What Is that Boy Made of?

What Is that Boy Made of?

Once, long ago I saw a boy. He was always sitting alone. When started to observe him a bit closely, I under why it was so; More the friends he made More the friends he lost. Each time he made a friend, he got a bit of hope, but soon after that they left making bigger hole. Well the good thing was that the hope remained.
May be that is why he never lost his mind!

One day I asked him, if he had cried each time they left you behind all alone. He smiled and said, “I cried yesterday night and that is why I can smile today.” That got me worried! ‘Was he crying every night?’ That’s not good. In fact that is going to end terribly! But when I asked about that his answer shocked me even more, “I only cry when I loose not for the memory of the lose.” This kid, I wish I was at least a bit more like him.

“How can you be that strong?” I asked. For a boy in class 6, that is age 13, he was way beyond any normal expectation.

“When you are trained with as much experience with hurt as I am, it is not that easy to get hurt. But that does not mean hard hearted, just have a strong root into that ground; with a backup plan” he replied and smiled.

For him crying is a rope that pulls him out of tragedy. He does not keep crying and crying remembering the past. He only cried that night when he lost something for a while. It’s like a pressure cookers nozzle for him. He does that with ease. I really have no idea how he is doing this over and over again.

I didn’t have to ask anything more, he answered as if he read my mind. “When you are hurt prioritize. Just because someone did something, that does not change who I am or how I have to be.
I still love them all and I do still care. I just learn that these expressions on the faces of my friend’s mean these things in my friend’s head. Knowing this will help me be a better friend and……”
“I do not criticize myself for being bad I just try to make a better knowledge of my room for improvement so…..”

“OK! If that is so do you try to win back the friends that you lost?” I interrupted.

He said, “No I just become a better me and behave the same to everyone all together, Yes there will slight variation even than that is what happens.”

Interesting, don’t you think? Selfless or Selfish? I wondered to myself.

“I’m a shop keeper that hold my character traits, not a direct marketing sales man. Come to my shop you see everything, I do have a flex board but I do not sent out notices” He added as an explanation to feed my very querious mind. Wow ok this just keeps getting more and more interesting. Then he went on, “If I know someone needs me I do ask. Sometimes I ask repeatedly till I get an answer yes or till they get it all sorted out. At other times I help or get everything set and then only ask for permission.”

The boy made me wonder about selfless sacrifice, something that is becoming a common word now. I didn’t ask anything but he added, “I sacrifice anything and everything for those who made me cry, that gives me one more reason to smile the next day. I do no cry over my sacrifices”

“Are you getting to selfless sacrifice?” I asked, but he said no. That was shocking. “Then what!” I asked surprised. “Selfless sacrifice is just a word now-a-days just a reason to cry! If you want to do something for someone and then cry over it, why do you do it and why do you call it sacrifice and that to a selfless one. It is ok to cry when you lose I also do the same but to keep doing that. Then it is better not to do that at all. So I am not too fond of the word but I do like the concept and its practice as long as you do it is done with justice to both ends.”

‘If I study him and submit a thesis, I will get a Ph.D in Psychology and Psychiatry, that to without going through the trouble of taking a degree followed by a masters’, I thought to myself.

“For me….”, he continued “ what I do to bring a smile on someone’s face is not sacrifice. It is kind of like, Investment in business to get profit, or like hard work for success”

Before I recovered from the numbness of that dialog he asked, “If you achieve what you aim at do you win or do you loose?”

“Mm…Win!”, I said

“What you did to achieve it, is that a lose?”, he continued.

“No I guess if what you aim at is worth it” I said with a bit of doughty.

“Then why is it called sacrifice?” I was like “Ammmmm……”. “You said ‘if what you aim at is worth it, I told you in the beginning itself when you loose priorities”. I was lost in the depth of that thought.

“I would phrase it as, ‘The smile on their faces make me happy the next day. The tear of their lose end the previous night’ to make it a bit poetic.”, he concluded.

“How do you know? I mean How do you know if they are really happy?” I asked like a querious lad to a teacher.

He had an answer for that to, but how could he have so much experience at such a young age and have learned so much? Well he said, “That’s the fun part; There are two options:

1)     Imagine that they are and if you get to know that they are not, you get to slap them and say, ‘Next time stay’. If you get to know if you can help, then help. If you can’t leave it.

2)     Now that they are not with you it’s not your job.”

The bell rang and the boy walked back to class. I kept walking around. Thinking to myself, Is he harder than diamond or is he softer than a flower? I kept walking around seeing all the places that I used to sit; took a deep breath and thought to myself, “My old school still has that same good old smell!”