My first story: My wife and I walked into this embroidery shop and I saw it immediately. No, I must correct myself just in case you misunderstand me. I didn't see it. This contraption shouted at me!
It shouted at me: "Hi Neels, please look at me! I am standing on this top shelf for years and years and years and nobody takes notice of me!"
I felt so sorry for it. I called a shop assistant and pointed it out and asked: "What is that?"
"What?" She asked me dumbfounded.
"That thing over there."
"I've never seen it!"
I couldn't believe my ears. How long have you been working here? About seven years she replied.
I asked another young lady and she was just as flabbergasted as the first - she did not had the faintest idea because she has never seen it. Another elderly lady shouted out: "It’s a weaving loom!"
My immediate response was: "No, it’s not!"
It turned out that it was the owner of the shop who mentioned it being a weaving loom and the latter young lady was her daughter - mother bought this shop seven years earlier and never bothered to find out what it is!
My friend, the contraption was shaking with embarrassment. They took it off the dusty shelf and I started examining it; eventually I took about eight photographs of it and decided to find out what it is.i
I started writing e-letters and whatsapp notes to lady friends and male friends - nobody had any idea. But then some-one offered an explanation: you wind wool around the spool and make a rug. And then another one tried explaining it - you weave wool around it and join the ends.
And so, my quest to identify it took some direction, but not quite satisfactory.
The point of my story is not what that contraption is about; it is about people walking oblivious about their surroundings. Do you notice things around you? Good for you. My next question is: do you ask what it is? For instance, a tree? What is a tree? Find out. Google it. Read about the rooting system, read about the leaves. Go for it.
My next story: I walked into this huge reception area of a posh auditor’s firm who pride themselves to be not your ordinary auditors and was stunned by the opulence. The furniture was luxurious. The glass tops on the coffee tables were thick and on the face of it hugely expensive. I was met by the official whom I had the appointment with and we started chatting. I congratulated her working for this well-to-do firm and I pointed out some of the artwork that is so in your face that you can't miss it. Her response? "Sorry, I have never noticed it!" She was working for that firm for more than 9 years. She then told me that she walks there every day and never seen it before.
I recently discovered the late Prof. Mike Rose on my twitter account! He couldn't get enough out of life! He lived it to the fullest extent. Always asking questions always inquisitive about his surrounds and the people around him. And asking himself what he can do about it. And he referred me to an article by a medical doctor advising that you should count and write. I read his BlogSpot article ON COUNTING AND WRITING and you can find it here by clicking on this link.
They
are indeed doing their jobs faithfully and responsibly. But my question is: is
there not more to life than just doing your job faithfully and diligently? Does
it mean that you are only doing your job to the best of your abilities and that
is where your life ends? The answer is of course there is much, much more to
life than that. Is your life tiresome and sole destroying? To go thru life not
noticing must be dreadful.
You simply have to read it. Start counting and writing!
Cheers for now.
