Story in a box

English 191 Section 25

By Puspak Sapkota

A take on life

A wealthy businessman residing in the urban areas of Singapore, Stephen Chao, is off to a trip to Africa. For Stephen, the journey to Africa always meant the exotic jungle safari, hiking and kayaking in the great rivers. But never in his wildest dreams had he ever thought that this journey would be a life changing experience.

During his kayaking trip on his boat along the Ituri River in Congo, Stephen meets a bunch of nomadic tribesmen, the Mbutis and is mesmerized seeing these indigenous people. Stephen is fascinated by the way these people talk and more importantly spellbound by their way of life. These people live in small huts made with branches and leaves, make living by hunting and gathering and are miles away from modernization. They still hunt with bows and arrows, still gather fruits and nuts, still eat on their traditional plates and still depend upon the forest for their existence. Nothing has really changed for them. Modernization has made no radical changes to their lifestyles or the way they think. They are happy worshipping the stone statues of their deities if anything goes wrong and they seemingly get out of their problems simply by playing drums around the forest because of their belief in the power of nature. They have nothing and yet they are the happiest people.
Now, Stephen starts comparing his life to the Mbutis. He has everything that a person could ever imagine of… property, a beautiful house, belongings and assets worth millions but he is still empty within. He looks at the Mbutis again; they have nothing and are still smiling.
“How can this be? How can they be happier than me?” He questions to himself.
He pulls out his wallet from his pocket and stares at it for a while. He then opens his wallet and takes  all of his coins out.
“Is money supposed to give me happiness and satisfaction?” questioning himself with a dazed expression on his face. 
Suddenly, in the  midst of all these coins, he finds a coin that is really close to his heart, a coin symbolizing the year of the dog in Chinese Calendar which represents his zodiac. Now he realizes the real essence. The Dog  never runs after money and wealth. Instead the Dog inspires others and is always happy with whatever he has.
Stephen has finally understood the key to being happy. Life is not a coin that is mounted in a display case, it is not for others to see and analyze but for you to use, spend and get the maximum out of it.

Stephen has to thank the Mbutis for what they made him realize. Life is not about how much we possess but is all about how many we inspire and how content we are with the possessions we carry. We cannot go out in the world with a measuring scale in our hands comparing our lives with others but we can at least talk to ourselves and be satisfied with whatever we have. Satisfaction is the key to feel the jars of life with happiness and it is the only way we can stamp our lives ‘Certified Happy J’.