TWO SIGNS

It is many years since my favourite teacher Fr Gatti departed. But his many inspiring lessons continue to guide me. One such story of his went like this…

A blind boy was sitting with a mat by his feet. He held up a sign which said: "I am blind, please help." A sage walking by noticed that there were very few coins on the mat. He took the sign, turned it around, and wrote some words. He put the sign back so that everyone who walked by would see the new words.

Soon the mat began to fill up. A lot more people were giving money to the blind boy.
That evening, the sage who had changed the sign, passed by again. The boy recognized his footsteps and asked, "Were you the one who changed my sign this morning? What did you write?" The sage replied, "I wrote the same thing as you but in a different way." He had written, "Today is a beautiful day but I cannot see it."

The two signboards while saying the same thing conveyed totally different messages. Of course both signs told people the boy was blind. But the first simply said the boy was blind. The latter one told people they were so lucky that they were not blind. Surely the second sign was better at its impact and effect!

This is an enduring lesson. How we communicate is very important. We need to be better at exploring the various ways that our message may be interpreted. And we must choose the option that conveys our message best. We must be like the wise sage who chose to express instead of trying to impress.

To BE BETTER at communicating our message
Let every word of ours hold the wisdom of a sage!

- Pravin-da