One day I was having a leisurely breakfast in a diner when I met a young man called Mike who appeared to be in great emotional pain. I talked to him trying to help him feel better to no avail. He was obviously unhappy and despondent and nothing I could say appeared to give him any relief.
Then James, an ancient automobile mechanic next door, walked in for his morning coffee. Everyone called James the old Master because he always knew what to say to people in most situations.
I asked James if he could talk to Mike and help him. He worked a miracle without even asking Mike what it was he appeared to be in such emotional distress over. Anyone could see Mike was grieving over some wrong.
James instructed an unhappy young man to put a handful of salt in a glass of water and then drink it.
“How does it taste?” James, the old Master, asked.
“Not good at all,” spat Mike.
James laughed and then asked the young man to take another handful of salt and put it into a nearby lake.
The two walked in silence to the lake. When Mike swirled his handful of salt into the lake, James paused and said, “Now drink from the lake.”
As the water dripped down the young man’s chin, James asked, “How does it taste?”
“Good!” remarked Mike.
“Do you taste the salt?”
“No,” said the young man.
James then sat beside this troubled young man and said, “The pain of life is pure salt, no more, no less. The amount of pain in life remains the same. But the amount we taste that pain depends on the container we put it into. So when you are in pain, the only thing you can do is to enlarge your sense of things. Stop being a glass. Become a lake.”
“Become a lake!”
Thank you for reading.
Ed