Happily Ever After

I read a story once about this fruit shop. I don’t know whether this is a true story or not - it could have been. Or perhaps it’s just an urban fable. I truly can’t remember where I read this anecdote - perhaps in some marketing book or the other. My apologies to the author of that book for reproducing this story without permission.

There was a small town with one street. A fruit merchant / grower decided to open a fruit shop on this main street. He called his shop “The Best Fruit Shop on this Street”.

Business was fine until another fruit merchant decided to open a second fruit shop on this town’s main street. Perhaps at the other end of the street or across the road - whatever - it doesn’t make any difference to this anecdote. This second merchant called his shop “The Best Fruit Shop in Town”. Whereupon, the first fruit shop owner changed his sign to “The Best Fruit Shop in the District”.

Not to be outdone, the second shop owner changed his sign to “The Best Fruit Shop in the State”. And you guessed it, the first shop owner changed his sign to “The Best Fruit Shop in the Country”. The second shop owner called his shop “The Best Fruit Shop in the World”.

Now the original fruit shop owner decided he didn’t have anywhere to go in this shop signage competition. After some thought, he changed the sign on his shop BACK to “The Best Fruit Shop on this Street”. He realised that no matter how good your shop was in the “world” - which incidentally could really mean the “world outside this town”, all he needed to be was the best fruit shop in this single street. Which incidentally happened to be the only street in town. That’s all that mattered! To be the best right here... not elsewhere!

So I hear you ask what this story has to do with the title of this piece of writing. This story comes back to me whenever I’m down in the dumps and feel unhappy. Whenever I feel that the future looks bleak.

I read Eckhart Tolle’s book “The Power of Now” (http://eckharttolle.com/the_power_of_now) sometime last year. (Actually I must admit I haven’t finished the last chapter!! Time seems to have run amok with my life!!!). I read the story above some 8 or 9 years ago. For those who’ve read “The Power of Now”, and for some who haven’t, you can probably see where I might be going with this ramble.

The future doesn’t matter at all. What matters is this one moment right NOW! To me It’s important that I’m happy NOW! I really shouldn’t be worried about whether I will be happy tomorrow, or for the rest of this year, or until I retire from work or for the rest of this lifetime anyway. I try and just enjoy this moment. I can’t enjoy the next moment or the one after that as they haven’t happened as yet!!

So the concept of “Happily Ever After” is a myth. It’s a nonsensical phrase. Leave aside the fact that I won’t live forever in this basic physical world. I may live forever in spirit or my soul may live forever - but the very human emotional experience of “feeling happy” is directly linked to this physical living existence. Not forever!

So whenever I feel down, unhappy, unable to see a bright future, I remind myself that right at this moment, I need to be “up”, “happy” and not worried about the future. Ever after is nothing more than “this moment” an infinite number of times!