgettable lesson. He whispered, ‘people generally live on assumptions not knowing what really is going on or what actually is the truth of the moment’. He only knew that the man who helped the family was none other than Steve Jobs, CEO of ‘Apple Computers’. Everybody admits that we are very good lawyers for our mistakes and very good Judges for other’s mistakes. That however is not living at human standards.
Joseph Mattappally
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