FOR THE PEOPLE OR FOR THE BIRDS?

   We need each other. There are various kinds of people in the world. We may miss what others have. But all of us have something other people don't have. So we can help each other. This is why we need each other.

   In other words, we are just like color. Each color has its own significance. Red may make us passionate; blue gives us calmness. Thanks to this variety of color, there is a beautiful harmony in the world. If our world was painted only in one color, we would surely get fed up with it. For example, too much red would be irritating, too much blue depressing. Some people, however, are likely to rank a certain color as the best, and regard the rest as meaningless.

   Some years ago, I was teaching math to a boy at his home. He, a junior high school student, seemed left behind in his class. One evening after he got a bad mark in exam, he said to me, "I'm for the birds. It doesn't matter whether I live or die." I said, "You should not think yourself such a bad way! Listen, you've got a lot of good points. For instance, what about baseball? Your team won the championship in your local league, didn't it? You're such a nice baseball player. And...." But he wouldn't listen to me at all. He started to use reckless driving as an outlet for his frustration, and, was killed in a car accident.

   What do you think about him? Do you think he was for the birds too? That is, good for nothing? Definitely I don't. I believe everybody is a precious being, because there would be nobody identical with any of us. The boy, ignoring this truth, compared a tiny piece of his whole quality with others. Although he had many other good points, he measured himself using only one yardstick: the school records. He should have known the fact no one could replace him. But the damage is done. He died.

   Everybody has some strong points and weak points. But some men are called great while others think themselves nowhere men. You know, Ludwig van Beethoven, a great composer, was very poor at math. Even Albert Einstein, probably the greatest scientist of the 20th century, did not get good marks at school. What do you think made the difference between such great people and people like that boy? The French writer Romain Rolland, a Nobel prize winner, once said, "Great people just do what they can make themselves while others do nothing but what they can never make." Yes. He hit the right nail on the head, didn't he?

   As I have said, we are just like color. Some are good scientists; some are good artists. Some are good businessmen; some are good sportsmen. The variety of people makes the world wonderful. So, let's give it a try to find out our strong points. And we should use them to make up for weak points in others. That's the way the true society should be. And that's the reason we need each other.