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THE OPTIMIST AND THE PESSIMIST (A modern fable in two parts) Part 1 Once upon a time a man was driving in a Cadillac. Suddenly he saw another man lying across the road. It happened so unexpectedly that the driver had hardly managed to stop his car. "Are you crazy?" yelled the man driving the Cadillac. "Don't you realize that I could have killed you?" "I really don't care," replied the man lying across the road. "I am poor and starving, tired and sick. I've been travelling for a long time looking for food and shelter, going from town to town, always hoping that in the next one I would eventually find what I'm looking for, so I can stop wandering and, at last, settle down there. But so far I haven't been able to find such a hospitable place to stay. What I had found instead everywhere were greed and stinginess, hostility and rejection. And now, finally, I have lost all my hopes; I just can't go on any longer." "This is absolutely wrong attitude," said the man driving in the Cadillac to the man lying across the road. "One should never lose hope. Look at me. You probably think that I must be happy driving in a Cadillac. But I am not. All my life I had always wanted to have a solver Rolls-Royce. And, just like you, I've been travelling, I mean, of course, driving in my Cadillac, for a long time from one city to another looking for a silver Rolls-Royce. And again, just like you, always without success. But, unlike you, I never lost my hope. And now, at last, I'm about to be rewarded. I just have learned that in the next city there is going to be an auction where the silver Cadillac of my dreams will be sold. And I'm going to buy it no matter how much it costs. Because money means nothing to me, as long as I get what I want. So, you see my friend, one should never lose hope. Never!" And having said that, he drove away in his Cadillac. Part 2 Some time passed. The man who had been lying across the road was now briskly walking along it. Suddenly he saw the man, whom he remembered driving in a Cadillac, standing now on the roof of a silver Rolls-Royce, trying to hang himself from a tree growing by the roadside. The walking man immediately rushed ahead screaming: "What are you doing? Have you gone completely mad? Haven't you got what you have been looking for so many years. Remember what you told me some time ago about not losing hope? I believed you then and I got up and started to walk again till, finally, I reached the town where I found food and shelter. I stayed there for a while, recovering my health and strength. But very soon, and I really don't know why, I become bored and restless again. So, I decided, as much as I liked it, to leave this hospitable town and resume my travelling, but without fear this time, for now I'm absolutely sure that sooner or later I'm bound to find another town as good as the one I've left or, may be, even better." "So what?" said the man standing on the roof of the silver Rolls-Royce and trying to hang himself to the man walking along the road. "What difference does it make? Remember I told you that I've been looking for many years for this silver Rolls-Royce. So, now I have it. But you know what, it isn't different from the Cadillac I had before. It's just a car, no more, no less. And when I think that I've spent the best years of my life looking for this damned car it makes me feel so miserable that I don't want to live anymore." "This is a totally wrong attitude," replied the man walking along the road to the man standing on the roof of the silver Rolls-Royce and trying to hang himself. "Never lose hope. Maybe what you really need is a golden Ferrari." And having said that he resumed walking. |
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