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The only exception was Jim: his was clumsily

wrapped in the rough brown paper of
grocery bags.
Some of the children began to laugh when
she pulled out of the wrapping a bracelet
with a few missing bracelets and the fourth
part of a bottle of perfume. But she
minimized the laughter by exclaiming,
"What a pretty bracelet!" as she put it on and
sprayed some perfume on her wrist. Jim
Stoddard stayed after school that day just to
say, "Mrs. Thompson, today you smelled the
way my mother smelled."
After the children left, she rained for a long
time. From that day on she gave up teaching
only reading, writing and arithmetic, and began
to teach values, feelings and principles. She
paid special attention to Jim. As she worked
with him, the boy's mind seemed to come back
to life; the more she motivated him, the better
he responded. By the end of the year, he had
become one of the smartest in the class.
In spite of his lie that he loved them to
all equally, Mrs. Thompson appreciates-

14 2
She was especially fond of Jim. A year later,
she found under the classroom door a note in
which the boy told her that she was the best
teacher he had ever had in his life.
It was six years before he received another
note from Jim; he told her that he had finished
high school, placing third in his class, and that
she was still the best teacher he had ever had
in his life.
Four years later Mrs. Thompson received
another letter, in which Jim told her that, even
though things had been tough, she would soon
be graduating from college with top honors.
And he assured her that she was still the best
teacher he had ever had in his life.
Four years passed and another letter
arrived; this time Jim told her that after
receiving his college degree, he had decided
to go a little further. He reiterated that she was
the best teacher he had ever had. Now her
name was longer; the letter was signed James
F. Stoddard, M.D., M.B.
Time marched on. In a later letter, Jim told
Mrs. Thompson that he had met a girl and that
he was going to

143
 to get married. He explained that her father
had died two years ago and wondered if she
would agree to sit in the place normally
reserved for the groom's mother. Of course,
she agreed. For the wedding day, she wore
that old bracelet with several stones missing,
and made sure to buy the same perfume that
reminded Jim of his mother. They embraced,
and Dr. Stoddard whispered in his former
teacher's ear:
-Thank you for believing in me. Thank you
for making me feel important and for showing
me that I could make a difference.
Mrs. Thompson, with tears in her eyes,
replied:
-You're wrong, Jim: it was you who taught
me that I could make a difference. I didn't
know how to teach until I met you.

Les rxprrirnrioi (yretes y desegradebles) that

fritenins o lo ler,yo dc our lives mercenary what
we are in le ectuelided. lo juz,gue e per- sonas
without knowing what is behind them; sweet sien-
prc an opportunity to reinbier their mide.

144
ANY SEEM I NG ...

A newborn baby was found on the doorstep

of the World Bank at dawn, just as the first
employees were arriving at the office. They
took the baby into their care and presented the
case to the president of the bank for a decision
on what to do. The president issued the
following memorandum:

From: President
To: Human Resources Subject:
NH

We acknowledge receipt of the report of the

finding of a newborn of unknown origin. Form
a commission to investigate and determine:
a) If the found is a domestic product of the
organization.
b) If any employee is involved in the
matter.

1 45
 After a month of investigations, the
commission sent the following
communication to the president:

From: Research Committee To:

i'resident
Subject: NH

After four weeks of diligent research, we

concluded that the N.N. has no connection with
this organization. The antecedents that
support this conclusion are as follows:
a) Fan the bank, nothing has ever been done
with pleasure or love.
b) Never have two people in this
organization worked so closely together.
c) We found no conclusive history to
indicate that anything was ever done in this
organization that had any substance.
d) Nothing has ever happened in this
organization that was ready in nine months.

14 6
 BEST OB SEQU IO

A friend of mine named D:!i id, his liz rmano

gave him an automobile as a Christmas gift.
When David came out of his oli :'na, I saw'
3that a boy was standing next to the shiny
new car, admiring it.
-Is this your car, sir? --he asked.
David nodded and said:
-My brother gave it to me for
Christmas. The boy was amazed.
-You mean that your brother sc gave it to
you and it didn't cost you anything.
Of course, David knew what the little boy
was going to say: that he would like to have a
brother like that. But what he said shook
David from head to toe.
-I wish I could be a benny ino like that.
David rr.irked the little boy with awe c imr
*Yesi-
vamente aitadió:

14 7
 -Would you like to take a ride in my car!
-Oh, yes, I would love that!
After a short walk, the boy asked, his eyes
sparkling:
-Sir, you wouldn't mind if we passed by?
in front of my house?
David smiled. He thought he knew what he
wanted: to show his neighbors that he could
get home in a big car. But again, he was wrong.
-Can you stop where those two steps are? -
asked the boy.
He ran upstairs and in a short time David
saw him coming back, but he wasn't coming
fast. He was carrying his crippled little brother.
He sat him on the first step and pointed
toward the car.
-You see! There it is, Juan, just as I told you,
right there in front. His brother gave it to him for
Christmas and it didn't cost him a penny, and
s o m e d a y I'm going to give you one just like
it; then you'll be able to see for yourself all the
nice things in the Christmas windows that I've
told you about.
David got out of the car and sat the child in
the front seat. The other child,

148
with beaming eyes, climbed into the back, and
they embarked on a memorable Christmas
ride.
That Christmas Eve, David realized what
he had always heard his teachers and parents
say: Hey, more joy in giving than in receiving.

149
 in sii buy because that ice cream was very
close to the counter.
Examining the vehicle, the engineer
made a new discovery: since the purchase
time was much shorter in the case of vanilla
ice cream, the engine was not able to cool
down. As a result, the fuel vapors did not
dissipate, preventing the engine from
starting instantaneously.
Since that episode, General Motors
changed the Pontiac's fuel system and
introduced a modification on all models. The
complainant got a new car, and also the
coupling for the one that did not work when
he went to get vanilla ice cream.
General Motors distributed an internal
communiqué, urging its employees to take all
claims seriously, including the most
outlandish: it may be that "a great innovation is
behind a vanilla ice cream".

15 2
 C H A P T E R I C A T I C S O F T H E C L A R R I C E S*.

This is the story of a little boy who had a very

bad temper. His father gave him a bag of nails
and told him that every time he lost his temper,
he should drive one behind the door. On the
first day, the boy hammered in 37 nails.
During the days that followed, as he learned to
control his temper, he nailed less and less. He
discovered that it was easier to control himself
than to hammer nails behind the door.
The day came when he was able to control
his temper all day long. His father suggested
that he remove a nail for each day he was able
to control himself.

* Contributed by Sonia Garay Garay, X'alparaíso, Chile, January

22, 2002.

15 3
 The days passed, and he was able to
announce to his father that there were no nails
left to remove. The man took him by the hand,
led him to the door and said, "You have
worked hard, my son, but look at those holes
in the wood: it will never be the same again.
Every time you lose patience, you leave scars
like the ones you see here. You can insult
someone and take it back, but the scar will last
forever.

15 4
 S OLDAD O A MIG O*

A soldier said to his lieutenant:

-My friend has not returned from the
battlefield, sir. I request permission to go and
fetch him.
-Permission denied," the officer replied. I
don't want you to risk your life for a man who
i s probably dead.
The soldier, unheeding, went out. An hour
later he returned, mortally wounded, carrying
the corpse of his friend. The officer was
furious:
-I told you he was dead! Tell me: it would
be a pity to go there to bring back a corpse!
And the soldier, almost dying, replied:

* Contributed by Zac Holland, January 22, 2002.

155
 -Of course I did, sir! When I found him, he
was still alive and could tell me, "I was sure
you would come!"

156
 EAGLE RENOVATION*.

The eagle is one of the longest-lived birds: it

can live up to seventy years. But to reach that
age, at forty it must make a difficult decision.
At that time, its nails are tight and flexible, so
it is unable to capture its prey. The beak, long
and pointed, is curved, pointing towards the
chest. The wings are aged and heavy, and the
feathers have thickened. Flying and feeding
are then very difficult.
It has only two alternatives: to die or face a
painful process of renewal that lasts one
hundred and fifty days. This consists of flying
to the top of a mountain and being there, in a
nest close to a wall, where it does not need to
fly, but

* Contributed by Marcos Solcr, of Bmolatinos.

15 7
 may conse¡'. ri'r .food for small rodents and
lagart. j:m.
In sc lugai , c-! eagle begins to peck at the wall
liast'i ' nsc uir tearing off its beak. Then tleber.. c,
'erar the t:recimiento of a new one, with cl c ii 1
tlesprenclerá, tine by tine, the unas. When the nails
are born, it will begin to pluck... i'í.< . l3 after five
months, it will begin its i. . 1 t1::: renewal, and
will live thirty years longer.

Throughout the 1!i.la, we have to take time and

begin a process of renewal. The first step was to
understand a vuc- lo of victory, dcbrnio.' d ip
rndernos dc costum- brci, tradicioncs and
rectierdos that ceuseron us.

158
 IRAR LO S OB STRAC TS*.

A renowned Hindu master, Osho, used to say

that our way of thinking freezes and we
always go through the same paths, because
the mind is fixed to the things we think about.
Today this phenomenon is known as
"paradigm".
Osho gave an example. Let's imagine that
we are riding a bicycle on a road: the fresh air
hitting our face; the trees, the clouds, the
nature, the birds, the mountains far away....
Let's imagine that suddenly we see a large
stone in the middle of the road. If we fix all
our attention on the stone -that is, on the
obstacle-, even if it only occupies a brief
space on the road, we will end up colliding
with it.

* Contribution from Vicente López, Argentina.

15 9
 Let us think how many times we discover
an obstacle on the road and, by assuming it as
if it were the only thing, we make all the other
options disappear (the trees, the clouds, the
rest of the road), heading irremediably
towards it, towards the stone.

160
 HATE CY R CU R E*

An important businessman was angry and

scolded the manager of one of his businesses.
The manager came home and yelled at his
wife, telling her that she was spending too
much because there was an abundant lunch on
the table. The lady yelled at the employee,
who broke a plate and kicked the dog because
it tripped her. The animal ran off and killed a
lady who was passing by. When she went to
the pharmacy to get a cure, she screamed at
the pharmacist because she was in pain from
the vaccine. This man came home and yelled
at his mother because the food was not to his
liking. The lady, a wellspring of love and
forgiveness, stroked his head while she said:
"My dear son, I promise you that I will be
with you for the rest of my life".

* Contributed by Carlos E. Morales, via Internet.

16 1
 Tomorrow I will make your favorite meal.
You work hard, you are tired and today you
need a good night's sleep. I'm going to change
the sheets on your bed for clean and perfumed
ones so you can rest in peace. Tomorrow you
will feel better. She blessed him and left the
room, leaving him alone with his thoughts.
At that moment the circle of hatred was
interrupted, when it collided with tolerance,
gentleness, forgiveness and love.

16 2
FOOTPRINTS IN THE HEART*.

A young man stood in the center of a village

and proclaimed that he had the most beautiful
heart in the whole district. A large crowd
gathered around him: all confirmed in
admiration that the heart was perfect, for
there were no blemishes or scratches on it;
they agreed that it was the most beautiful
heart they had ever seen.
The young man felt even prouder when he
was admired, and with even greater
conviction he affirmed that his was the most
beautiful heart in the whole place. Suddenly
an old man came out of the crowd and spoke
to him:
-Why do you say that? Your heart is not as
beautiful as mine.
With surprise, the crowd and the young
man looked at the old man's heart and saw
that, while

* Contributed by Daniel Molina, via Internet.

163
 It was covered with scars, there were even
holes and areas where pieces were missing
and had been replaced by others that did not
match, as the edges were uneven. The young
man laughed.
-You must be joking," he said. Compare
your heart with mine.... Mine is perfect.
Yours, on the other hand, is a heap of scars
and pain.
-It's true," the old man replied, "your heart
looks perfect, but I would never buy you.
Look, each scar represents a person to whom I
gave all my love. I tore out pieces of my heart
to give to each of those I have loved. Many,
in turn, have given me pieces of theirs,
which I have placed in the place that was
left open. Because the pieces were not the
same, you see these uneven edges, which I
am glad of because they remind me of the
love I have shared. There were also times
when I gave a piece of my heart to someone,
but that person offered me nothing in return:
so there these gaps remained. In spite of the
pain that the wounds caused me.

164
They remind me that I still love those people
and nurture the hope that someday they may
return and fill the void they have left. Do you
understand now what is truly beautiful? -the
old man laughed.
The young man remained silent, but tearful.
The cheeks of the man's heart ran down his
cheeks. He approached the old man, tore off a
piece of his heart and offered it to him. The
old man received it and placed it in his heart,
removed a piece and used it to cover the
young man's open wound. The piece was
molded, but not perfectly: the edges were
showing. The young man looked at his heart,
which w a s no longer perfect but looked
much more beautiful than it had.
before, because love was within him.

165
 ELEPHANT S UMI SO*

When I was a kid I loved circuses. What I

liked most were the animals, and my favorite
was the elephant. During the show, the huge
beast would impress everyone with its weight,
size and enormous strength. But, after the
performance and until a while before returning
to the stage, one could find the elephant
behind the big top, with one leg chained to a
small stake driven into the ground. The stake
was only a tiny piece of wood, barely
shallowly grounded. And although the chain
was thick and powerful, it seemed obvious to
me that this animal, capable of uprooting a
quahog tree, could pull up the stake and run
away. The mystery was obvious: why didn't
the elephant run away, if

* Contributed by Eduardo Bernal, via Internet.

166
I could pull out the stake with the same effort I
would need to break a match! And what
mysterious force was keeping him bound?
I was 7 or 8 years old, and I still trusted the
wisdom of my elders. I then asked my parents,
teachers, and others, looking for an answer to
that mystery. I did not get a coherent one.
Someone explained to me that the elephant
did not escape because it was trained. I then
asked the obvious question: "And if it is tamed,
why is it chained?" I do not recall receiving
any satisfactory explanation.
With time I forgot the mystery of the
elephant and the stake, and only remembered
it when I met people who gave me incoherent
answers, just to get out of the way, and, a
couple of times, with people who had asked
themselves the same question. Until a few
days ago I met a sufficiently wise person who
gave me an answer that finally satisfied me:
the elephant does not escape because it has
been tied to a similar stake since it was very
small.
I closed my eyes and imagined the baby
elephant, only a few days old, attached to the
stake.

16 7
 ca. I am sure that at that moment he pushed,
pulled and shook trying to get loose. And in
spite of all his effort he c o u l d n 't do it: the
stake was too strong for him. I could swear
that the first day he fell asleep exhausted by
the fruitless effort, and that the next day he
tried again, and the day after that and the day
after that.... Until one day, one terrible day,
the ani- mal accepted his impotence and
resigned himself to his fate. It stopped fighting
to free itself.

This huge and powerful phenomenon does not escape by-.

if u c cree ifue n D p Mede do so. Licn e "g'rabadO en

The inrerr the rccucrdof his futile efforts of

cntonccs, and has stopped fighting. He never
again tried to test his strength.
Each of us is a little bit coni0 etc cle- fantc: we
see for cl world tied e cicntos dr stakes that
subtract us freedom. We believe that we can't
sew a lot of sewing, if we can't
We tried itsometime and we didn't get it. G r e -

kisses on those words: I can't, I will never be

able to. The only way to know what our
limitations are is to try to do it with all our
heart.

168
MO R. EXE

Clicntc: -Hello? )£St0'f talking to cl Dc-

perteniento de P yuda?
Employee: -That's right, good morning,
how can I help you!
-I've been checking my computer and found
a system guc be filled with LOVE; but it
doesn't work.
Can MC help with that?
-I'm sure it is. But I can't urge you, you'll
have to do it yourself. I'll direct you on the
phone, and it seems to you!
-Yes, I can intcnterlo. know it a lot about these
things, Micro I think guc I'm ready to install it.
Which way Pnipicz0?
-The first step is to open HEART. And you
have found it!
Yes, but there are serious progremes
rjecutái# at rstc time. is there any problem per-
insta- lar the same tiein or?
-(What are these programs!

169
 -Let me see... Here, I PAST PAIN -PAST.
EXT, BAJA-ESTIMA.XXI and RESENTMENT.
COM ejeEutando at this time.
-No problem. AMOR will automatically
erase PAIN-PAST from your current
operating system. It may be saved in its
permanent memory, but it will not affect other
programs. AMOReventually will replace the
program BAJA-E5TIMA.ExE with a
proprietary system module called ALTA-
ESTIMA.EXE. However, you have to completely
remove RESENTIMIENTO. COM. This
program prevents AMOR from being
properly installed. (You can remove it!
I know how.
-Go to the START menu and select PER-
DON.EXE. Run it as many times as necessary,
until RESENTIMIENTO.COM has been
completely deleted.
-Ready. AMOR has started and installed
Is it standard?
-Yes, you will shortly receive a message
saying that LOVE will remain active as long as
CO-RATION is in effect. (Can you see that
message?

170
 -YES, I see it. Did you finish the installation?
-Yes, but remember that you only have the
base program. You need to connect with other
Cer- Reasons to receive updates.
-Oh, oh... P looked like an error message.

-What the message says!

-Error 412. Non-active program in compo.

-Don't worry, it is a common problem. It

means that LOVE is set up to run in external
HEARTS, but it hasn't been run in your own
HEART. It's one of those technical
programming things; in simple terms it means
you have to love your own equipment before
you can love others.
-So, what hero?
-(You can locate the directory named
SELF-ACCEPTANCE?
-Yes, egul got it.
-Excellent, fast learner.
-Grecies.
-You are welcome. Click on the following
files to copy them to the MY CORA- directory.
 ZONE: SELF-PERDON.DOC, SELF-
ESTEEM.TXT, VALUE.INF and
REALIZATION.HTM. The
system will replace any conflicting files and
repair any damaged programs. Be sure to
remove BAJA-ESTIMA.EXE and
RESENTIMIEL'TO.COM from all addresses,
and then delete all temporary files and the
recycle garbage can, so that they will never be
activated again.
-Understood. hcy! MY HEART xc cstff lle-
nando with some very nice files: SOMIMSA. MPG is
dcsplic,ga in nir monitor r indicates that
HEAT.COM, PEACE.FXE and HAPPINESS. COM
sc
care rcplicating...
-That indicates that AMOR is installed and
axing. You can handle it now. One more thing
before I go...
-YES?
-AMOR is a free of charge software. Be sure
to give it, along with its different modules, to
everyone you know and love. They, in turn, will
share it with others, and give you back some
nice modules.
-I use heré, thanks for the help.

172
 RM THE WORLD*.

A scientist who lived preoccupied with the

world's problems was determined to find the
means to lessen them. He spent entire days in
his laboratory, searching for answers to his
doubts. One day, his 7-year-old son invaded
that sanctuary with the intention of helping
him work. The scientist, nervous about the
interruption, tried to get the boy to go play
somewhere else. Seeing that it would be
impossible to get him out of there, he tried to
divert his attention. He tore out the page of a
magazine in which the world was presented,
cut it into several pieces with a pair of scissors
and handed it to the boy with a roll of
adhesive tape, saying to him:
-You like puzzles! I'm going to give you
the world to fix. Here it is, all broken.
See if you can fix it right!

* This frequently heard story is attributed to Guille Barbey.

173
 He calculated that it would take days for
the nitro to recom- put the map. A few hours
later, he heard it calling him:
-Dad, Dad, I did it! I got it all done!
At first, the scientist did not believe the
child's words. It was impossible that, at his
age, he could have pieced together a map he
had just seen. Then he looked up from his
notes, certain that he would see a work worthy
of a child. To his surprise, the map was
complete: all the pieces were in the right
place.
-You didn't know what the world is like,
son, and how you did it!
-I didn't know what the world looks like,
but when you tore the page out of the
magazine, I saw that on the other side was the
figure of a man. I tried to fix the world but I
didn't succeed. It was then that I turned the
pages over and began to fix the man, who I
knew what he looked like. When I finished, I
turned the sheet over and saw that I had fixed
the world.

174
 PERFECTION OF THE DIO S

In Brooklyn, New York, there is a school for

slow learners. Some spend their entire school
life there, while others are sent to mainstream
schools. At a dinner held at the school, the
father of Shaya, one of these children, gave a
speech that could never be forgotten by those
who heard it.
"Where is perfection in my son Shaya? All of
God's work is done in perfection. But my
child cannot understand things that other
children understand. My child cannot
remember facts and figures that other
children re-cord. yWhere, then, is God's
perfection!" The audience was stunned at
this question, asked by a man who looked
distressed. "I believe," he continued, "that
when God allows such children to come into
the world, His perfection lies in the way
others react to them.

1 75
 Then she told a story about her son. One
afternoon, the two were walking through a
park where a group of children were playing
baseball. "Do you think they'll let me play!"
asked Shaya. He knew that his son was not an
athlete at all and that the others would not
want him on their team, but he understood that
it appealed to him to participate in the game
because he was sure he was just like everyone
else.
The father called one of the boys and asked
if Shaya could play. He looked at his
teammates and, getting no response, made the
decision: "We are losing by six runs and the
game is on the eighth run. I see no downside. I
think he can be on our team, and we'll try to
put him up to bat in the ninth.
The man's jaw dropped at the answer, and
Shaya smiled. He wanted to be put on a base; he
would be out of the game in short order, right at
the end of the eighth inning. But the kids
ignored that. The game was getting good,
Shaya's team scored again and now he had
two outs and the bases loaded. The best player
was running.

176
Shaya was ready to start up a new b a s e , and Shaya was ready to
start up a new base.
pezar.
(Would the team let Shaya go to bat,
risking the chance to win the game?
Surprisingly, Shaya was at bat. Everyone
thought that was the end of it, since she didn't
even know how to take it. Anyway, when
Shaya was standing at the plate, the pyrrúrr
moved a few steps to throw the ball softly, so
that the rindo could at least make contact with
it. Shaya missed. Then one of his teammates
approached him and helped him hold the bat.
The pitchcr took a few steps and pitched softly.
Sha- ya and his teammate hit the ball, which
immediately returned to the pitchcr. The
pitchcr could have thrown the ball to first
base, striking Shaya out and taking him out of
the game. Instead, he threw it as far away
from first base as he could. Everyone started
yelling, "Sha- ya, run to first, run to first base!"
He had never run to first base before, but
everyone was telling him where to run.
While Shaya was running, a player from
the other team already had the ball in his hands.
He could throw the ball.

177
 Shaya, but he understood the pircúrr's
intentions and threw it high, away from
second base. Everyone shouted, "Run to
second, run to second base!" Shaya ran, and
other children ran beside her and encouraged
her to continue.
When Shaya touched second base, the other
team's team stopped running toward him,
showed him third base and yelled, "Run to
third!" As he ran to third, the kids from both
teams ran alongside him, all shouting in one
voice, "Shaya, run to fourth!"Shaya ran to
fourth and stopped right at Poinr's plate,
where the eighteen kids hoisted him up on
their shoulders and made him feel like a hero:
he had made a great run, he had won the game
for his team.
"On that day," said Shaya's father, with
tears rolling down his cheeks, "those eighteen
children showed God's perfection at a high
level.

178
 WE ARE ALL EAGLES

A farmer went to the forest in order to catch a

bird to keep it captive in his house. He
managed to catch an eagle chick and put it in
the chicken coop, along with the hens, where
it received the same treatment as the hens.
After five years, the farmer received a visit
from a naturalist. While he was walking
ban through the garden, this one said:
-That bird is not a chicken; it's an eagle.
-That's right," replied the farmer. But I
raised it as a chicken, and it is no longer an
eagle. It became a hen like the others, even
though it has wings of almost three meters.
-You are mistaken," replied the naturalist.
She is and always will be an eagle, for she has the
heart of an eagle. That heart will make her fly to
the heights one day.
-No, no," insisted the peasant. He became a
hen, and he will never fly like an eagle.

179
 Then they decided to make a test. The
naturalist lifted the eagle and challenged it:
- Since you are an eagle, since you belong
to the sky and not to the earth, spread your
wings and fly...! The eagle landed on the
naturalist's outstretched arm. It looked around
absentmindedly and, seeing the chickens
down there, pecking at grain, hopped up
beside them. The farmer co
he said:
-I told him that he became a chicken....
-No," insisted the naturalist, "it is an eagle.
And an eagle will always be an eagle.
Tomorrow we will make a new experiment.
The next day, the naturalist climbed onto
the roof of the house, with the eagle, and
whispered to it:
-Since you are an eagle, spread your wings
and fly!
Again, the eagle saw the chickens pecking at
the ground, and jumped up beside them. The
cam- pesino smiled and went back to his charge:
-I told him: he became a chicken!
-No," replied the naturalist firmly. He is an
eagle, and he will always have an eagle's
heart. Let's experiment one last time.
Tomorrow I will fly it.

180
 The next day, the naturalist and the farmer
got up early. They took the eagle to the
outskirts of the city, far from the houses of
men, on top of a small mountain. The rising
sun gilded the peaks of the mountain range.
The naturalist lifted the animal and ordered
him:
-Since you are an eagle, since you belong
to heaven and not to earth, spread your wings
and fly!
The bird looked around. It trembled, as if
facing a new life. But it did not fly. Then the
naturalist took it firmly, placed it in the
direction of the sun, so that its eyes could be
filled with the vastness of the horizon, and
threw it into the void. At that moment, the eagle
opened its powerful wings, squawked the
typical eoo ñso of these birds and rose,
sovereign, on itself. It flew away, higher and
higher, until it blended into the blue sky.

all men are born as opuiles. But if someone makes

us think of ourselves as gulls, it is possible that we
may believe that we are dumb. But we are ogui-
lisa, we have to learn to fly. we are contcntc- mos
with the grains that are thrown to our beaks to
peck.

1S1
 L AN C E O F A N
CAB A LLO ROMANO*.

We found it very interesting.

-this story, by the way, shows how
things are done in a certain way
because they have always been done
this way.

The width of railroad tracks in the United

States is 4 feet 8.5 inches. That's a rather odd
magnitude. yWhy is precisely that
measurement used! Because that's how it's
done in Great Britain, and the first teri cas
tracks in North America were built by the
English.
Why did the English use that magnitude?
Because the first railroads were built by the
same people who had b u i l t the
first railroads?

* C ''ntri1'ution by Christian J. von Büren and Diego Lasal!e.

built the old streetcars, and that was their
measure.
And why did they use such a figure? Because
they used the same templates and tools that
were used to build the carriages. That was the
distance between the wheels.
(And why was that exactly the magnitude
of the space between the wheels! Because if
any other measurement had been used, the
carriages would have been smashed to pieces
on some English road, since that is the distance
between the ruts (tracks left by the wheels of a
cart).
Who built those old roads? The first long-
distance roads in Eur''-pa, and specifically in
England, were built by the Roman Empire, for
the passage of its legions.
yWhat is the cause of the grooves on these roads?
us? The chariots of the Roman legions
formed, with the passage of time, the initial
sur- cos, which the others had to imitate later in
order not to destroy the wheels of their
chariots. All the chariots of the Roman
Empire

195
 The same spacing between the wheels was equal
to the size of two horses' haunches. Thus, the
gauge of railroad tracks in the United States is
derived from the original specifications.
ginales of the Roman war chariots.
But there is something else. The spacecraft
have, on either side of the main fuel tank, two
large rockets. These are the so-called SRBs,
Sylid R ochct Roosters, built by Thiokol at its
factory in Utah. The engineers who designed
them would have preferred to make them a
little wider, but that was not possible. The
SRBs have to be shipped by rail from the
factory to the launch site of the spacecraft.
The rail line runs through a tunnel in the
mountains, and if the rockets were wider they
would simply not fit. Thus, the design of rocket
boosters for spacecraft traveling into space was
determined two thousand years ago by the size
of Roman horses' haunches.

184
PRE N DÍ Y DEC ID Í

After waiting so long, one day, like any other, I

decided to succeed.
I decided not to wait for opportunities,
but to look for them.
I decided to see each problem as an
opportunity to find a solution.
I decided to see each desert as an
opportunity to find an oasis.
I decided to see every night as a mystery
to be solved.
I decided to see each day as a new
opportunity to be happy.

That day I discovered that my only rival is my

own weaknesses, and that in them lies the best
way to overcome me. I stopped f e a r i n g
losing, and began to fear not winning.
I discovered that I wasn't the best, and that
maybe I never was.

185
 I stopped caring who won or lost; now I
simply care about knowing myself better than
I did yesterday.
I learned that the hard part is not getting to
the top, but never stopping climbing.
I learned that the best triumph is to have the
right to call someone "friend".
I discovered that love is more than just a
state of falling in love, it is a philosophy of
life.
I ceased to be a reflection of my few past
triumphs and began to be my dim light of this
present.
I learned that it is useless to be a light if
you are not going to illuminate the path of
others.

That day I decided to change many things, and

I learned that dreams are only to come true.
Since then I don't sleep to rest, but to dream.
 E TA ION E TA

If for an instant God forgot that I am a rag

puppet, and gave me a tro- zo of life, I might
not say all that I think, but I would definitely
think all that I say.
I would value things not for what they are
worth, but for what they mean.
I would sleep little and dream more; I
understand that for every minute I close my
eyes, we lose sixty seconds of light.
I would walk when the others are quiet, I
would wake up when the others are sleeping, I
would listen while the others are talking, and
how I would enjoy a good chocolate ice-
cream...
If God gave me a piece of life, I would look
simple and throw myself on my face in the
sun, exposing not only my body, but my soul.

187
 My God, if I had a heart I would write my
hatred on the ice, and wait for the sun to rise.
I would paint with a dream of Van Gogh on
the stars a poem by Benedetti; and a song by
Serrat would be the serenade I would offer to
the moon. I would water the roses with my
tears, to feel the pain of their thorns and the
incarnate kiss of their petals.
My God, if I had a piece of life....
I would not let a single day go by without
telling the people I love, that I love them. I
would c o n v i n c e every woman and man
that they are my favorite and I would live in
love w i t h love.
It would prove to men how wrong it is to
think that they stop falling in love when they
grow old, not knowing that they grow old
when they stop falling in love.
I would give children wings, but I would let
them learn to fly on their own.
To the vicjos, to my old people, I would
teach them that death does not come with old
age but with ol- vido.
I have learned so many things from you
men ....
 I have learned that everyone wants to live at
the top of the mountain, not knowing that true
happiness lies in the way up.
I have learned that when a newborn baby
squeezes its tiny fist for the first time on its
mother's finger, it has it trapped forever.
I have learned that a man only has the right
to look down on another man when he has to
help him up.
There are so many things that I have been
able to learn from you men, but in the end they
will not be of much use to me because when
you put me in this suitcase with the other
puppets, I will be dying....

189
 MARIPO SA PERD IDA* MARIPO SA PERD IDA*MARIPO SA
PERD IDA*MARIPO SA PERD IDA*MARIPO SA LOST

Said a rindo: "God, talk to me".

And then a lark of the field sang,
but the child did not listen to her.
The child exclaimed, "God, speak to me!"
And a clap of thunder echoed a c r o s s the
sky, but the boy did not hear it.
The boy looked around and said, "God,
let me look at you".
And a star lit up, radiant, but the child did
not notice.
And the child cried out a g a i n : "God, show us-" "God, show us!
me a miracle.
And a life was hatched from an egg, but the child
did not notice.

* "God, are you real?" Taken from the Internet, November 5, 2000.

190
 Weeping desperately, she said, "Touch me,
God, that I may know that You are with me."
Oios bent down and touched the child. But he
shook off the butterfly.

Many rrrri ter miss that we go through the i" i" i

eguelles we have been looking for.
 WHO NEEDS ME7

I received a phone call from a good friend,

which made me very happy. The first thing he
asked me was:
-(How are you!
Without knowing why, I answered him:
-Very lonely.
-Do you want to talk? I said
yes, and he added:
-You want me to come to your house!
I said yes. We hung up the phone and in
less than fifteen minutes he was knocking on
my door. I talked for hours about everything:
my work, my family, my girlfriend, my debts;
he, always attentive, listened to me. By then it
was daylight. I was mentally exhausted; it had
done me a lot of good to be in his company
and above all to have him listen to me,
support me and make me see my mistakes.
When he noticed that I was feeling better, he
said to me:

19 2
 -Well, I'm leaving, I have to work.
Surprised, I said:
-Why didn't you tell me you had to go to
work! Look at the time it is, I didn't give you
anything, I took all night.
He smiled and said to me:
-No problem, that's what we are here for.
friends.
I felt more and more happy and proud to
have such a friend. I walked him to the door
of my house and as he walked to his car, I
shouted to him from afar:
-And by the way, why did you call so late last
night?
He came back and said to me in a low voice:
-I wanted to tell you some news.
-And what happened? -I asked.
-I went to the doctor and he told me I am
seriously ill.
I was speechless. He smiled again and added:
-We'll talk about it later. Have a nice day.
It was a long time before I was able to assimilate
the situation, and I asked myself over and over again: and why

193
 (How did he have the strength to smile at
me, encourage me and tell me everything he
said? This is unbelievable.
Since then my life has changed: now I am
less dramatic about my problems and I enjoy
the good things more. I now spend more time
with the people I love.

The one who does not turn to serve does not

serve to live. The measure is like a school: if you
look up, you will be the last one in the file, but if
you look up you will see that there are
people who would like to go back to their
place. Stop, listen and help your friends: they
will help you.

19 4
 GU SAN ITO

A little worm was walking in the direction of

the sun. Very close to the path was a little
goblin.
-Where are you headed? -he asked.
Without stopping walking, the little worm
answered:
-I had a dream last night: I dreamt that from
the top of the big mountain I could see the
whole valley. I liked what I saw in the dream,
and I have decided to realize it.
The pixie said, as he watched him walk away:
You must be crazy! How can you reach
that place! You, a simple caterpillar! For
someone as small as you, a stone will be a
mountain; a small puddle, the sea, and any
log, an impassable barrier.
But the little worm was already far away
and did not hear him. Suddenly the voice of a
beetle was heard:
-My friend, (where are you heading with so
much determination?

195
 The little worm, panting, answered:
-I had a dream and I want to make it come
true: I will climb that mountain and from there
I will see the whole world.
The beetle let out a laugh and said:
-Not even I, with such big legs, would
attempt such an ambitious undertaking," he
laughed, as the caterpillar continued on its
way.
Similarly, the spider, the mole, the frog and
the flower advised our friend to desist.
-You'll never make it! -they told him.
But inside him there was an impulse that
compelled him to continue. Exhausted,
without strength and on the verge of death, he
decided to stop to build with his last effort a
place to stay.
-I'll be better off here," was the last thing he
said, and died.
All the animals in the valley went to look at
his remains. There was the craziest animal in
the valley: he had built as a tomb a monument
to folly. That hard shelter was worthy of one
who had died for wanting to fulfill an
impossible dream.

19 6
 One morning when the sun was shining in a
special way, all the animals gathered around
what had become a warning to the daring. They
were suddenly astonished. The shell began to
crack and eyes and an antennae appeared that
could not belong to the dead caterpillar. Little
by little, as if to give them time to recover
from the impact, the beautiful wings of the
impressive being in front of them emerged: a
splendid moss.
There was nothing to say, for everyone
knew what he would do: he would fly to the
great mountain and fulfill his dream. The dream
for which he had lived, had died, and had
come back to life.

197
 A N A D E R S A N D P E R DEDORS

When a winner makes a mistake, he says: "I

made a mistake and I learned my lesson".
When a loser makes a mistake, he says, "It
wasn't my fault," and attributes it to others.

A winner knows that misfortune is the best of

teachers.
A loser feels victimized by adversity.

A winner knows that the outcome of things

depends on him.
A loser believes that bad luck exists.

A winner works very hard and allows more

time for himself.
A loser is always very busy, and has no time
even for his own.

A winner faces challenges one by one.

198
A loser goes round and round and doesn't dare
to try.

A winner understands, gives his word and

keeps it.
A loser makes pt orricsas, secures nothing and,
when it fails, only justifies itself.

A winner says, "I'm good, but I'm going to be

better."
A loser says, "I'm not as bad as a lot of other
people."

A winner cscuc!ia, c''mprende and responds.

A loser just waits until it is his turn to speak.

A winner respects those who know more than

he does and tries to learn from them.
A loser resists those who know more than he
does and only looks at his shortcomings.

A winner feels responsible for more than just

his or her work.

19 9
 A loser does not compromise and always says,
"I'm just doing my job."

" A winner says, "There must be a better way to

do it."
One loser says, "This is the way we've always
done it."

A winner is part of the solution. A

loser is part of the problem.

A winner is fixed on the entire wall.

A loser looks at the brick he has to lay.

A winner, like you, shares this message with

his friends.
A loser, like the others, keeps it to himself.

200
 ANAHOR ÍA S, HU E VCi S AND CA Fé

Just as gold must be played to be

purified, we as human beings need to
polish our character. The most
important thing ce as rrnrrioiinmoi
#nr# or ellen.

A daughter was complaining to her father

about life. She didn't know how to go on and,
tired of struggling, was about to give up. It
seemed that when one problem stilted, another
would appear.
The father, recognizing her, took her to the
kitchen. He filled three pots ct-n a¡;iia and put
them over high heat. When c1 1íc]riido was
boiling, he poured carrots into the first pot, a
couple of eggs into the second, and a few gra-
nos of coffee into the third.
The daughter waited with inipacity, asking
what she would be doing if she palmed.

201
 minutes he turned off the Russian fuca . the
carrots in one container and the l-.uevos in
another, strained the coffee and served it in
rina pitcher. Looking at his daughter,
he asked:
-My dear, what do you see?
-Carrots, hurricanes and coffee -was the
answer.
He asked her to touch the carrots: they were
soft. Then he told her to break an egg: it was
dri- ry. Finally, he asked her to pro- vide the
coffee. She st'nri5, while enjoying the rich
aroma of the drink. Humbly, the young woman
asked:
-What's the meaning of this, Dad!
-These three elements," he explained, "have
faced the same adversity, the boiling water,
and each one has reacted differently. The
carrot, strong and hard, became weak, easy to
break. The egg was fragile; the thin shell
protected its liquid interior, which after being in
boiling water became hard. The coffee beans
transformed the water, turning it into the
rich drink that comforts and warms you.
What are you! -said the cook to his daughter.
When I add it to the

202
versity knocks at your door, whether you are a
carrot, egg or coffee bean!

Are you, my reader, like a broad- rie, who

seems strong but is weak when you touch
him? Are you like a hurvu, whose meleeble
heart rages at your feet? Or like a coffee
grenus, who fucks the Servant, the element that
causes him pain? He who is like a greno de
robé, reercione me-

203
 ONLY OVER TIME.

Over time, you realize that if you stay with a

person just to keep your loneliness company,
you will inevitably end up never seeing him
or her again.
Over time, you realize that true friends are
worth much more than any amount of money.
With time, you understand that true friends
are few and far between, and that those who
do not fight for them sooner or later find
themselves surrounded by false friends.
Over time, you learn that forgiving anyone
does, while forgiving is only for great souls.
Over time, you learn to con- trict all your
ways in today, because tomorrow's terrain is too
uncertain to make plans. O v e r time, even
though you are happy with those who are by
your side, you miss terribly c. 1- 's that
have left.

204
 Over time, you learn that trying to
apologize or ask for forgiveness, to say that
you love, that you miss, that you need, no
longer m a k e s any sense in front of a grave.

205
 T H E C I RC U LO F O F T H E
NINETY-NINE NINETY-NINE EVE*

A very sad king had a servant who was always

full and happy. Every morning, when he
brought him breakfast, he would un- perate it
by humming cheerful songs of the jongleurs.
There was always a smile on his face, and his
attitude towards life was serene and cheerful.
One day the king sent for him and asked him:
-Page, (what is the secret?
-And what a secret, Your Majesty!
-What is the secret of your joy!
-There is no secret, Your Highness.
-Don't lie to me. I've had my head cut off for
lesser offenses than a lie.
-Your Majesty, I have no reason to be sad.
Your Highness honors me by permitting me to
be atten-

* Contributed by Rotolatinos from 5an Vicente, Argentina,

t h r o u g h his Web site. No author cited.

206
I have my wife and children living in the
house assigned to us by the court, we are
clothed and fed. I have my wife and children
living in the house that the court has assigned
us, we are clothed and fed, and His Highness
rewards me from time to time with a few
coins that allow us to indulge in small
pleasures. How can I not be happy?
-If you don't tell me the secret right now,
I'll have you beheaded," said the king. No one
can be happy for the reasons you have given.
The servant smiled, bowed and left the
room. The king was furious, he could not
understand how the page could live happily
like this, wearing second-hand clothes and
feeding on the leftovers of the courtiers. When
he calmed down, he called the wisest of his
advisors and asked:
-Why is he happy?
-Your Majesty, what happens is that he is
outside the circle.
-Out of the circle? And that's what makes you
happy?
-No, Majesty, that's what makes it in...

-Let me get this straight: (being in the

circle makes you unhappy! And how did you
get out of it!
-He never came in.

207
 -(What circle is that?
The circle of ninety-nine.
-I really don't understand anything.
-The only way for him to understand would
be to show him by deeds. How? By making
the page enter the circle. But, Your Highness,
no one can force anyone to enter the circle. If
we give him the opportunity, he will enter by
himself.
-But won't he realize that this is his
unhappiness?
-Yes, he will notice, but he can't help it.
-You say that he will realize how unhappy
he will be to enter this ridiculous circle, and
he will do it anyway?
-As you wish, Your Majesty. If you are
willing to lose an excellent servant to
understand the structure of the circle, we will.
I will fetch him tonight. You must have ready a
leather pouch with ninety-nine gold coins.
So it was. The wise man went to find the
king and together they slipped into the palace
courtyards and hid by the page's house. The
wise man kept in his bag a piece of paper that
said: "This teso-

208
t's yours. It's the reward for being a good man.
Enjoy it and don't t e l l anyone how you
found it.
When the page went out in the morning, the
wise man and the king were spying on him.
The servant read the note, shook the bag, and
when he heard the metallic sound he
shuddered. He pressed it against his chest,
looked around and closed the door. The king
and the wise man went to the window to watch
the scene. The servant had thrown everything
on the table, leaving only one candle, and had
emptied the contents of the bag. Their eyes
could not believe their e y e s : a mountain of
gold coins! The page boy touched them, piled
them up and shone the candle on them. He
gathered and scattered them, he played with
them.... And so he began to make piles of ten
coins. One pile of ten, two piles of ten, three,
four, five piles of ten... until he made the last
pile: nine coins! His eyes scanned first the
table, then the floor, and finally the floor, then
the floor.
the bag.
"It can't be," he thought. He put the last
stack next to the others and confirmed that it
was lower. "I was robbed," he shouted, "I was
robbed,

°,09
 Damn you!" Once again he searched the table,
the floor, the bag, his clothes. He ran the
furniture, but found nothing. On the table, as
if mocking him, a glowing little mountain
reminded him that there were ninety-nine gold
coins. "That's a lot of money
-I'm missing a coin," he thought, "but I'm
missing a coin. Ninety-nine is not a complete
number. One hundred is a complete number,
but ninety-nine is not.
The king and his advisor looked out of the
window. The page's face was no longer the
same, his frown was furrowed and his features
were tense, his eyes looked small and his
mouth showed a horrible rictus. The servant
put the coins away and, looking around to
make sure no one saw him, hid the bag among
the firewood. He took paper and pen and sat
down to make calculations. How long he
would have to save up to buy his hundredth
coin! He talked to himself, out loud. He was
willing to work hard until he got it; after that,
he would no longer need to work. With a
hundred gold coins a man can stop working.
With a hundred gold coins a man is

2 10
rich. With a hundred gold coins one can live
in peace. If he worked and saved, in eleven or
twelve years he would have enough money.
He did the math: adding his salary and his
wife's, he would have enough money in seven
years. That was too long! But what's the use
of so many winter clothes!
why more than one pair of shoes? In qua-
The company would reach its 100th coin after three years of sacrifices.
The king and the wise man returned to the palace.
The page had entered the circle of non-
sale and nine. During the following months,
he continued with his saving plans. One
morning he entered the royal bedchamber
banging on the doors and grumbling.
-What's the matter with you! -asked the king in a good mood.
mode.
-Nothing," answered the other.
-Not so long ago, you were laughing and
singing all the time.
-What would Your Highness want me to be
your jester and minstrel, too!
It was not long before the king dismissed
the servant. It was not pleasant to have a page
who was always in a bad mood.

2 11
 We have been an educator at

we tcnemos; always cos missing "five centaVos for

the prso". they were taught that the fcliciddd
should rlprffff ft t0f pleteF IO Q f !t -
always happy to meet us, we will always return to the beginning
and we can never enjoy life.
Another thing series if we were to realize, so,
dc yolpe, dc guc muestres ninety and norv# ncdas
are cl ríen por cien de muestre fortitna, dc Luc
not us missing anything, dc that nedic stayed
with the nucstro. It's just a trap, ><
5prip pprNs frrnf-# o we pare ç o r , p0r ü0
dicie, arrestreinos the hill, censedot, malhH o-
unhappy or resi,gnedos. A p$+$$ cngen'o p$+$
g ¢ g g gjt Vty ffeJ¢OS de: iffH pWJOf' StH VII ION PTtOK'
We have a lot of tcsoros guc we have alrcdcdor, eguí and
ahore. We pay what we lack and leave us dc dio'.
fruter dc lo guc tencinos.

212
 AR TO REC I BIR*

There was an Arab named Beremis Samir,

who could do anything with numbers. One
day he was on a journey and found, in the
middle of the road, three men arguing
heatedly in front of a lot of camels. Beremis
stopped and asked them the reason for the
dispute, and one of them replied:
-We are brothers and we received these
thirty-five camels as an inheritance from our
father who has just died. I, because I am the
eldest, should keep, according to the will of
the deceased, half of the animals. This one,
who is the second, should receive the third
part. And he, the youngest, the ninth part.
Then another of the brothers said:

* Contributed by Maribel Zupel, Santa Fe, Argentina, November 13,

2001.

z is
 But it is impossible to find the exact half,
let alone the third and ninth parts of thirty-five!
Beremis Samir thought for a moment and
then, dismounting from his own camel,
added it to the lot that the brothers had
inherited. They were surprised by the
traveler's generous attitude, but waited in
silence for him to explain himself. And so he
did, indeed:
-Adding my camel to yours,
there are thirty-six. So take the half you are
entitled to - and he set aside eighteen necks
for the eldest of the brothers.
Turning to the second, he continued:
-You are entitled to the third part. If there
were thirty-five camels, it was not possible for
you to receive it, for the third part of thirty-
five is eleven-odd, and camels have no beaks.
But now, with the camel I have added, it is
thirty-six. Here: there go your twelve camels,
the third part of thirty-six.
The younger brother remained.
You, according to your father's will, are
entitled to one-ninth of the lot. The non
The twentieth part of thirty-six is four: take
your four camels.
Then, Beremis Samir did the math:
-You have received eighteen camels, you
twelve and you four, more than your share,
because the inheritance is thirty-five camels.
Now let us add: eighteen plus twelve, thirty.
Plus four, thirty-four. That means that of the
thirty-six camels, two are left over. One is
the one I put in. And the other, the one that
corresponds to me for having helped them to
get what they were entitled to - and leaving
all the brothers happy, he left with the two
camels.

The nioro/ryo çor se driroór# ru rar story is that

every story we give to others is given a
provisional title, because it always measures it is
more than returned to us. If only the selfish ones
knew how to

2 15
 REN COR* WEIGHT

The theme of the day was resentment, and the

teacher had asked us to bring potatoes and a
plastic bag. We were to take one potato for
each person we resented, write their name on
the potato and put it in the bag. Some bags
were really heavy. The exercise was to carry
the bag with us for a week. Naturally, the
condition of the potatoes deteriorated over
time.
The discomfort of carrying that bag at all
times showed me clearly the spiritual weight I
was carrying daily and pointed out that, while
I was putting my attention on it so as not to
forget it anywhere, I was neglecting more
important things. I then discovered that all

* Sent to Ana Luisa Cid Fernández by Daniel Molina,

Comodoro Rivadavia, Argentina, via Internet.

216
we have potatoes rotting in our sentimental
"mo- chila".
This exercise was a great metaphor for the
price I paid daily for holding onto resentment
derived from things past, which cannot be
changed. I realized that when I l e t go of
unfinished business or unfulfilled promises, I
was filled with resentment. My stress level
increased, I did not sleep well and my
attention was scattered. Losing and "letting
go" filled me with peace, nourishing my spirit.
Unforgiveness is like a poison that we take
in drops every day, until it finally ends up
poisoning us. We often think that forgiveness
is a gift to others, and w e do not realize that
the only ones who benefit from it are
ourselves.
Forgiveness is a statement that you can and
should renew daily. Many times the most
important person you have to forgive is
yourself, for all the things that didn't go the
way you thought they would. The declaration
of magnanimity is the key to making amends.
Which people are you resentful of?

217
 Who is it not possible for you to forgive?
yYou are infallible, and therefore you cannot
forgive the mistakes of others? Forgive, and so
you will be forgiven. Remember that with the
yardstick you measure you will be measured.

Zlivier nueHre cer,ya gives us meyer freedom

pere innvrrnoi hecie our objctives.

2 18
 ME N SAGE OF THE YEAR*.

The king said to the wise men of the court:

-I have ordered a beautiful ring. I have an
excellent diamond, and I want to keep in the
ring some message that can help me in times
of utter despair, and that will also help my
heirs, and the heirs of my heirs, forever. It has
to be a small message, so that it will fit under
the stone.
His listeners were wise, great scholars, and
could have written long treatises; but to
compose a message in a few words that could
help the king in a moment of despair was a
challenge. They thought, they searched their
books, but could find nothing.

* Contributed by María Laura Renaldi, Banfield, Argentina, February 2,

2002.

2 19
 The king had an old servant who had also
been his father's servant. The king's mother
had died young and this servant had taken
care of him, so he was treated as a member of
the family. The monarch had immense respect
for the old man, and consulted him. The old
man said to him:
-I am not a sage, nor a scholar, nor an
academician, but I know a message. During
my long life in the palace, I have met all
kinds of people, and on one occasion I met a
mystic. He was a guest of your father, and I
was at his service. When he was leaving, as
a gesture of thanks, he gave me this message
-The old man wrote it on a tiny piece of paper,
folded it and passed it to the king. But don't
read it, keep it hidden in the ring. Open it only
when all else has failed, when you can't find a
way out of a situation.
That moment was not long in coming. The
territory was invaded and the king lost his
throne. He was fleeing for his life on his horse
and his adversaries were chasing him.
Suddenly he came to a place where the road
ended and there was no way out: he found
himself in front of a priccipi-

2Z0
cium. I could already hear the trot of enemy
horses.
Suddenly, he remembered the ring. He
opened it, took out the paper and found the
small message: "This too shall pass". As he
read it, he felt a great silence hanging over
him. The pursuing enemies must have lost
their way in the forest, or perhaps they had
taken the wrong path, but he gradually ceased
to hear the trotting of the beasts.
The king was deeply grateful to the servant
and to the mystic stranger, for those words
had proved a thousandfold. He folded the
paper, put it back in the ring, gathered his
armies and reconquered the kingdom. On the
day he entered the capital victorious, there
was a great celebration with music and
dancing. The ancestor, who was riding beside
him in the ca- rro. said to him:
-Sir, read the message on the ring again.
-What do you mean? -asked the king. Now
I am victorious, people are celebrating my
victory. I am not in despair, in a hopeless
situation.

221
 Lameda Rojas
2003-10-03 12:14:01
--------------------------------------------
ESIN
The
coi
traña(
-This message is not only for desperate one ri
with r ESIN
situations, it is also for peaceful situations.
psychIt
is not only for when you are defeated, olit is
prove
also for when you have triumphed. It iss not all c
only for when you are last, it is also for when
them
a cu
you are first. Cu
The
The king opened the ring and read the message:
again "This
st tes, coi
will also pass. In the midst of the celebrating
and l
traña(
and dancing crowd, he felt the same peace puestz
las ficl one ri
and silence of the forest; the pride nos; hade;
with
disappeared. Then he finished understanding videoj
* Pedro Medi r
the message. tador del
psicól
-Remember that everything passes,"vides the
test
old man told him. No situation or emotion is
all c
permanent. Like day and night, there are
them
moments of joy and moments of sadness.
a cu
Accept them as part of the duality of nature,
Cu
for they are the very essence of things.
contra
tes,
and l
puestz
the ficl
us; e;
* Pedro Medi
videoj
tador del vides
 -OPTIMISTIC AND OPTIMISTIC

The behavior of their two sons had the

parents very upset: one reacted with great
pessimism and the other with marked
optimism in the same situation. They
consulted a psychologist, who subjected the
boys to a test. He locked the pessimist in a
room with all kinds of toys and told him to
do whatever he wanted with them. The
optimist was taken to a room full of horse
manure.
When he returned a few hours later, he
found the first one forlornly standing in front
of the toys, and asked him what was wrong.
He received this answer: "The swing is
hitting my legs; the puzzle pieces are hurting
my hands; that puzzle is giving me a
headache; and that video game is taking too
long.

* Pedro Medina, manager of McDonald's in Colombia and

presenter of the video "Yo creo en Colombia" (I believe in
Colombia). JLG version.
 Then he went to see the second boy, and
found him totally dirty, covered with por-
wanted up to his head. When he asked him why
he was like that, the nnto said, "I have a
feeling that underneath all this dung is a
pony, and I'm looking for him."

221
 HE QU QU E N T S O F L I V I N G*.

A man entered a cemetery in order to greet a

loved one who was buried there. Suddenly he
strayed down a path and entered, without
realizing it, a pavilion where he noticed some
tombstones with unusual inscriptions. One of
them read: "Here lies Alphonse Duval, who
lived eight months, four days and nine hours".
On another he found this legend: "Jamie
Bruckwell, who lived seven years, two months
and twenty hours". A few steps further on,
another plaque read, "In honor o f Marthina
Bhernalosky, who lived twelve years, seventy-
two days and fifteen hours." The number of
inscriptions of this kind made him assume that
he was in a children's cemetery. At that
moment he saw one of the
The manager of the place and asked him:

* Jorge Bucay. Stories pere pcnsar. We received this text via Internet,
under the title "El buscador".

225
 -Why do they write down how long these
children lived? and why so many dead
children? and is there a curse on this town!
The caretaker responded:
-In this town we have the custom of giving
a notebook to every young person who
reaches adolescence. On one of its pages he
must write down the most celebrated moments
of his life; on the other, how long that
enjoyment lasted. From then on, the boy
records the moments in which he enjoys
immensely, and the time that this enjoyment
lasted. Almost all of them describe the
emotions of their first kiss, the minutes it
lasted and the passion they felt. They record a
kind voice, a piece of advice received, and the
length of time the associated feelings lasted.
The day of marriage, the birth of the first
child, the most desired trip, the sudden
meeting with someone dear to us, all are
events that are recorded in that notebook,
because of what they represent in our lives.
This is the true time lived, because we exist to
be happy, to enjoy nature, to help and to be at
peace. The rest is not life.

226
 THAT DOES NOT SUPPORT THE J APON*.

Japan is a country the size of Chihuahua and

Aguascalientes, but it has one hundred and
twenty-four million inhabitants, the ten largest
banks in the world, the highest education and
longevity rates and the lowest crime rate. Its
national product is equal to that of France,
England and Germany added together. What is
this productivity due to? It is a great history, a
great tradition.
I am going to give you some keys to be great
entrepreneurs in this nation.

* Carlos P. Kasuga Osaka, general director of Yakult S.A.

Abstract of the lecture "The most important aspects of Japanese
business culture," which he presented at the First N a t i o n a l
Convention of University Entrepreneurs. Banco de México, 2000.
Contributed by Ricardo Cruz, Tampico, Mexico, and Fernando
Buitrago, Colombia.

227
 Analyzing the differences between Japan
and Mexico, I see three especially important
ones: education, religion and attitude towards
life itself and nature.

EDUCATION
In Mexico there is a lot of instructional
education, of knowledge. Our parents are
concerned about the multiplication table of 5, 6
and 8, but what about formative education?
What values are instilled in our schools?
Among the values we have to take into
account are honesty, punctuality and
cleanliness. These are part of the education
necessary for a successful entrepreneur.
There are four steps to being a company of
excellence: being well, doing well, being well
and having well.
First, the "good to be", i.e., to be honest,
punctual and disciplined. For example: in this
conference there are about six hundred
people. If the speaker arrives ten minutes late,
the nation is losing six thousand minutes.
That is why you cannot play with time, and
even less so with the time of others.

228
 Another fundamental principle is respect: if
it's not yours, it must belong to someone else.
If you found this pen on a desk, it must belong
to someone, so give it back. If you find a
watch or a ring and it's not yours, it must
belong to someone; if you find a wallet lying in
the street and it's not yours, it must belong to
someone; and if you find a lady at a party, and
it's not yours, it must belong to someone. If we
all respected these things, we would live
better.
I am the manufacturer of Kay toys. There
are no keys anywhere in this company. I'm
going to tell you how I got my people. I used to
buy the newspaper that the boys sell in the
afternoon. I would give them $100, and they
had to give me back $99.20. Many of them
did not return it, but those who did are the
ones who currently have a future, they are
t h e current executives and directors.
When the Japanese go to any exhibition in
the world, they come back to the hotel and,
without video cameras or photographic
cameras, they make the plans of these
machines and improve them. I send my
technicians to exhibitions in Hamburg and I
ask them: "What did you see!

229
 "A b e a r ." "And what's in the bear!" I ask
them the measurements, the volume or the
material, and they tell me exactly.
Second, the "well to do". Do things right. If
you are going to swim, do it well; if you are
going to study, do it well; and if you are going
to make love tonight, do it well, give yourself.
People who are a "good being" and give to the
family and to their school more than they
received, will reach the third step, the "good
being". And those who follow these three
steps, in this order, will sooner or later achieve
"well being". I say to employers: "How dare
you punish a worker who is ten minutes late,
while you are two hours late in a late model
car!

ATTITUDE TOWARDS NATURE

At every important event in life, plant a tree:
when you get married, when you have a child,
when you enter elementary school, before any
really important event, plant a tree. If your
mom and dad planted a tree when you were
born, that tree-which is now a few years old-
can be planted again.

230
 20 years - you want it, because it means a lot
to you. But if that tree is planted by the
government, I don't give a damn, and it's the
same. That's why it's important that we
make our own things, so that we love them.
Young people have to be enterprising. We
complain about pollution and erosion, but if
everyone planted a tree at every important
moment of their lives, the country would be
different.

RELIGION
In a television program to which Ricardo
Rocha invited me, I was the translator and
Ricar- do asked a group of Japanese
businessmen:
-What is the difference between Japanese and
Mexican workers?
The Japanese whispered among
themselves, and then the chief stood up and
said:
-We have visited many Mexican companies
and we believe that the Mexican worker is
much more skilled; but today we were in the
Villa and we realized why the Mexican worker
is much more skilled.

231
 relations between the workers and the
company are so poor. What we saw in the
Villa is that the two peoples (Japanese and
Mexicans) are the same: they like pilgrimages,
drums, amulets, jokes, etcetera. But you go to
the temples to ask and ri§r- rer, and in
Shintoism we go to n r- rrr. In the same way,
Mexican unions present a list of demands, and
Japanese unions present a list of offers.

Small but big difference! What am I getting at

with this? If we make 1,000 Datsun cars this
year, and we offer to make 1,200 next year,
what does the company offer? If we have five
percent production errors and we offer to
reduce them to three percent, what does the
company offer? And on the basis of those
offers, Japanese companies have achieved zero
percent error and total quality just in time.
With a sheet of demands, it is not possible. We
ask for more non-working days, more
vacation, more bonuses, that m y birthday be
paid triple....

2S2
ATTITUDE TO LIFE
The circus elephant Atayde (why doesn't he
run away? Why isn't he free, like the other
elephants! Because what happened to him is
what happened to many of us when we were
little. That little elephant was tied by the leg
with a rope and he wanted to be free and he
pulled and pulled and pulled. He hurt his leg,
it bled and later he got a callus, not only on
his leg but also on his head: at the point of
saying "I can't", he can't anymore!
And so there are many young people who become
adults and "they can't anymore" Why!
Because since they were little they have been
hearing every day: you are a brute, you are the
shame of the family, you are spoiled, they
always reprimand you.... That young person,
now as an adult, is like the ele- fant: at a
certain hour he goes out to work, does the laps
he has to do - not one more, not one more, not
one more, not one more, not one more.

* This anecdote appears elsewhere in the book. We have kept it

here so as not to affect the integrity of the lecture.

233
 The less, he moves his little trumpet, finishes
his work, and someone takes him to the straw
and brings him some food. So are many
employees who do nothing more than the
essentials.
What should they do? Let your goal today
be to be happy and enjoy what you do.
Prepare yourselves so that your objective in
life is not that it is five o'clock in the
afternoon. How sad! So, there are parents,
teachers, businessmen, who create failures
every day. But there are also teachers, parents,
businessmen and bosses who create winners
every day. It is very different, believe me, to
work like that. We must change people's
mentality.
We have an obligation to Mexico. yWhy
don't you start your own business! But don't
imagine your first company being two
hectares long. yHow did all of us
entrepreneurs start? Well, they had capital,
they will say. Not true! I know many
Lebanese, Israelis, Spaniards, who came to
this nation with one hand in front and one
hand behind, without friends, without
knowing the language or the customs, but
with faith in themselves and in Mexico, and
that

2 34
worked and worked, and now they are the
entrepreneurs of this nation.
But what's going on in town! Look at the
behavior in the town of Chicon- cuac,
wherever it is: it's the feast of the patron saint,
and the whole week of rumba... and what do
we Mexicans do! The dancing, the laziness,
the drinking, the guayabo. (And the
Spaniards! They open their bakeries from four
in the morning until ten at night. And the
Israelis? They work and work. Not us, because
it is the people's holiday.
And how much has the businessman
withdrawn in these five years that we as a
company have had in Mexico! Not a single
cent. This is how Japanese companies grow.
Until they are twenty years old, no money or
capital is withdrawn. Neither the Japanese
part, nor the Mexican part. It is pure
investment and reinvestment.
And I want you to understand, future
entrepreneurs, that when young people are
here at the university thinking "what are we
going to do", it is like falling in love. When
they make the business plan, it is the
conception. When they build the factory, it's
the embba- rachment. And when they
inaugurate it, the birth. After that, it's the birth.

235
 have a little baby. Within the first three years
they have to take care of it on a daily basis,
with the sole objective of making it grow. But
in Mexico, eighty-four percent of new
companies go bankrupt during the first three
years, because the parents want the baby to
give them the latest model car, carpeting, air
conditioning, chao- ba furniture and a blonde
secretary in a miniskirt.
Then comes adolescence, and finally they
become adults. This is when the Japanese
companies begin to distribute profits to the so-
cialists. That is why there are multi-million
dollar companies and poor entrepreneurs. The
difference between the salary of the lowest
level worker and that of the president of the
company is eight times. But in our nation, they
want to get rich in the second year with that
company they are going to set up. Go for a
twenty-year term, put everything you earn into
it, give everything to that child that is your
company, and you will see how it grows. You
will see how he becomes an adult. Yes, (and
what do we live on!), they will ask, and from
a greeting? You can have a salary, but don't
bleed it dry.

236
 I want to end with a story my father told
me. There was a forest where many little
animals lived. Suddenly a fire broke out and
everyone ran away. All except one little
sparrow who went to the river, wet his wings,
flew over the burning forest and dropped a
drop of water, trying to put out the fire. He
went back to the river, wet his wings, flew
over the forest and dropped a few drops. A
passing elephant shouted at him:
-Don't be a fool! Run away like everyone
else! yDon't you see that you're going to get
scorched?
The little sparrow turned and said to him:
-This forest has given me everything: my
family, my happiness, and I am so loyal to it that
I don't mind dying, but I will try to save it. He
went to the river a g a i n , wet his wings and
fluttered about the forest, dropping one or two
drops of water.
The gods took pity on him and let fall a
great storm that extinguished the fire. The
forest became green and all the little animals
returned and were happy again, happier than
before.

257
 Young university students: I compare this
forest to Mexico. We may be in a great fire, in
a great political, social, economic and moral
crisis, but I ask you to drop a drop or two of
sweat and hard work every day. If you do so,
the country will thank you and God will bless
you.

2 38
IB RETA BR E VE

There are three kinds of falsehoods: lies,

infamous lies and statistics.
Mark Twain

If you want God to laugh, tell him your plans.

239
 OW TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF
BEST THIS LE CTURE*

FIRST RI GLA: RESPECT

Whenever you use a part of Lo rofps rt dr fe
rare, and whenever it is the case, please credit
the authors or compilers. This rule must be
respected by all. We make reference to the
author or source because it is the principle of
respect for the creativity of others that gives us
the moral authority to insist on this point.

SECOND RULE: SHARING

Whenever you think you can do pedagogy
with any part of Le culpe rt de fe mrs.
Adelaiate! yHow many times in a conversation,

* To let us know your impressions of these readings, please contact us

at the f o l l o w i n g e-mail address: laCulpaEsDeLaVaca yahu''.com.

240
 or at a social gathering, or with your work
team, or in your family, you can help another
person through parables, anecdotes, or
anecdotes.
or fables such as those presented here, without
the need to engage in long discussions on a
subject that is exhausted by the narrative
itself! Sometimes a good example is better
than a bad sermon.

THIRD RULE: ASK

After introducing a person or group to any of
the writings in this book, ask open-ended
questions. Some of these might be:

yWhat reflection or idea does this anecdote

evoke in you! yWhat application do you see
for our company, our organization, our
personal life!
How can we apply what we have learned in
this narrative?
And is this similar to what we experience on a daily basis?

Each person can take a few minutes to think

and make notes, and then

241
 The group meets with five or six others to
share their reflections. Then, in a plenary
session, each group shares its conclusions
with the others. This simple exercise has
enormous power for individual and collective
learning.
You, as group leader, can then use this
material to focus the discussion and reinforce
the ideas that have contributed most to the
objective of your meeting.
When dealing with a large group, it is very
practical to have a different narrative for each
subgroup, all of them related to the theme of
the meeting: leadership, communications,
ethics, interpersonal relationships, etc. In the
plenary, each group reads its corresponding
story and shares its conclusions.

FOURTH RULE: TOLERATE

Do not expect others to discover the same
conclusions as you: everyone will have their
own. Do not disqualify different points of
view; on the contrary, accept them as a way of
enriching yourself. The principle of tolerance

242
 The key is to know how to listen to the other
person, without re-criminalizing his or her
thoughts and behavior.

RULE FIVE: REFLECT

The best way to take advantage of this book is
to open the mind and spirit to understanding, to
debate, to discrepancy. Do not try to make
tolerance with dogmatism. Relativize, see
reality as others see it, try to guess the motives
and context of others, which are totally
different from your own.

SIXTH RULE: WRITE

If you have applied any part of this book and
share with us your experience, we could
expand for other people not only the number of
anecdotes and parables, but also the way they
have been applied in changing attitudes and
values, or simply in the field of coexistence
and tolerance.
Collective construction will be to
We are a sample of that in our country,
and possibly at the level of Spanish-speaking
countries, we are looking for similar objectives
in terms of social coexistence. Therefore,
feel free to write us, make your contribution or
recommend other situations or spaces where
these narratives can be used.
O NTRACT OF ACTION

Since I feel that there are important ideas

for me in this book, I wish to make a
commitment to use them within the next
seven days.

The following is the most important idea

that I have acquired from this book and that I
personally wish to apply:

This is the way I want to use it:

245
 What I will gain from it is:

Someone I would like to share these ideas

with is:

Date:
Follow-up date:

246