Writing on the Blackboard

One day, during an evening class for adults, the psychology Teacher entered the class and told his students, “Let’s all play a game!” “What Game?” asked the students. The Teacher asked one of the students to volunteer. A lady named Aliza came forward.

The Teacher asked her to write about 30 names of most important people in her life on blackboard. Aliza wrote her family members names and relatives names, friends names, her colleagues names and her neighbors names.

The Teacher told her “Please erase 3 names from the list that you consider most unimportant”. Aliza erased names of her colleagues. The Teacher again told her to delete 5 more names. Aliza did as the Teacher instructed and this time she erased her neighbor’s names. This went on until there were just four names left on the blackboard.

Aliza now hesitated as the names left were of her mother, father, husband and her son… The entire class became silent and they realized that this wasn’t a game anymore for Aliza. She had to make the difficult choice.

The Teacher told her to delete two more names. Eliza unwillingly deleted her parents names. “Please delete one more” said the professor. Aliza became very nervous and with trembling hands she deleted her son’s name. Aliza cried out painfully…

The Teacher told Aliza to take her seat. And after a while asked her why she didn’t choose her parents or her son instead of her husband as the parents are the ones that nurtured her and the son is the one she gave birth to while she could find another husband. “Why is your husband the most important for you?” He asked.

It was totally quiet in the class, everyone was curious to know her response. Aliza calmly and slowly said, “One day my parents will pass away before me. Surely, my son will also leave me when he grows old for his studies or business or whatever reason. The only one who I truly share my entire life with, is my Husband”. All the students stood up and applauded for her in a great excitement.

Moral of the story We meet many people in our lives. They come and they go. Some stay for a while, some stay forever. Respect every relation, but know the priorities.