[00:01.87]Three Peach Stones
[00:05.04]Observe a child; any one will do. You will see that not a day passes in which
[00:11.93]he does not find something or other to make him happy,
[00:14.89]though he may be in tears the next moment. Then look at a man;
[00:18.94]any one of us will do. You will notice that
[00:21.78] weeks and months can pass in which
[00:23.91]day is greeted with nothing more than resignation,
[00:26.98]and endure with every polite indifference.
[00:29.93]Indeed, most men are as miserable as sinners
[00:32.83]though they are too bored to sin—perhaps their sin is their indifference.
[00:37.75]But it is true that they so seldom smile that
[00:40.64]when they do we do not recognize their face,
[00:43.70]so distorted is it from the fixed mask we take for granted.
[00:47.32]And even then a man can not smile like a child, for a child smiles with his eyes,
[00:53.55]whereas a man smiles with his lips alone.
[00:57.15] It is not a smile; but a grin; something to do with humor,
[01:00.44]but little to do with happiness. And then, as anyone can see,
[01:05.03]there is a point when a man becomes an old man,
[01:07.77]and then he will smile again.
[01:09.84]It would seem that happiness is something to do with simplicity,
[01:13.34] and that it is the ability to extract pleasure from the simplest things
[01:17.39]—such as a peach stone, for instance.
[01:20.13]It is obvious that it is nothing to do with success.
[01:22.86] For Sir Henry Stewart was certainly successful.
[01:26.36] It is twenty years ago since he came down to our village from London,
[01:30.39]and bought a couple of old cottages, which he had knocked into one.
[01:34.00]He used his house as weekend refuge. He was a barrister.
[01:37.94] And the village followed his brilliant career with something
[01:40.89]almost amounting to paternal pride.
[01:43.63]I remember some ten years ago when he was made a King's Counsel,
[01:48.00] Amos and I, seeing him get off the London train, went to congratulate him.
[01:53.15] We grinned with pleasure; he merely looked as miserable as though
[01:57.30]he'd received a penal sentence.
[01:59.05] It was the same when he was knighted;
[02:01.34]he never smiled a bit,
[02:02.99]he didn't even bother to celebrate with a round of drinks at the "Blue Fox".
[02:07.47] He took his success as a child does his medicine.
[02:11.30]And not one of his achievements brought even a ghost of a smile to his tired eyes.
[02:16.66]I asked him one day, soon after he'd retired to potter about his garden,
[02:21.25] what it was like to achieve all one's ambitions.
[02:24.43] He looked down at his roses and went on watering them.
[02:27.92]Then he said, "The only value in achieving one's ambition is that
[02:32.74] you then realize that they are not worth achieving."
[02:35.80]Quickly he moved the conversation on to a more practical level,
[02:39.62]and within a moment we were back to a safe discussion on the weather.
[02:44.11] That was two years ago.
[02:45.75]I recall this incident, for yesterday, I was passing his house,
[02:50.24]and had drawn up my cart just outside his garden wall.
[02:53.52]I had pulled in from the road for no other reason than to let a bus pass me.
[02:58.11]As I set there filling my pipe,
[03:00.07]I suddenly heard a shout of sheer joy come from the other side of the wall.
[03:04.56]I peered over. There stood Sir Henry doing nothing less than
[03:09.05] a tribal war dance of sheer unashamed ecstasy.
[03:12.76]Even when he observed my bewildered face staring over the wall
[03:16.75]he did not seem put out or embarrassed, but shouted for me to climb over.
[03:21.68]"Come and see, Jan. Look! I have done it at last! I have done it at last!"
[03:26.93]There he was, holding a small box of earth in his hand.
[03:30.97] I observed three tiny shoots out of it.
[03:34.42]"And there were only three!" he said, his eyes laughing to heaven.
[03:38.47]"Three what?" I asked.
[03:41.09]"Peach stones", he replied. "I've always wanted to make peach stones grow,
[03:45.80]even since I was a child, when I used to take them home after a party,
[03:50.06] or as a man after a banquet. And I used to plant them,
[03:53.45]and then forgot where I planted them. But now at last I have done it,
[03:57.39]and, what's more, I had only three stones,
[04:00.24]and there you are, one, two, three shoots," he counted.
[04:04.50]And Sir Henry ran off, calling for his wife to come
[04:08.00]and see his acheivement—his acheivement of simplicity. |