Life’s Y Two boys (or girls or one of each it doesn’t really matter) were getting ready to graduate high school and each wanted to speak to their favorite teacher and guidance counselor to thank him for his many contributions to their time spent, during their high school years, with him and to get some final thoughts on how he felt it would be best for them to proceed from there without his guidance. Below is what was said. Francis: Teacher you’ve really been a big inspiration to me and I’ll miss your missives, reflections and the genuinely warm feeling I’ve seemed to carry, throughout my high school years here, that everything is okay with the world and we carry the hope to make it even better for all. Donald: I agree Teacher. I’ve often wondered as we’ve sat in your classes why a man as intelligent, aware and deeply reflective regarding the ways of the world and mankind would choose the struggles of a rather meager existence afforded a high school teacher. Surely you know by now that your life could’ve been (and even still could be) quite different and far more comfortable for you. Teacher: (chuckling in a fatherly manner) Ah, thank you for those kind words and perhaps you think I could’ve been “more successful” in life, yes? Francis: I have no doubt Teacher that you could’ve done anything you wanted and, in fact, did so. I’m just grateful that I got to experience that choice with you. Donald: Well I agree totally and didn’t for a second mean to imply that you’re any sort of failure. You are, in fact, the most brilliant person I’ve ever met. I simply meant that acknowledging the fact that life is a struggle for everyone already, can be quite unfair and challenging even under the best of circumstances and we all seek to emulate those whom we admire…………. it would just seem that you could reach even more people, share even more wisdom and spread even more light upon a dark world if given the means and opportunities to do so. Teacher: And you believe that wealth would allow me to do that? Donald: Of course! Don’t you? Teacher: I’ve loved you both as my own children, as I have all I’ve taught. So let me give you here our final lesson from which once you’ve proceeded forward there will be no chance of ever turning back in life. It is what I’ve affectionately labeled “Life’s Y”. Francis: Should we take out our pencils and paper? Teacher: You may if you wish for it will be the most important lesson I’ve ever shared with you. I’d like you both to list, if you will, the items which YOU BELIEVE will ultimately evidence “your success” by the time you’ve completed your lives. Francis: Well that’s easy! I think virtually everyone seems to unanimously agree upon the relevant indicia of a successful life down here. Teacher: Ah, but do they really? I think you’ll both be surprised by just how vastly are the divergent views upon “success” by those around you after you’ve experienced some time in Life’s Y. Donald: When you say…..”Life’s Y” are you talking about “Why” some things will occur in your life or “Why” they may happen in the life of another? Or are you talking about something else entirely? Teacher: Well Life’s Y will certainly reveal “why” some things will occur in your life as well as “why” they may have happened in the life of another. Tell you what, our time is limited so why don’t you just list the people whom YOU BELIEVE represent “Success” for all to witness and emulate in your lives today. Donald: Well that’s easy! I think virtually everyone seems to unanimously agree that someone like Donald Trump is a clear representation of almost every indicia of a successful life down here. I mean he’s got a beautiful family who all love him, respect him and admire him very much. He’s got millions of people who look up to him and do the same. Surely someone like him would seem to be the very epitome of “SUCCESS”!! Teacher: Well, let’s see then. Francis would you agree with Donald? Francis: Well, not really. I mean Donald Trump seems to be very egotistical, a bit of a showman and relishes in attention and self-promotion. So I wouldn’t really say he’d be one to emulate. Teacher: Ah yes, but perhaps we’re merely splitting hairs a bit. What Donald means is his admiration, respect and desire to emulate those who’ve achieve vast and diverse financial achievements. Surely you can think of another whose financial achievements parallel or even surpass Mr. Trumps yet retain far more tact and modesty in their vast financial accomplishments. Francis: Yes, I suppose that’s true. I guess, well……if I’m being honest………I’ve just never placed a great deal of stock in money nor those who’ve amassed vast reservoirs of wealth. I mean I’ve always admired those like Mother Theresa or Martin Luther King, Jr., Abraham Lincoln, Jesus or those like them. None of whom history ever noted as having enjoyed nor amassed great wealth. I mean sure, those with great wealth can certainly assist or help feed far more people than those like the ones I mentioned above but the fact that they still did those things under far more restrictive means just reveals how much more loving and caring and giving they really were in their efforts. It would seem to me those are the types of people who truly make this world a better place and if we’re to emulate anyone? Well then it should certainly be those like them. Teacher: And thus you have both revealed the “Y in Life”! Donald: I don’t think I’m following you here yet Teacher. Teacher: (chuckling in a fatherly manner again) I would like for you both to draw a large Y on your papers sitting in front of you. One sort of like this (as he draws his own Y on the blackboard in front of them) Y At the base of your Y I’d like you to write the word “stem” and at the tip of the right arm I’d like you to write the word “Salvation”. At the tip of the left arm I’d like you to write the words “Financial Independence”. Donald: Ok, did that. What’s next? Teacher: When I first received you, each of you were at the base of that stem in the “Y of Life”. During our formative years together I sought to teach you the importance and values of the life you would each be getting ready to embark upon. You are each now at the apex of that stem and are getting ready to exhibit to all exactly what you’ve each learned. Francis: Well how do we know the “right path” to take now that we’ve reached the apex of that stem? Teacher: There is no “right path” my child but only two paths. If financial independence is what you’re heart truly desires then the “right path for you” will be the left one of course! If, however, the deepest recesses of your being seeks not the recognition and praise of others around you but only that of God? Well then you’re choice of “right paths” will be just as elemental for you. It was the very same for Mother Theresa, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Jr. and the others you mentioned before Francis. Donald: Well I’d like both! Wouldn’t that truly represent the most admirable level of success for all? Teacher: (chuckling again) I suppose it would. Now Francis has already listed several noted examples of “SUCCESS” for those who’ve chosen the path on the right throughout our recorded history. Can you think of an example, Donald, for any who’ve been able to do both? Donald: (takes several minutes concentrating hard with his brows netted together) No, not really. Teacher: Not surprising since there are none. In all of recorded history. Donald: So what are you saying then? That we all need to choose the path on the right? Teacher: (chuckling again) Well that would be a bit unrealistic don’t you think? I’m not saying that you should choose either path but only that your time allowed upon the stem in the Y of life has come to an end. I would say that you MUST CHOOSE but even that would be an inaccurate representation since you will find that most don’t do just that. In short, they never make either choice but instead allow their innate desires, inherent proclivities and the commonly agreed customs and choices surrounding them to pull them down a path as if some child caught up in the rush of boundless traffic unable to break out from the holding grip which confines them. Donald: Well what about people like Michael Bloomberg who was just recently knighted by the Queen of England for good deeds or Bill Gates or Warren Buffet who’ve pledged tens of billions of dollars to charity or even Donald Trump himself whose given quite generously to charitable causes. I mean they’re all “financially independent” yet all give immensely to help others. They seem to be really good examples that your “Life’s Y” doesn’t hold water! Teacher: “SEEMS TO BE” I think is the applicable phrase in your inaccurate statement Donald. Satan will be at work endlessly attempting to coax you along your misguided path with a ready supply of infinite examples to make your misguided choices “SEEM TO BE” reasonable and just. That still doesn’t change the fact that all of these individuals chose the path on the left of Life’s Y and nothing now can ever change that for them. No matter how much money they now attempt to give away. Donald: Soooo they should just keep their money and not try to help anyone with it!! I mean that really makes no sense. You’re saying they’re wrong now BECAUSE they’re trying to help others? Teacher: Donald it will not help you to attempt to fight the parameters that define life for each of us. It will only help for you to recognize the ones that do. The people who will praise or even worship the benevolent efforts of those like the ones mentioned above will ONLY BE THOSE who also happen to have chosen their same path. The people who chose to walk the path on the other side of Life’s Y will not recognize such efforts as anything worthy of even comment. For they already recognized long, long ago that the tests of life would not encompass how much money one was able to acquire along their march toward salvation or even how much they were able to give away but only how far down that path toward salvation one would eventually be able to ultimately reach. Though many have tried throughout our recorded history this infallible fact remains. You cannot buy salvation nor your way back across that vast expanse that separates you from it in the Y of Life. Donald: So building hospitals, schools, universities and giving generously to the less fortunate yet deserving serves no purpose for the betterment of mankind or elevates them in the eyes of God!! I find that hard to swallow. Teacher: I would also if that was, in fact, what I just said. What I said, however, was having reached the apex of the path on the left of Life’s Y many will only then recognize that they’ve been disillusioned throughout their entire march in life and will, of course, attempt to get back across that expanse which separates them from salvation. Unfortunately very few of them will also recognize that such charitable generosity merely purchase them a space in line at the very bottom on the right hand path in Life’s Y. In short, they’ve still got to proceed through the obstacles and challenges that impede one’s journey down the path on the right in the Y of life. Alternatively stated, your generous donations merely garner the adoration of those already on the wrong path you’re seeking to get off of and place you at the very bottom of the path which you now wish to be upon. Didn’t Jesus say something very similar to this noted in the book of Mark at chapter 10 verse 21? Francis: But Teacher, I sometimes envy those on the path to the left of Life’s Y. Is that wrong? Teacher: Of course not Francis! And I’ll let you in on a little secret that will help you immensely along your path in life no matter which one you ultimately choose. In short, ALL OF THE PEOPLE proceeding down the right hand path of the Y in life will continuously envy those on the left side path. It is merely human nature to admire and even desire nice cars, homes, vacations, wealth and inexhaustible options in life. However, they will only envy or even admire them until they cross over the mid-point in that path to the right in the Y of Life. For after the mid-point NONE will admire nor envy any and ALL will then begin to pity EVERYONE whom they witness traversing the left hand path of the Y in life. Conversely, ALL who are proceeding down the left hand path in the Y of Life will pity those travelling the path on the right. But ONLY until they, themselves, reach the mid-point of their own path. For then each will begin to envy ALL THEY WITNESS on the right hand path of the Y in life and that envy will grow exponentially as they proceed further and further down their path on the left until the point that some will even attempt to give away all the riches they’ve accumulated just so they can reach……………..the starting point at the path on the right hand side in the Y in life. The very path which they once pitied everyone upon previously in life. You cannot see this truth now but I can assure you this truth will ultimately be revealed to you soooo long as you make it past the mid-way point of either path in the Y of Life. Francis: Well how could you possibly know that?? I mean didn’t you begin by stating that none could travel both paths? Teacher: (chuckling again) No son! What I said was that none could succeed at both paths. Many (including myself) have traveled both paths well past the mid-points. But that would take great labor and unnecessary sacrifice on your part if you would instead merely heed this simple warning and lesson. Francis: Good Lord!! You may just be a simple High School Teacher and guidance counselor, as Donald mentioned before, but you’ve certainly got to be the most “SUCCESSFUL” person I’ve ever known! Teacher: (still chuckling) Well for one thing you’re quite young so you haven’t had the opportunity to meet a wealth of “SUCCESSFUL” people as yet. But, even then, your definition of what constitutes “SUCCESS” may come to change over time more than once. But who knows, one day you just may look in the mirror as you straighten the Papal Tierra and recognize that “THE MOST SUCCESSFUL” person you’ve ever met is looking right back at you from its reflection. A Concerned American ;)
Posted on: Tue, 14 Oct 2014 20:40:05 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015