Dear class,
I will be starting another series on this blog, and will be naming it “The Fisherman and Sam” series. While the “Talent” series provides a factual description of the various talents in us through our personalities, “The Fisherman and Sam” series will take on a narrative style in the form of a story. From the stories in this series, I hope that we are all able to draw some lessons of life through the interactions of the primary characters, which in this case revolves around The Fisherman and Sam. So, do keep a lookout for it.
Below are the character introduction of The Fisherman and Sam:
Sam: Sam is a typical corporate employee working in a multinational company (MNC). He is academically-inclined and regards life as a journey to achieve his goals. Hence, he has always put in his best effort in everything he does. This probably explains his quick climb up the corporate ladder, and being promoted to be the Director of Advertising within a year. Few among his friends ever made it made it that far within such a short time. And this is something that Sam has always took pride in. That is, his achievements.
Nevertheless, Sam always feels that something is missing in his life. He is always looking, always searching. Initially, Sam thinks that he can find the missing puzzle of his life in his work. Thus, he has spent long hours in the office, wrapping up every last piece of documentation that requires attention and closing every sales deal that is possible. “Super-achiever” is a term that is associated with Sam in the office, a mark of recognition given to him by his colleagues and peers who often held Sam in high regard.
However, over time, Sam realises that fulfillment cannot be found in his work. So, he looks for it outside the office, in the company of friends. Still, Sam feels that his life is empty. So, he went for romance. After several attempts, Sam finds himself in a daze, as romance gives him a different type of happiness but a different kind of pain as well.
Feeling disappointed, Sam decided to stop looking. And just when he’s just wandering along the pier going nowhere, Sam met The Fisherman. Through the interactions that he made with The Fisherman, Sam’s life begins to change for the better. And finally, he found happiness.
This is often the case, isn’t it? Just when we are so exhausted in looking for something and are on the verge of giving up, the thing that we are searching for all this while appears right before our eyes.
The Fisherman: The Fisherman has no name. Or maybe, he once has a name. It just does not matter to him anymore. People now know him only as The Fisherman. The Fisherman probably likes to be called this way. As the name implies, The Fisherman loves to fish. In fact, he often spends an entire day fishing. In good weather, of course. He lives in a hut just by the side of the lake with his wife and two children, a son and a daughter. And the other children playing by the lake like The Fisherman for his good-natured disposition and humour.
Throughout his life, he has never worked in an urban city before. Not even when people tell him that riches can be found in the faraway cities. The Fisherman delves in simplicity and is never one who succumbs to consumerism. And urban cities have an allure that attracts the unaware and the uninitiated. The cities have a way of stuffing one with irrelevant information and commodifying things and people. And these are things that The Fisherman is aware and steer clears of.
But life has a way of bringing people from different walks of life together. This is probably the reason why The Fisherman chances upon Sam one fateful early evening, along the lake of Ceranest while fishing. This chance encounter will change both their lives forever.
Being happy has always been an enigma in our lives.
We just have to plow through the tons of articles on this subject matter as well as the numerous conferences and seminars that are being organised worldwide to realise this. What is interesting is that despite these efforts by humans to define the essence of “happiness”, most humans are not happy.
In the papers today, there’s an article which highlights that our happiness lies in our memories, and not in materialistic possession. This brings to mind what one of my friends have mentioned to me previously about the increase in the number of choices leading to our unhappiness. This observation is reinforced by what I have read in a book on happiness that as we are given more choices, we become unhappier (and ironically, not happier). If we were to look at the primary causes of the increase in our choices in life, much can be attributed to financial wealth and more specifically technology. In fact, both factors work in tandem with each other to create discomfort and unhappiness among us. Our financial expanses enable us to purchase more things but along the way, our expectations of things that we can acquire increased. Couple our financial freedom with technology such as the internet (which opens up almost limitless purchasing options for us), it’s no wonder that most of us have began to live life in a competitive manner, with material acquisition as our primary objectives.
Having said all this, some of you might be wondering if I am advocating the return to the ”good old days”? My answer to this question will be “no”. It’s important to note that despite its flaws, technology has aided us well in most aspects of our lives, such as easier access to information.
What we need to know is simply to understand the concept of simplicity. Because happiness lies in this very word. In our rush to keep up with the rest of the world, we have almost lose sight of where happiness lies. We begin to pick up habits like “multi-tasking”, “multiple-platform communications” (such as using MSN, SMSes and telephone to communication all at the same time) etc, all of which serves to undermine our peace of mind that is required for us to be happy.
To be happy, we just need to indulge in the simple things in life, such as taking a walk in the garden, having a meal with our close friends and loved ones as well as sipping from a cup of tea at our own time.
At the end of the day, we will realise that happiness is something that lies within ourselves, not without.
It’s such an irony that humans are trying so hard to search for happiness when the solution can be as simple as giving someone else a smile, or a call.
