So Give me Coffee and TV

I just have to note this down after attending mass on Sunday.

The priest spoke on this week's gospel

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 12:13-21.
Someone in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me."
He replied to him, "Friend, who appointed me as your judge and arbitrator?"
Then he said to the crowd, "Take care to guard against all greed, for though one may be rich, one's life does not consist of possessions."
Then he told them a parable. "There was a rich man whose land produced a bountiful harvest.
He asked himself, 'What shall I do, for I do not have space to store my harvest?'
And he said, 'This is what I shall do: I shall tear down my barns and build larger ones. There I shall store all my grain and other goods
and I shall say to myself, "Now as for you, you have so many good things stored up for many years, rest, eat, drink, be merry!"
But God said to him, 'You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you; and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?'
Thus will it be for the one who stores up treasure for himself but is not rich in what matters to God."


so the gospel's main focus was to not to focus on possessions and to "guard" against greed. So the priest mentioned on how we should not focus on worldly possessions but on relationships with god and our family. He even brought in stories on how parents would work endlessly and have no time to spend with their spouse and children and would tell him that they are working for their family. He reiterated on the importance to spend time with the family and buying the latest gadgets like the iphone is not a substitute.

He also told this story which really touched me and it added to my daily self reflection.

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 eyeing each other's 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. Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly.

So using that analogy , we often forget to find the best coffee and just focus on the cup.

Bottom-line that spoke to me?
Our worldly possessions would be gone one day and we may not even get to enjoy or use it (e.g. CPF money)
But our lives are what we should focus on, we as social beings should focus on our relationships with our friends and family, this is what makes the coffee good...