23 October 2008

Simple Philosophy of the Pencil




Nice analogy. I love it. This comes from the book written by Paulo Coelho, Like the Flowing River. I really love reading one of the chapters. It's about the philosophy of pencil which was told by a grandma to her grandson. The following is not an exact excerpt, but it is taken from the book.

Here we go.



Pencil has five qualities which, if we manage to hang on to them, will make each of us a person who is always at peace with the world. They are:

First quality: like pencil, we are capable of great things but we must never forget that there is a hand guiding our steps. We call that hand God. He always guides us according to His will.

Second quality: now and then, we have to stop writing and use a sharpener. That makes the pencil suffer a little, but afterwards, it is much sharper. So we, too must learn to bear certain pains and sorrows, because they make us better persons.

Third quality: the pencil always allows us to use an eraser to rub out any mistakes. This means that correcting something we did is not necessarily a bad thing; it helps to keep us on the road to justice.

Fourth quality: what really matters in a pencil is not its wooden exterior, but the graphite inside. So always pay attention to what is happening inside us.

Fifth quality: it always leaves a mark. In just the same way, we should know that everything we do in life will leave a mark, so try to be concious of that in our every action.

Quite true, isn't it?

Nela Dusan
Rasuna, 23 October 2008

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