Wanna Borrow A Jack?

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 6/21/05 5:30:33 P.M. Mountain Daylight Time, chandimaakijai writes:

I thought, "How true! Most of us go through life bumping

intoobstacles we could easily bypass; spoiling for a fight andlashing

out in blind rages at fancied wrongs and imaginary foes.

Namaste Nanda,

Om Namah Sivaya, good story and may we all be kind to each other. May

all my misdirected thoughts surround me, that those thoughts be

showered with the light of the Guru and Siva the Auspicious One and

sent as a blessing to those that endured the original.

With Love

Kanda

[Guest guest]

Dear All,

Here is a nice story off the web - a good one to remember the next

time we let our imaginations run riot with fear or anger.

Jai Maa

Nanda

 

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One day I went to a friend for advice.

 

"I'm in real trouble" I said. "My neighbors across the road

are going on vacation for a month; and instead of boarding their

dogs they are going to keep them locked up and a woman is coming

to feed them, if she doesn't forget. Meanwhile they'll be

lonely and bark all day and howl all night, and I won't be able

to sleep. I'll either have to call the SPCA to haul them away

or I'll go berserk and go over there and shoot them and then

when my neighbors return, they'll go berserk and come over and

shoot me.

 

My lawyer patted back a delicate yawn. "Let me tell you a

story," he said. "And don't stop me if you've heard it because

it will do you good to hear it again."

 

"A fellow was speeding down a country road late at night and

BANG! went a tire. He got out and looked but he had no jack.

 

"Then he said to himself. 'Well, I'll just walk to the nearest

farmhouse and borrow a jack.' He saw a light in the distance

and said, 'Well, I'm in luck; the farmer's up. I'll just knock

on the door and say I'm in trouble, would you please lend me a

jack? And he'll say, why sure, neighbor, help yourself, but

bring it back.'

 

"He walked on a little farther and the light went out so he said

to himself, 'Now he's gone to bed, and he'll be annoyed because

I'm bothering him so he'll probably want some money for his

jack. And I'll say, all right, it isn't very neighborly but

I'll give you a quarter.

 

And he'll say, do you think you can get me out of bed in the

middle of the night and then offer me a quarter? Give me a

dollar or get yourself a jack somewhere else.'

 

"By the time he got to the farmhouse the fellow had worked

himself into a lather. He turned into the gate and muttered.

'A dollar! All right, I'll give you a dollar. But not a cent

more! A poor devil has an accident and all he needs is a jack.

You probably won't let me have one no matter what I give you.

That's the kind of guy you are.'

 

"Which brought him to the door and he knocked angrily, loudly.

The farmer stuck his head out the window above the door and

hollered down, 'Who's there? What do you want?' The fellow

stopped pounding on the door and yelled up,

'You and your stupid jack! You know what you can do with it!'"

 

When I stopped laughing, I started thinking, and I said,

"Is that what I've been doing?"

 

"Right," he said, "and you'd be surprised how many people come

to a lawyer for advice, and instead of calmly stating the facts,

start building up a big imaginary fight; what he'll say to his

partner, what she'll say to her husband, or how they'll tell the

Old Man off about his will. So I tell them the story about the

jack and they cool off.

 

"The next time I hear from them, one tells me that the partner

was glad to meet him halfway; the gal says she can't understand

it, her husband was so reasonable she thought she must have

gotten somebody else on the phone; the relatives found out the

Old Man had already been asking a lawyer how he could give

everything to them before he died, to save them inheritance tax."

 

I thought, "How true! Most of us go through life bumping into

obstacles we could easily bypass; spoiling for a fight and

lashing out in blind rages at fancied wrongs and imaginary foes.

 

"And we don't even realize what we are doing until someone

startles us one day with a vivid word like a lightning flash on

a dark night."

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