Story

The art of convincing people

Story, Theories /
Image from austinacupuncturewellness.com

Know your numbers.

Whenever you talk about anything always quote the numbers.

Say 2 out of 20 people have this or that…, 60% of children are this or that…, et cetera.

Have your facts right.

Know what you really know, what you just have a clue about and what you don’t know.

In connection to that, treat all unconfirmed information as rumors and take an effort to research and confirm that bits of knowledge that interest’s you.

Be fast to acknowledge what you don’t know or just shut up.

Tell a story.

If the discussion is about a relative topic, package your point in a story.

Tell it so well that even if someone doesn’t agree with your point, they at least agree with your story; and trust me, you have convinced them already.

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Plaintiff

poem, Story /
Image from Markus Spiske

What don’t you complain about?

You complain about what they do and what they don’t;

You complain how the economy is, and how it is not;

You complain when it rains and when the sun is shining;

You complain when things go well as well as unwell;

You complain when you work and when its luck;

You complain when you are hungry and when you’ve overeaten;

You complain how life is unfair and when it fairly treats you;

You ask for more freedom but wish for less responsibility;

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In No Strange Land

poem, Quoted, Story /

O world invisible, we view thee,
O world intangible, we touch thee,
O world unknowable, we know thee,
Inapprehensible, we clutch thee!

Does the fish soar to find the ocean,
The eagle plunge to find the air—
That we ask of the stars in motion
If they have rumour of thee there?

Not where the wheeling systems darken,
And our benumbed conceiving soars!—
The drift of pinions, would we hearken,
Beats at our own clay-shuttered doors.

The angels keep their ancient places;—
Turn but a stone and start a wing!
’Tis ye, ’tis your estrangèd faces,
That miss the many-splendoured thing.

But (when so sad thou canst not sadder)
Cry;—and upon thy so sore loss
Shall shine the traffic of Jacob’s ladder
Pitched betwixt Heaven and Charing Cross.

Yea, in the night, my Soul, my daughter,
Cry,—clinging to Heaven by the hems;
And lo, Christ walking on the water,
Not of Genesareth, but Thames!

Source: Poem of the week: In No Strange Land by Francis Thompson | Books | The Guardian

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Buttons Of The Soul

poem, Story /

Highest_Motivation_1024

He was hardworking, but he was charming;

He used his eyes to work, because he was an accountant;

Then one day he got ill, his eyes succumbed to Glaucoma;

His wife stuck by him, though she grew cold;

When days of self-pity came, he remained spirited;

Though he desired more, he grew contented with her;

He chained himself, with the thirst of understanding life;

He cooked when his wife was “late”, and hugged her the following day;

One day there was a party, and friends and relatives were coming;

He stood at the door, and he gave each a warm handshake;

Only one insisted for a hug, and she said he was a good man.

Then he removed his glasses, and stared as if he had eyes;

His wife was serving the guests, so all he said was thank you;

All he was thinking was the hug, he has not felt so alive for eight years.

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Purpose To See

poem, Quoted, Story /

Grace_in_Defeat_1024

3 things that are essential in life: something to look up to, something to look forward to, and someone to look at. Contentment is the fuel of a righteous progress. Hope is a reward for commitment, and commitment is the journey of consistency. Purpose to see, feel, hear and enjoy the despair and the beauty of your world along your way. Instruct your speech and guide your lips with kindness. Be keen to understand, quick to learn, able to remember; Be delicate to interpret and ready to speak.

— [Kabue Charles (McKabue)]

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Hungry And Angry

Story /

So, I went home, hungry as hell;

I started to prepare to cook;

I prepared… I prepared… then I put it on fire;

I waited… I waited… I waited… then I checked;

I waited again… and waited, and waited, then I checked again;

The stupid seeds are still as hard as beginning!

I put it down, washed some rice and put it on fire;

I waited… I waited… I waited… then rice was ready;

Then I listened to my stomach;

I added water to the seeds, and put it back on fire;

I waited… I waited, then I checked;

I extinguished the fire and went so sleep, hungry and angry;

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Two Monks and a Woman

Quoted, Story /

Source: Two Monks and a Woman – a Zen Lesson | KindSpring.org

A senior monk and a junior monk were traveling together. At one point, they came to a river with a strong current. As the monks were preparing to cross the river, they saw a very young and beautiful woman also attempting to cross. The young woman asked if they could help her cross to the other side.

The two monks glanced at one another because they had taken vows not to touch a woman.

Then, without a word, the older monk picked up the woman, carried her across the river, placed her gently on the other side, and carried on his 
journey.

The younger monk couldn’t believe what had just happened. After rejoining his companion, he was speechless, and an hour passed without a word between them.

Two more hours passed, then three, finally the younger monk could contain himself any longer, and blurted out “As monks, we are not permitted a woman, how could you then carry that woman on your shoulders?”

The older monk looked at him and replied, “Brother, I set her down on the other side of the river, why are you still carrying her?”

—

This simple Zen story has a beautiful message about living in the present moment. How often do we carry around past hurts, holding onto resentments when the only person we are really hurting is ourselves.

We all go through times in life when other people say things or behave in a way that is hurtful towards us. We can chose to ruminate over past actions or events, but it will ultimately weigh us down and sap our energy.

Instead we can choose to let go of what doesn’t serve us anymore and concentrate on the present moment. Until we can find a level of peace and happiness in the present circumstances of our lives, we will never be content, because ‘now’ is all we will ever have.

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His Own Heart was Lecherous

Quoted, Story /

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Source: His Own Heart was Lecherous | Bible.org

One of the most powerful stories I have ever heard on the nature of the human heart is told by Malcolm Muggeridge. Working as a journalist in India, he left his residence one evening to go to a nearby river for a swim. As he entered the water, across the river he saw an Indian woman from the nearby village who had come to have her bath. Muggeridge impulsively felt the allurement of the moment, and temptation stormed into his mind. He had lived with this kind of struggle for years but had somehow fought it off in honor of his commitment to his wife, Kitty. On this occasion, however, he wondered if he could cross the line of marital fidelity. He struggled just for a moment and then swam furiously toward the woman, literally trying to outdistance his conscience. His mind fed him the fantasy that stolen waters would be sweet, and he swam the harder for it. Now he was just two or three feet away from her, and as he emerged from the water, any emotion that may have gripped him paled into insignificance when compared with the devastation that shattered him as he looked at her.

“She was old and hideous…and her skin was wrinkled and, worst of all, she was a leper….This creature grinned at me, showing a toothless mask.” The experience left Muggeridge trembling and muttering under his breath, “What a dirty lecherous woman!” But then the rude shock of it dawned upon him—it was not the woman who was lecherous; it was his own heart.

Ravi Zacharias, Can Man Live Without God, (Word Publ, Dallas: 1994), pp. 136-137

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