Nasrudin decided to try his hand at archery. He fit an arrow to the bow, aimed at a nearby tree, pulled back the bowstring and let fly. The arrow flew straight past the tree and stuck in Nasrudin’s shirt, which was hanging on the line to dry.
Nasrudin let out a great shriek and sank to his knees, wailing. His wife rushed from the house to find out what was the matter.
Nasrudin pointed in horror at the arrow sticking out of the shirt. His wife looked at the shirt, pulled out the arrow and said: “Nasrudin! What’s wrong with you? It’s an old shirt, it’s only a small tear, I can mend it – what’s the big deal?”
Nasrudin continued to wail. “You don’t understand! What if I had been wearing that shirt? I just came that close to dying!”
Commentary: At first glance Nasrudin looks quite foolish. His reaction seems vastly over-blown – after all, he wasn’t wearing the shirt and no real harm was done. So what is he trying to tell us? Is he reminding us of the difference between scenarios and reality – between what might be and what actually is – by showing how ridiculous we look when we react to the one as if it were the other? Why should we get frantic about “not making plan” when after all “plan” was just our best scenario for how things would turn out? How much energy do we put into preventing what could happen to our nation or our business, at the expense of making the most of what is happening? Is Nasrudin essentially telling us to just lighten up?
Perhaps. But consider: before the arrow pierced his shirt, being shot with an arrow was a mere possibility for Nasrudin – he knew it could possibly happen, but it had no real place in how he saw the world or conducted himself. The moment that arrow went in, everything changed: he now saw with his own eyes that being shot with an arrow was an actual possibility – and his world and his place in it shifted. He now lived in a world in which a man – even Nasrudin himself! – could be innocently minding his own business when a stray arrow struck him down. And he mourned the loss of his previous, more innocent world.
Once seen, never forgotten – and impossible to ignore. Four airliners are hijacked, two of them fly into the World Trade Center towers – and the world becomes a place where the unthinkable is now real. Old and honorable professional services firms are brought down by the greed of a few arrogant partners, a world-wide market collapse costs millions of people their fortunes and pensions – and the world becomes a place where hard work and honesty do not, in fact, pay off in the end.
Some happenings change just our beliefs or opinions. Some change our world.
Contemplation: What mere possibilities have become actual possibilities for you? How has your world changed – and what difference has it made?
Dedicated to those whose world ended on September 11, 2001.
Tony Makes Sense of ... 