My mother used to often ask me what the most important part of the body was. Young as I was, I thought sound was very important to us as humans. So l’d say, “My ears, Mommy!"
“No!” she would say. “There are so many people who are deaf! But you keep thinking and I will ask you again soon.” And so it went on until several years passed before she asked me again.
Since making my first attempt, I contemplated the correct answer. Or so I thought I had!
So this time I told her, “Mommy, sight is very important to everybody, so it must be our eyes.”
She looked at me and told me, “You are learning fast, but the answer is not correct because there are many people who are blind.”
Stumped again, I continued my quest for knowledge and after a few years, mother asked me a couple of times more and always her answer was, “No. But you are getting smarter every year, my child!”
Then one, year, my grandfather died. Everybody was upset and everybody was crying.
Even my father wept I remember that especially because that was only the second time in my life that i had ever seen him cry.
My mom looked at me when it was our turn to say our final good-bye to grandpa; she asked me, “Don’t you know the most important body part yet, my dear?” I was shocked when she asked me this now. I always thought this was a game between her and me. She saw the confusion on my face and told me, “This question is very important. It shows that you have really lived in your life. For every body part you gave as the answer in the past, I have told you, was wrong, even giving you the reason why. But today is the day you need to learn this important lesson.”
She looked down at me as only a mother can. I saw her eyes welling up with tears. She said, “My dear, the most important part of the body is your shoulder.”
“is it because it holds up my head?” l asked.
“No,” she replied, “it is because it can hold the head of a friend or a loved one when they cry. Everybody needs a shoulder to cry on sometime in life, my dear. l only hope that you have enough love and friends that you will always have a shoulder to cry on when you need it.”
Then and there I knew that the most important body part is not a selfish one.
It is being sympathetic to the pain of others. People will forget what you said. People will forget what you did. But people will NEVER forget how you made them feel.
