(a 3 minute read) Mindy was explaining to Adam that her boyfriend once ruined a book she was reading. Her boyfriend said to her, “You will be shocked when the heroin of this story dies at the end.” Mindy was describing to Adam how livid she was with her boyfriend for ruining the book for her. “I threw the book on the ground and yelled at him off top of my lungs, and I never read that book again. For it is a waste of time to read a book when you already know the ending”, she exclaimed.

You should have been there to see the puzzled look on Mindy’s face when Adam, without responding to her story, started telling a story of his own that had nothing to do with what she just said.

“I was in my mid-twenties when I almost died”, Adam began to tell his tale. Mindy was pretty indifferent to Adam in the beginning. “Then there was a helicopter waiting when the ambulance pulled at the local hospital”. Mindy’s ears were perking at this point. Adam continued, “I could not open my eyes as the pain was excruciating, but I could clearly hear everything going on around me. I knew I am having a heart attack and this is the day I die.” Mindy’s arms were wrapped around her body, so as to hold herself tight. Her mouth was wide open, shocked to hear Adam’s description of his situation at the time. You could clearly see that Mindy was all in at this point. As Adam was taking a breath in between sentences, Mindy shouted, “Then what happened?”

Adam explained that through complications, he was in and out of the hospital for about three months, but things were all taken care of and he pulled through. He heard Mindy exhale loudly as a load has been lifted off of her chest.

“You see my dear Mindy”, Adam said with a beaming smile, “although you knew the ending of my story, as I stand here in front of you, you were engaged as I told you what happened. You were sad when things were going bad for me, and became delighted as I finished my story.”

“It is not really the end of the book that matters. If you CARE about the ‘subject’, then it is living through the journey that indeed matters.”

Some claim to know the end of their story and exclaim where they will be at the end. Some claim they do not know where they will end up at the end, and some question if there is somewhere to end up.

Whichever way you think, it matters not what the end is.  ENGAGE in your daily life regardless of what you believe and regardless of what you think of what he or she believes. The fact is, we are all here together living our daily life. And tomorrow………………. who knows.

COOPERATE        UNIFY          LIAISE            COALESCE           COLLABORATE         CARE

Not because you claim a happy ending means you just point to it, and beware as you may become callus to others because of your happy ending. CARE & ENGAGE 🙂