THE GECKO

THE GECKO 

(You yourself are the problem)

A student with great interest in an enthusiasm for the Third World came to India and soon suffered a cultural shock. Suddenly everything annoyed him: the climate, the food, the living conditions, the strange mysterious faces around him. But what really made him lose his temper was actually a trifle. They assigned a room to him and moving in, he examined every nook and cranny, only to find to his disgust that he was sharing it with a thick, fat ugly lizard.

He became aggressive, "I refuse to live with that creature." So he tried to catch the intruder in a half a dozen ways, but to no avail. Finally, the lizard hid behind a cupboard. The guest was too proud to ask someone's help. But then in the middle of all this senseless commotion, he suddenly got the bright idea of making friends with the lizard. It was not easy at first.

But now the first thing he does when he enters his room, is too look for his lizard. Soon he even gave him a name. In a short time it  became almost a conversation partner. And he also began to note the good qualities that the lizard had. For one thing it controlled the mosquitoes population in the room.

After a while, this enthusiast began to realise that his problem did not come form his environment but form within himself. 

-Willi Hoffsuemmer

Tonic for the Heart in 1000 bottles 

Vol. 1 

Frank Mihalic, SVD

Dear friends the above story can be an eye-opener to many of us. I am sure many of us do behave like the man who forget to see the problem within himself but blamed the environment. This story can be very well applicable to our community life, our class, offices, schools and colleges. We may want to have the ambient which is of our like and when it is not so we try to find problem with the environment and others.

We begin to find differences with other people and try to avoid them. Like the man in the story we try to get rid of the lizards from our groups and communities who does not fit into our ideas and ideals. Then those people try to hid form us and feel uncomfortable with us. At times we are to proud to introspect ourselves and we demean others. 

But there is another point to be noticed. The person in the story tried to relate with the lizard gradually and became so intimate that he began to learn the good qualities of that lizard. He appreciated the good thing it was doing. Now is the point we need to reflect on. Have we ever tried out to get acquainted with those person's whom we have seen as a lizard or have we ever tried to get accommodated with the new environment? I am sure there are many such lizards of whom we are not aware of. We are not aware of their talents and qualities that they posses. In fact the problem in not able to relate and get along with some of those lizards in our community and other place is not the problem of theirs but the problem is within us our attitude, pride, and ego. 

So dear friends let's get rid of the problems that is within us and let's  appreciate and relate with all in an equal way.Let out inner problem not be a tool of problem in our communities, offices and working places. So let us be aware of the Gecko and appreciate where ever we are and with whom we live with, because we learn many things form them. Let's learn that we ourselves are the problem.