Something to Think of

Perceptions

A heart surgeon took his car to his local garage for a regular service, where he usually exchanged a little friendly banter with the owner, a skilled but not especially wealthy mechanic.

“So tell me,” says the mechanic, “I’ve been wondering about what we both do for a living, and how much more you get paid than me!”

“Yes?...” says the surgeon.

“Well, look at this,” says the mechanic, as he worked on a big complicated engine, “I check how it’s running, open it up, fix the valves, and put it all back together so it works good as new. We basically do the same job, don’t we? And yet you are paid ten times what I am – how do you explain that?”

The surgeon thought for a moment, and smiling gently, asked, “Can you try it with the engine running?”

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Vision

Each person looks at life with a different vision. Three persons can look at a tree. One will see so many board feet of valuable lumber worth so much money. The second one will see it as so much firewood to be burned to keep one’s family warm in the winter. The third will see it as a masterpiece of God’s love and enduring strength. It has a value far beyond its worth in money or firewood.

What we live for determines what we see in life and gives clearer focus to our inner vision.

                                                                                                                         — Henry David Thoreau