Why could I not
rebel against my parents, and just do whatever I wanted to do?
Right now the whole world is in
a chaos: the painter is making shoes, the man who was meant to make shoes is
painting. Naturally, if you see the painting it looks crazy - it is no wonder!
Everybody is somewhere where he is not supposed to be. It is such a mess!
I am reminded of a great
surgeon. He was the greatest surgeon in his country, very much respected, a
Nobel prize winner - and he was retiring. He was almost seventy-five, but still
no young man was capable of doing such artful surgical work as he was capable
of. Even at the age of seventy-five, his fingers were not trembling. He was a
brain surgeon. In your small skull there are seven million nerves - you can
think how small they will be - and when somebody is operating on the brain to
remove some nerves, the danger is he may cut other nerves which are so close
together, so the hand has not to shake at all.
At the age of seventy-five he
was still a perfect surgeon, and all the doctors and the surgeons had given him
a party because he was retiring. They were dancing, singing, but he was sitting
in a corner, sad, with tears in his eyes. One of his old friends came by and he
said, "What is the matter? Everybody is so happy and you are looking so
sad - I even see tears in your eyes." He said, "Yes, there is a reason.
In the first place I wanted to become a dancer, I never wanted to become a
surgeon. My parents forced me. Although I became the most famous surgeon, it
was not my heart's desire. I would have been far happier just with a guitar on
the street as a beggar - a singer, a dancer.
"All this fame has meant
nothing to me. All these awards have meant nothing to me. Each award has only
reminded me of one thing, that I am losing my life and I am not where I am
supposed to be. And now my whole life is finished. These tears are... I am
crying because... why could I not rebel against my parents, and just do
whatever I wanted to do?"
The world is so miserable.
Ninety percent of its misery and anguish comes from the fact that everybody is
doing somebody else's work. Naturally he is not happy; he cannot put his whole
soul into it.
John Nguyen
Saturday, August 19, 2017
