“Henry, how you’ve changed!
You were so tall and you’ve grown so short.
You were so well built and you’ve grown so thin.
You were so fair and you’ve become so dark.
What happened to you, Henry?”
Henry says, “I’m not Henry. I’m John.”
“Oh, you changed your name too!”
How do you get people like that to listen?
The most difficult thing in the world is to listen, to see. We don’t want to see.
Awareness
Anthony de Mello
162
Suppose he says no?
Samuel was down in the dumps and who could blame him?
His landlord had ordered him out of the apartment and he had nowhere to go.
Suddenly light dawned.
He could live with his good friend Moshe.
The thought brought Samuel much comfort, until it was assailed by another thought that said,
“What makes you so sure that Moshe will put you up at his place?”
“Why wouldn’t he?” said Samuel to the thought, somewhat heatedly,
“After all it is I who found him the place he is living in now;
and it was I who advanced him the money to pay his rent for the first six months.
Surely the least he could do is put me up for a week or so when I am in trouble.”
That settled the matter, until after dinner he was once again assailed by the thought:
“Suppose he were to refuse?”
“Refuse?” said Samuel,
“Why in God’s name would he refuse?
The man owes me everything he has.
It is I who got him his job;
it is I who introduced him to that lovely wife of his who has borne him the three sons he glories in.
Will he grudge me a room for a week? Impossible!”
That settled the matter, until he got to bed and found he couldn’t sleep because the thought came back to say,
“But just suppose he were to refuse.
What then?” This was too much for Samuel.
“How the hell could he refuse?”
he said, his temper rising now.
“If the man is alive today it is because of me.
I saved him from drowning when he was a kid.
Will he be so ungrateful as to turn me out into the streets in the middle of winter?”
But the thought was persistent.
“Just suppose…”
Poor Samuel struggled with it as long as he could.
Finally he got out of bed around two in the morning, went over to where Moshe lived and kept his finger pressed against the doorbell button till Moshe, half asleep, opened the door and said in astonishment, “Samuel!
What is it? What brings you here in the middle of the night?”
Samuel was so angry by now he couldn’t keep himself from yelling,
“I’ll tell you what brings me here at this hour of the night!
If you think I’m going to ask you to put me up even for a single day, you’re mistaken.
I don’t want to have anything to do with you, your house, your wife or your family.
To hell with you all!”
With that he turned on his heel and walked away.
The prayer of the frog. Volume – II
Anthony de Mello
Free Thoughts 