My social colander for 2024 is already filling up with a dental appointment in Ulladulla in February, a trip to Mollymook to be looked over by the dermatologist in April, and a trip to the LIFEHOUSE in Sydney in May.
Why does this schedule remind me of the Dalai Lama who, when asked what surprised him about humanity, said: "Man. Because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health." And, of course, there are many variations of this story set in Brazil and told by the Brazilian Paulo Coelho, author of "The Alchemist":
There was once a businessman who was sitting by the beach in a small Brazilian village. As he sat, he saw a Brazilian fisherman rowing a small boat towards the shore having caught quite few big fish.
The businessman was impressed and asked the fisherman, “How long does it take you to catch so many fish?”
The fisherman replied, “Oh, just a short while.”
“Then why don’t you stay longer at sea and catch even more?” The businessman was astonished.
“This is enough to feed my whole family,” the fisherman said.
The businessman then asked, “So, what do you do for the rest of the day?”
The fisherman replied, “Well, I usually wake up early in the morning, go out to sea and catch a few fish, then go back and play with my kids. In the afternoon, I take a nap with my wife, and evening comes, I join my buddies in the village for a drink — we play guitar, sing and dance throughout the night.”
The businessman offered a suggestion to the fisherman. “I am a PhD in business management. I could help you to become a more successful person. From now on, you should spend more time at sea and try to catch as many fish as possible. When you have saved enough money, you could buy a bigger boat and catch even more fish. Soon you will be able to afford to buy more boats, set up your own company, your own production plant for canned food and distribution network. By then, you will have moved out of this village and to Sao Paulo, where you can set up HQ to manage your other branches.”
The fisherman continues, “And after that?”
The businessman laughs heartily, “After that, you can live like a king in your own house, and when the time is right, you can go public and float your shares in the Stock Exchange, and you will be rich.”
The fisherman asks, “And after that?”
The businessman says, “After that, you can finally retire, you can move to a house by the fishing village, wake up early in the morning, catch a few fish, then return home to play with kids, have a nice afternoon nap with your wife, and when evening comes, you can join your buddies for a drink, play the guitar, sing and dance throughout the night!”
The fisherman was puzzled, “Isn’t that what I am doing now?”
I first heard this story when I lived and worked in Greece. There it was about a Greek peasant who owned an olive grove. As he sat in the shade of an old olive tree, having finished harvesting just enough olives to feed his family, a businessman approached him and asked, "How long ..."
That was in 1984, forty years ago! It's just beginning to make sense now.
