“The secret of happiness is to see all the marvels of the world, and never to forget the drops of oil on the spoon”.
Yeah, me too. Never forget the what?
I got this quote from Wikipedia’s entry on the book titled “The Alchemist”. First of all, I’m pretty much a straight up technology nerd/geek/whatever-they-call-it-these-days. I don’t pretend to be a domain expert on chemistry or biology. Sure, I took some classes in college, but it never really interested me as much as all things technology did, or even math. Matter of fact, I hated math when I was a kid. My parents and high school math teachers will testify how much I failed at the subject, hated the subject, and faked liking the subject (I sort of faked liking school too, but that’s a different story altogether to tell another time). I’ll bet that my teachers then will be shocked to hear today, that not only did I get a minor in math, published an original research paper in math, but actually like and appreciate math.
That being said, during my geeky nerd years doing my B.S. (ha-ha) in C.S., I pretty much thought of chemistry and biology as an “overhead cost” to getting my degree. It just wasn’t that much related to tech or math (sure I understand that CPU’s need electrons for the transistors and logic gates, but outside of that .. ?), and it was pretty much required if I wanted to graduate, so I knew that this isn’t something I could walk around and forget. When I graduated, a good friend of mine who graduated with me gave me a graduation/parting gift. It was a book titled “The Alchemist”. Now that you know my love-hate relationship with all-things chemistry at that time, I naturally thought to myself, “uhh .. what on earth were you thinking?” Nevertheless, I accepted the gift with a smile, thanked her for it, and well .. chucked it a side.
Just to put things in perspective, back then, I only read stuff like Slashdot, Onlamp and O’Reilly. Back then, there was no Digg or Reddit, but if there was, I would be reading that. I hung on on mailing lists, like for FreeBSD. I wouldn’t even touch business. Today, I read lots of business. So back then, if it wasn’t tech, I pretty much didn’t care. Ok, I read a little bit of national news. A little international news too, but 95% was tech, tech, and tech.
Many times when ridding my garage of bloat, I thought of ridding myself of a book that I knew I would never read, but it reminded me of the moments I had with Amira in the computer science lab, hacking away at programming assignments, logic problems, the late nights studying in the library (with coffee we quietly snuck past the pesky librarians), cramming for a test and stressing out over math and physics homework assignments. To date, I still have the book with me. Recently, I read the book mentioned somewhere and decided that well, I will at least devote enough time to read the summary of the book — which is when I looked up it’s Wikipedia entry and got that quote.
So anyway, following this trail led me to another interesting discovery. (Be warned, this is going to be a long blog post)
I googled for that exact quote and the first result was this blog post, by someone from Kerala, India. Here’s the story behind that quote, it’s worth the read I promise.
A certain shopkeeper sent his son to learn about the secret of happiness from the wisest man in the world. The lad wandered through the desert for 40 days, and finally came upon a beautiful castle, high atop a mountain. It was there that the wise man lived.
Rather than finding a saintly man, though, our hero, on entering the main room of the castle, saw a hive of activity: tradesmen came and went, people were conversing in the corners, a small orchestra was playing soft music, and there was a table covered with platters of the most delicious food in that part of the world. The wise man conversed with everyone, and the boy had to wait for two hours before it was his turn to be given the man’s attention.
The wise man listened attentively to the boy’s explanation of why he had come, but told him that he didn’t have time just then to explain the secret of happiness. He suggested that the boy look around the palace and return in two hours.
“Meanwhile, I want to ask you to do something”, said the wise man, handing the boy a teaspoon that held two drops of oil. “As you wander around, carry this spoon with you without allowing the oil to spill”.
The boy began climbing and descending the many stairways of the palace, keeping his eyes fixed on the spoon. After two hours, he returned to the room where the wise man was.
“Well”, asked the wise man, “Did you see the Persian tapestries that are hanging in my dining hall? Did you see the garden that it took the master gardener ten years to create? Did you notice the beautiful parchments in my library?”
The boy was embarrassed, and confessed that he had observed nothing. His only concern had been not to spill the oil that the wise man had entrusted to him.
“Then go back and observe the marvels of my world”, said the wise man. “You cannot trust a man if you don’t know his house”.
Relieved, the boy picked up the spoon and returned to his exploration of the palace, this time observing all of the works of art on the ceilings and the walls. He saw the gardens, the mountains all around him, the beauty of the flowers, and the taste with which everything had been selected. Upon returning to the wise man, he related in detail everything he had seen.
“But where are the drops of oil I entrusted to you?” asked the wise man. Looking down at the spoon he held, the boy saw that the oil was gone.
“Well, there is only one piece of advice I can give you”, said the wisest of wise men. “The secret of happiness is to see all the marvels of the world and never to forget the drops of oil on the spoon”.
This makes sense to me. I know and realize that I sometimes am like that boy. I focus all my energy on the day-to-day important stuff, but I miss the long term important stuff. This is a great example of the phrase “penny wise, pound foolish”. I sweat the stuff that is urgently needed within the next 24 hours and strive the hardest to hit my mark, which I do — but I miss my mark in meeting my long term, broader 5 year goal. I attribute this to not aligning my daily goals to my 5 year goals — something I MUST remedy soon.
A perfect example of this is my not taking a vacation off ever since I began working right after college. Today, I’m what you corporate folks diagnose as “bleeding vacation time”, that is, my vacation time accrues, but is capped off at a certain amount. Short term: there’s _always_ something important and/or urgent at work, such that I just cannot afford to not go to work. Long term: I lose my sanity and burn out from working so hard. I’m only human after all.
Before the end of this year, I will go for a vacation. I have nothing solid planned, but I know I must take a vacation if I am to become a better employee. It’s really better for my company anyway. I never thought I’d say that, but I am now. By the end of this year, if I still haven’t taken a vacation, I will be truly SORRY and DISAPPOINTED with myself. My ex-girlfriend actually predicted that I’m the “bleeding vacation time” type of person. And she predicted that when I was still in college. Multiple part time jobs while getting a degree, why would she ever say something like that? :/ I remember thinking to myself, “that’s because you Europeans take it too damn easy”. Which in my defense, is true. American workers put in more hours than their European counterparts, last I remember from reading a world labor stats report. Thus, I shrugged off her comments as irrelevant and inherently biased, based upon unreasonable metrics.
My fear is that I’m driving on the road in high gear, in pitch black darkness with my headlights shining no farther than 30 feet. I can easily avoid small objects lying on the road and remain on the path, but I may not see the brick wall standing 31 feet in front of me. Or stop in time before it’s too late.
I have since lost touch with Amira since she moved back to Bosnia and Herzegovina after graduation (little over 3 years now at time of writing). Nevertheless, in the age of the wonderful internets, with search engines, e-mail, instant messengers, social-networks, and the good old telephone, there really is no excuse for not staying in touch. I hope she will drop me an e-mail if she reads this. I know (and she knows), and now you know, what a heartless prick I can be sometimes (see “what the hell were you thinking?” above). I’m sorry 
The Alchemist: A Fable About Following Your Dream
