nano encounters

This week I met four men.  Each has a different story to tell.  Two have similar stories and lifestyles.   Two have different lifestyles, but both are worlds apart from the other two men.  In simple words, two are the same and two are almost the same.

Man 1 told me his woes.  Patiently I listened.  Business is bad.  Profits are low. Customers aren’t buying as they used to. It was all about him and his goals.  He wasn’t interested in my woes.  He wasn’t interested in doing the right thing.  His entire monologue was centered on win-lose with win in his favor.  He showed no remorse for his dishonorable and unprofessional past actions.  I continued to listen as he continued to lie to my face.  He contradicted himself a few times over, but I opted not to correct him.  It was pointless.  I had already decided that there isn’t even a shred of honor in this man.  I was eager to get miles away from him.

Man 2 is much older than me.  He is someone I should respect for all his years of experience or just simply for his years of existence.  Things were reversed.  He showered me with an abundance of respect and kindness.  I was embarrassed and deeply humbled.  He is a hardworking middle-class man trying to make ends meet.  He lives in a small old house in a crowded neighborhood.  He invited me to his home and I felt like I would be visiting a grand palace.  The actual dimensions of his home became irrelevant.  If you don’t count his bank balance as an indicator of rich-poor, he is a very rich man.  He has a big heart.  I am honored to know him.

Man 3 shares the same lifestyle as Man 1.  Perhaps not surprisingly, he sang the same tune as him.  Business is down.  Loss is up.  The economy is unkind.  He lied and twisted facts in ten different ways.  I could easily have proven him wrong with a few phone calls and emails.  Arguing was futile.  I just nodded and listened.  After sometime I could no longer hear his words.  I heard static.  My mind had a battle going on with itself.  Tolerate.  Don’t tolerate.  The former won and I was forced back to reality.  Trust and honor don’t exist in this man’s modus operandi.  May I never see him again, but may he one day sit on the other side of his big desk.

Man 4 didn’t particularly want to tell me his personal story, but I was curious to know.  We had time on our hands, so I struck up a conversation.  He is a simple man who went out of his way to assist me on his only day off.  He goes to work on a bicycle riding 30 minutes each way 6 days a week.  Sometimes it takes him 60 minutes one way.  He gets wet in the rain, he feels cold in the winter, and he melts in the blazing summer heat.  He lives in a tiny one room in a congested poor neighborhood.  As his story rolled on, he grew more excited to tell me about his past, present, and future.  Each sentence was laced with a genuine smile.  I was sad to part ways.

This week I learned valuable lessons from four men.  Each with their different outlook on life gave me plenty of food for thought.  Man 1 and 3 with all their material possessions have not captured the essence of life.  Their having so much and yet complaining and deceiving confirms, that materialism doesn’t soothe the soul.  Man 2 and 4 lack material possessions yet radiate a happy disposition.  They have an innate desire to assist others which continues to gives one hope, that there are more pure souls in this world than we suppose.  May they be contagious and may we all be infected, because theirs is the right path.