Earned and Spent — Origin Story
There was a boy, who was by himself and survived by selling balloons to kids near a children park. Though, he himself was a bit older to play with balloons that he sells, he neither showed the interest nor shared the joy of playing. When survival is a priority, play takes a back seat. It was just a job that earned him a living. Only a part of whatever he earned was spent on food and he used to sleep in a bus station.
An elderly man who used to bring his grandchildren to the park used to observe the boy. And many times he saw what the boy did; he used to go to the stone bench where every kid was playing, sit under it for some time and then leave. This caught his attention and one day he asked the boy,
“Why do you sit under the bench? you can sit upon it as everyone else?”
The Boy — “I can, but I like this view of the park.”
Old Man — “Okay, where are you from?”
The Boy — “ From here and there, but if you want to know my origin story, sorry I don’t have one, yet”
Old Man — “That’s fine, take care of yourselves”, said the old man and left.
A month after that, the Old Man saw the boy outside the park but this time with an Ice-Cream cart surrounded by kids and balloons. Impressed by the progress, he approached the boy and said
“Well done, you have made quite a progress there. Did anybody help you out?”
With a smile, the boy said that, it was all his own money and all the wisdom he got by sitting under the bench instead of upon it.
Baffled by the response, the old man poked further. The boy responded-
“Sitting on the bench is comfortable for sure, but it is not where the information is. The kids who come to play are of 3 to 5 years old who like to play with mud. And, they don’t talk about world economies, they don’t care. They talk among themselves about what they want, and more often than not, they wanted to have ice-creams after playing for sometime. I used to sit under the bench and count the number of kids who visit the park usually and saved enough money needed to buy ice-creams to sell at a profit.”
Listening to the boy’s story, the old man patted him saying “the boy under the bench.”
The boy responded, “That’s MY Origin story.”
“YOU MAKE YOUR ORIGIN STORY!”
