Cup of Coffee

A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old
university professor. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and
life.

Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large
pot of coffee and an assortment of cups - porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain
looking, some expensive, some exquisite - telling them to help themselves to the coffee.

When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said:
"If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups have been taken up, leaving behind
the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves,
that is the source of your problems and stress.
Be assured that the cup itself adds no quality to the coffee. In most cases it is just more
expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink.

What all of you really wanted
was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the best cups... And then you
began eying each others' cups.

Now consider this: Life is the coffee. The jobs, money and position in society are the
cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, and the type of cup we have does not
define, nor change the quality of life we live.

Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee. Savor the
coffee, not the cups! The happiest people don't have the best of everything. They just
make the best of everything.”