The Professor was to retire soon and, before leaving the university campus, he invited a group of his favourite alumni to visit his home, have some coffee, and share old stories. The students invited were mostly successful in their careers and earning well.
The students were happy to meet the Professor and at first they shared stories of their college days. Inevitably though, some of them talked about their current stresses in the workplace and at home. Soon the whole group was sharing sob stories.
Meanwhile, the Professor went inside and brought a big pot of coffee along with an assortment of cups – porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain looking or slightly broken, some expensive, some exquisite, and so on. There were more cups than the number of students. He invited the students to help themselves to the coffee.
Once all the students had their coffee in their hands, the Professor said, “Notice that all the nice-looking cups have been taken, leaving only the plain and broken ones. It is normal for you to seek the best for yourself all the time. But that is often the source of your problems and stress.”
The Professor continued, “The cup itself does not add anything to the quality of the coffee. One cup may just be more expensive than another, may look nicer than another. What you wanted was just the coffee and not the cup. Yet, most of you consciously chose the better-looking cups. In fact, some of you were even comparing your cup with those taken by the others.”
The Professor warmed up to make his point: “Consider this: Life is like the coffee. The cups stand for the jobs, money, position, and so on. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, and the type of cup we have does not define, nor change, the quality of life we live. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee. So start enjoying the coffee, don’t worry about the cup!”
The Professor concluded with some words of wisdom: “The happiest people don’t have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything.”
Background: I have not been able to trace the author of this story. In deference to her or him, I rewrote the story in my words. Many websites carry the popular (identical) version. There are also nice video versions on YouTube, such as this one.
The story does have a message for us all. I have used it in workshops with good effect.
Yes, I use this in many of my lecture classes and conclude that core life to live by is simple and does not require all the other paraphernalia to enjoy it.