An Interesting Thought…

I don’t like to admit this, but I got an interesting email forward today. Let me underscore that I HATE email forwards. I really, really, really HATE email forwards. Working with computers as much as I do, I get about 100 spam emails a day, and those are the ones that get past my filters. The last thing that I need is more spam from friends.

But this one struck me as interesting. It was about an inspirational speaker who held up a $20 bill, told the crowd that one person would receive it, and asked anyone who would like it to raise a hand. Then the speaker wadded it up. “Who would still like it?” the speaker asked. Again, hands went up. Then he threw it on the ground, stomped on it, and ground it with his heel. “Who still wants it?” he asked again. The same number of hands went up again. No matter the condition of the bill, it was still worth $20.

The moral of the story: many of us are very hard on ourselves, and forget that no matter our experiences we are still priceless human beings. We may learn from our experiences, but we don’t increase or decrease in value based on them. We are priceless no matter what. How many of us forget this lesson on a daily basis? I often caution students, half jokingly, that we learn martial arts to beat up others, not our selves! But most of us are our own worst enemies. We never give ourselves a break, and expect ourselves to be perfect the first time around. In martial arts, and in life, that is unrealistic. Do we forget that with ourselves? How about with others? What if we spent more time focusing on the ultimate priceless value of each human life and stopped focusing on how many times a “$20 bill” had been ground into the pavement?