The Professor's story & lessons to Right Wingers

An old story about the art of living, probably heard by many, needs retelling.

A college professor came to the class carrying a large, transparent, glass jar and some bags containing unidentified objects. After setting the jar on the table and demonstrating its emptiness to the class, he announced that he was about to give a very important lesson of ‘their’ lives and set about doing so.

He opened one bag, it contained tennis balls. Professor began putting the balls in the jar, one by one. He filled the jar with balls to the brim and asked the students, “Is it full?” The class answered  in affirmative.

He opened another bag and it contained marbles. Professor began putting the marbles in the jar. Through the gaps created by round curvature of tennis balls, marbles found their way through. Soon he had put lot of marbles in the jar and as the marbles reached the brim, he repeated his question.  The class was not very enthusiastic this time, wary that professor had another trick up his sleeve and those who did speak, did so hesitantly but confirmed that jar was full.

The third bag professor had brought contained sand. Professor began pouring sand in the jar and miniscule particles of sand finding enough space between marbles & tennis balls, began settling in. Shortly, the sand reached the brim, the jar became full and professor asked the same question, again.

The students now were unwilling to commit themselves and remained quiet. The professor continued and said, “The jar is indeed full. But…” Then he took out two beer cans from his bag, opened them and poured them in the jar. The porosity of sand had enough empty space inside to absorb the liquid and the jar did not overflow. The professor looked satisfied with the demonstration but the student’s curiosity was aroused now.

The professor began explaining. “The jar represents our life. The tennis balls represents the most important things in your life, your passions, your family, people you love etc. Marbles represent the possessions, the big house, bigger car, fatter bank balance, corner cabin, club membership etc. while the sand represents everyday problems that all of us face, the work pressures, the stress, the  negative emotions of greed, jealousy, fear etc. we have.”

“And as you can see; the sequence, the order is important. If we give priority to our passions first, life would create space for possessions and problems. However, if we fill our life with day to day problems, sand in case of the jar, we would not have the time, space & energy to pursue our passions or possessions.“

The objective of telling or retelling this story here is not to propagate it as an art of living tenet, though it is, and an eminently practicable one. The purpose here is to explain to my right wing friends to use this story’s lessons while appraising the actions of their favorite government headed by Narendra Modi.   

Doing the definitions again with the new framework, the jar represents our perception of government’s performance. The tennis balls are the policy decisions which affect the state of the nation in the longer run thereby creating a secure, strong & prosperous India. The marbles are the decisions which affect our life as citizens like improving services, power, water, health,  rule of law, investment & divestment, taxation etc. and the sand represents the minor issues that crop up every day like quickly putting some undesirable people in jail, accepting a useless, worn out politician in the party, some minister’s half baked statements or continuing with some insignificant, stupid decision of previous government etc.

The onus of staying focused on the tennis balls or marbles is on us. Sand would come in the way, may be kicked into our face, either as an honest mistake or omission or as a trap or mine laid during previous government springing now and surprising this government, or by vested interests in the government. The choice of letting the space of discourse be crammed with this unwanted, irksome, unimportant issues or letting it to be free so that the balls and marbles take their rightful place is upon us.

Remembering a famous quote of Stephan Covey, “10% of life is made up of things that happen to us. 90% of life is made up of how we react to this 10%.”

To those who have not forgotten about the cans of beer mentioned above, the professor said, and I repeat, “No matter how full the life is, there is always time to share a beer with friends.”