Goals
Happy New Year! I hope 2010 brings you good fortune and great accomplishments.
I have recently played with writing a few very short stories that are intended to provoke thought rather than answer questions. Here’s a sample, entitled “Goals.”
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The potter’s apprentice had spent the entire day working on a particularly difficult technique, without apparent success, and finally cried out in anger. The Master came over to him and said, “Tell me, what is your purpose in learning to be a potter?”
Despite his frustration, the apprentice barely paused before replying, “The purpose of a potter is to make pots. I would like to make the best pots I possibly can.”
The Master grunted and said, “Come.” He led the apprentice into the shop where the pots were sold. The shelves were filled with pots – large cooking pots, small eating bowls, pots with covers, pots with beautiful glazes. He pointed to a small bowl and asked, “What is the purpose of this bowl?” The apprentice stared at it for a moment and said, “It could be used for many things – perhaps for people to eat from, or as a place for a beggar to keep his coins.”
The Master nodded, then pointed to a beautiful bowl with a brilliant glaze. “And this one?” he asked. The apprentice said, “Its beauty uplifts the spirit.”
As they were talking, a customer came into the shop and bought a cooking pot. While the customer paid, the Master pointed to the cooking pot and asked, “What is the purpose of this pot?”
The apprentice said, “For the customer, it will be used for cooking. For the potters, it makes money so that we can survive.”
Again the Master nodded, then asked, “Tell me, what is your purpose in learning to be a potter?”
The apprentice thought for a while and then replied, “I would like to make the best pots I possibly can, which means making things that are of value to myself and to my customers.”
The Master pursed his lips and quietly shook his head. After a few moments of thought he said, “Choose the pot in this store that most embodies your purpose as a potter.”
The apprentice looked around, inspecting the beautiful and the utilitarian, the small and the large, the colorful and the plain. After a time, he selected a small eating dish that was perfectly shaped and exquisitely painted and handed it to the Master. The apprentice said, “This bowl is useful and beautiful. It has value far greater than its size would suggest. This bowl truly embodies the purpose of the potter.”
The Master nodded and asked, “In making this pot, has the potter achieved more of his purpose?”
The apprentice said, “Yes, that must surely be so.”
Taking the bowl in both hands, the Master carefully stretched out his arms and after a brief pause dropped the bowl to the ground, where it broke into many pieces. Ignoring the cry of dismay from the apprentice, the Master softly asked once again, “Tell me, what is your purpose in learning to be a potter?”