A hunter once lost his way deep inside the jungle while chasing a deer. He used all of his navigation skills, but neither did he find any way out of the jungle nor could he find any way out of the jungle nor could he find any food to eat for 3 days at a stretch.
He lost all hope. He thought he would die out of hunger. And that’s exactly when an apple tree caught his eye. He was so happy. He collected 10 apples to feed him for the rest of his stretch.
As he ate the first apple his joy knew no bounds and he just couldn’t stop feeling, grateful and blessed. He thanked life. He thanked God. He was very happy. He could not believe his luck when he ate the first apple; but he was less grateful while having the second apple and even less grateful when he had his 5th apple.
Somehow with each passing apple, the joy kept reducing drastically. He could just not enjoy the 10th apple. He even started throwing apples that did not taste good. And he also started complaining. He had taken for granted the gift of having found an apple tree in the middle of the jungle, after three days of wandering around with hunger.
In Economics this is called the Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility. It is actually the Law of Diminishing Gratitude. In simple words – taking things for granted. Or let’s just call it the 10th Apple Effect.
It represents our lack of appreciation for the gifts of life. The Hunter represents all of us, and the Apple tree represents the gifts that life gives us. The 10th apple is really as sweet as the 1st apple. If the 10th apple fails to give us as much pleasure as the 1st one, there is nothing wrong with apple; but with the person enjoying the fruit.
We have been having the 10th Apple Effect in this world for some time – an abundance of everything. We then started complaining about people, job, Government, traffic, food, weather and many, many more. We started calling for more freedoms, less discrimination, more secular and less spiritual interference, more equality, more diversity, more free health services and more flexible work conditions.
Right now each of us has TWO Choices – To Be Grateful or To Be Demanding and more Stressed!
Below is a story to highlight this more clearly.
A 73 year old man in Italy recovered in a hospital from an illness. He was told to pay for the ventilator for one day and the old man started crying. The doctor advised him not to cry over the bill and that the hospital would manage it. But what the old man said made all the doctors cry.
“I am not crying because of the money I have to pay. I can pay the money. I am crying because I have been breathing God’s air for 73 years and I have never paid for it. Now it takes 5000 Euros to use a ventilator for one day. Do you know how much I owe God? I didn’t thank God before”.
His words are worth reflection. When we breathe air freely without any pain – we do not take the air seriously. It is only when we enter the hospital do we realise that breathing Oxygen is essential to human life.
When you change the way you look at things, the things you look – at change. Gratitude is a powerful and empowering emotion. Sometimes we have to bring more awareness and be more Grateful for the simple gifts of life.
Gratitude supports our immune system – it makes us strong. Stress makes us weak.
“Thank you” is the best Prayer you can say all day.
A Law of the Universe says that when you are grateful for things you have in life, you will have more things to be grateful for.
So never let the 10th Apple Effect allow you to take the gifts of life for granted. Never let Gratitude for Life fade away.
