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Do you know who the most famous person in our country is? Everyone knows him. His surname is Less, his first name is More, and middle name Or. Everyone calls him Mr. More Or Less. You must've met him or heard others talk about him. The name "Mr. More Or Less" is on the tip of everyone’s tongues every day because he represents our country's people.
Mr. More Or Less looks more or less like you and me. He has a pair of eyes, but they don’t see very clearly. He has two ears, but his hearing isn’t great. He has a nose and a mouth, but he’s not sensitive to smells or tastes. His brain isn’t small, but his memory is fuzzy, and his thinking isn’t sharp.
He often says: "As long as something is more or less right, that’s good enough. Why be so picky?"
When he was young, his mother sent him to buy some sugar, but he came back with salt. His mother scolded him, but he just shook his head and said: "Isn't sugar and salt more or less the same?"
When he was in school, his science teacher told everyone to bring a potato to class for a science experiment. He brought a tomato. The teacher said, "I said bring a potato, not a tomato." He replied, "Potato, tomato they're more or less the same, right?" He failed that class.
Later, he worked as an accountant for a small shop. He could write and calculate, but he never paid attention to detail. He often misplaced decimals or wrote 1 as 7. The shopkeeper got angry and scolded him frequently. He just smiled and said, "It's just a decimal. Isn't it more or less the same?"
One day, he had an urgent matter and needed to take a train. He strolled leisurely to the station but arrived two minutes late, and the train had already left. He stared at the smoke from the distant train and shook his head, saying, "I’ll just go tomorrow then. Leaving today or tomorrow is more or less the same. But the train company is too rigid. Isn’t 8:30 and 8:32 more or less the same?" As he spoke, he slowly walked home, wondering why the train wouldn’t wait for him for just two minutes.
One time, he suddenly fell gravely ill and instructed his son, Close Enough, to fetch Dr. Brown from East Street. Shortly after, his son came back and said, "I could find Dr. Brown, but I found Dr. Black from Weast Street. He's not a human doctor, but he's an animal doctor. That's close enough, right?" Lying in bed, Mr. More Or Less knew he had fetched the wrong person. However, in his pain and urgency, he thought to himself, "Dr. Brown and Dr. Black are more or less the same. I'll give him a try." Dr. Black treated him with the methods used for dogs. Within less than an hour, Mr. More Or Less passed away.
Just before his death, Mr. More Or Less, gasping for breath, stuttered: "Living and dying are more...or less... the same. As long as things are more...or less... good enough... why... why... take things so seriously?" After saying these philosophical words, he took his last breath.
After his death, everyone praised Mr. More Or Less for being so illuminated and carefree. They said that throughout his life, he refused to be serious, refused to argue, and refused to fuss. Truly, he was a good man. So, they gave him the honorary title of "The Illuminated One".
His reputation spread further and further over time, and countless people followed his example. As a result, everyone became another Mr. More Or Less. And thus, our nation became a nation of lazy people.
(Story Source: Adapted from this story by Hu Shih).
Commentary
This story is, of course, fictional and satirical, but it does bring some thoughtful humor. There's Chinese proverb that says,
"Great matters in the world must be achieved through the details."
(Original text: 天下大事必作於細.)
If we want to do anything well, we have to take care of the details, and we have to do our best. When we are lazy, sloppy, or perfunctory, not only is that disrespectful towards others, it's also cheating ourselves. As Steve Prefontaine said,
"To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift."
What gift? The gift of your potential, of your time, of your talents, of your life, of your self-worth.
I'm reminded of a story of when Jimmy Carter went for an interview for a naval officer position. He talked about all his qualifications and accomplishments. At the end of the interview, the interviewer looked at him curiously and asked, "But did you always do your best?"
Carter was silent for a while, then he finally said, "No. I guess I didn't always do my best."
The interviewer then asked him, "Why not?"
Carter then got up and left the room. And that question haunted him for the rest of his life.
Indeed, why are we doing things that don't deserve our best? If we have to do these things anyway, why are we bringing a lazy or perfunctory attitude to them? If we choose to do our best, not only will we earn others' respect, we will also gain self-respect.
So let's not be like Mr. More Or Less, and instead emulate Mr. Do Your Best.
Weekly Wisdom #320
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