Photo Courtesy: jmb1977 on Flickr

A few days ago, I had a delightful dinner conversation with Mitchell Levy and Kiruba Shankar. We talked a LOT and covered many things.

A story about a “Present” shared by Mitchell totally touched my heart. Here it is in his own words.

This happened when D (Mitchell’s son) was about two years old. His Grandpa had brought D a rocking horse as a present. It was in a big cardboard box. D knew it was a present for him and he was so happy to see it. He jumped on the box quickly and started playing with his “present.”

D’s Grandpa had to explain (with great difficulty) that it was not the present and the real present was inside the box. D was not in a mood to listen anyway. After some negotiation, Grandpa finally got D away from the box and opened the box and took the rocking horse out.

D was happy to find his present. He now jumped inside the box and started playing there. Remember Grandpa had told him the present was inside the box.

Grandpa had to convince D again that the present was really “outside” the box. D came out and looked at what was outside and for him it probably looked like two wooden pieces and he was totally not interested in that. Playing inside the box was more fun.

Long story short – Grandpa fixed the rocking horse for D and it took a few more minutes of convincing and FINALLY D decided to play with his real present – the rocking horse.

Shows that sometimes the “Present” is right in front of our eyes but we can’t see it.