Sunday, October 29, 2006
The trap of a gift
Good morning,
Gifts are wonderful, but wrong use can lead to being trapped.
"Beware of Greeks who come bearing gifts." When I first heard this I was totally ignorant of what my colleague meant. Then he referred me to the Trojan war. In the story The Iliad by Homer, after the joint forces of the Greeks were unable to breech the walls of Troy for many years, perhaps ten, they retreated, leaving behind a gigantic wooden horse. The Trojans claimed victory, hauled the gift into the city and celebrated. In the drunken stupor of the Trojans after the celebration, the enemy came out of the wooden horse and opened the gates. Then the returning Greeks entered the city and slaughtered the Trojans. That wooden horse was one heck of a gift !
As humans we are born with gifts, personal gifts of beauty, strength or other assets, of our body. Each gift is meant for its special purpose. To misuse a gift or to be lured away from its main purpose can turn it into a waste, or even a trap.
To use the beautiful body to sexually attract the opposite sex could turn one into a gigolo or prostitute. Ngiachai was born very pretty and relatives and friends like to compliment her. She became flattered and vain and used her charms to get her way. She ended up serving drinks in a bar.
To use the strength of the body to fight may well make one a fighter and live the life of punching and being punched. There was a boxer who was so punched drunk that in his later years he could only worked as a jaga.
Oihkea was born very strong; he could haul up pails and pails of water from the well like picking feathers. He decided to be like Thaisan, or Tarzan. He practiced taking up weights; he used the wheel rims of a motorcar for weight lifting. He did become very strong, only that. As it turned out he was called Oihkea, a nickname meaning shorty.
To be clever at sizing up people may lure one to be cunning and manipulate others and situations. Jipunkia was born intelligent. As a young man he professed that he would be a millionaire before the age of thirty. He wouldn't mind if he went to jail so long as he had stashed away millions of dollars before that; he would come out after imprisonment and live in style. Whether he joked or not that was what he said. Jipunkia did go to jail and when he came out he had lots of money, but the truth was that very few people wanted to be associated with him.
Have a nice day
Ronald
Gifts are wonderful, but wrong use can lead to being trapped.
"Beware of Greeks who come bearing gifts." When I first heard this I was totally ignorant of what my colleague meant. Then he referred me to the Trojan war. In the story The Iliad by Homer, after the joint forces of the Greeks were unable to breech the walls of Troy for many years, perhaps ten, they retreated, leaving behind a gigantic wooden horse. The Trojans claimed victory, hauled the gift into the city and celebrated. In the drunken stupor of the Trojans after the celebration, the enemy came out of the wooden horse and opened the gates. Then the returning Greeks entered the city and slaughtered the Trojans. That wooden horse was one heck of a gift !
As humans we are born with gifts, personal gifts of beauty, strength or other assets, of our body. Each gift is meant for its special purpose. To misuse a gift or to be lured away from its main purpose can turn it into a waste, or even a trap.
To use the beautiful body to sexually attract the opposite sex could turn one into a gigolo or prostitute. Ngiachai was born very pretty and relatives and friends like to compliment her. She became flattered and vain and used her charms to get her way. She ended up serving drinks in a bar.
To use the strength of the body to fight may well make one a fighter and live the life of punching and being punched. There was a boxer who was so punched drunk that in his later years he could only worked as a jaga.
Oihkea was born very strong; he could haul up pails and pails of water from the well like picking feathers. He decided to be like Thaisan, or Tarzan. He practiced taking up weights; he used the wheel rims of a motorcar for weight lifting. He did become very strong, only that. As it turned out he was called Oihkea, a nickname meaning shorty.
To be clever at sizing up people may lure one to be cunning and manipulate others and situations. Jipunkia was born intelligent. As a young man he professed that he would be a millionaire before the age of thirty. He wouldn't mind if he went to jail so long as he had stashed away millions of dollars before that; he would come out after imprisonment and live in style. Whether he joked or not that was what he said. Jipunkia did go to jail and when he came out he had lots of money, but the truth was that very few people wanted to be associated with him.
Have a nice day
Ronald
# posted by chunmu @ 4:51 PM 
