Simple Irony

I remember once receiving an email regarding a Mexican fisherman. Apparently one day a successful entrepreneur had arrived on the shores of his fishing village with his mind full of ideas. Excitedly he began explaining his plans to the fisherman, telling him how with a bigger boat he could catch more fishes. The extra fishes, the entrepreneur suggested, could be sold for revenue and with the profit he could hire fishermen to do his job. With the fishing enterprise, the fisherman could then invest in other companies and finally live a life of luxury. The entrepreneur with a confident smirk then asked the fisherman what he wanted to do when he could finally enjoy his riches. The fisherman decided to give it a thought, then replied that he would lay back and relax; pretty much the same lifestyle he was already living.

Sometimes we might just get so caught up in the noisy confusion of life that we begin to lose sight of what we actually want in life. As I had mentioned in an earlier blog, people always seem to be looking for greener pastures; never seeming to be content with what they already have. Perhaps some of these big dreams that we have have just been imbued into us by society via flashy mass media and peer pressure.

I once chatted with a kid who told me he wanted to be a doctor because his mother told him of promises of a high life. I quizzed him on how a doctor should be one who helps sick people but was shocked to hear him reply that it doesn't matter; he could be lawyer too because his mother told him that it was another well paying career. How many times do we find ourselves living in the expectations of others?

Perhaps that also explains one irony in life, that is how we seem to want something but when we have it, we don't want it anymore. It always seem like the things we have we don't seem to appreciate and things we don't have we seem to treasure. A lot of times we do not realise what we have until we lose them. Maybe we all just need to spend a little time to find out what we really want in life because who knows it may just be hiding under our noses.