Lessons Learnt In (Re)Morse Code

July 30, 2004

'Do you hear God's message?'

Back when the telegraph was the fastest method of long distance

communication, a young man applied for a job as a Morse code

operator.

Answering an advertisement in the newspaper, he went to the office

address listed. He entered a large, busy office filled with noise

and clatter including the sound of the telegraph in the background.

A sign on the receptionist's counter instructed job applicants to

fill out a form and wait until summoned to enter the Manager's

office.

The young man filled out his form and sat down with the seven other

applicants in the waiting area. After a few minutes, he stood up,

crossed the room to the door of the manager's office and walked right in.

Naturally, the other applicants perked up, wondering what was going

on. They muttered among themselves that they hadn't heard any

summons yet. They assumed that the young man who had gone into the

office had made a mistake, and he would be ineligible.

Within a few minutes, however the manager escorted the young man out

of the office and said to the other applicants, "Gentleman, thank

you very much/or coming but the job has been filled."

The other applicants began grumbling to each other, and one spoke up

saying, "Wait a minute, I don't understand! He was the last to come

in, and we never got a chance to be interviewed. Yet he got the job.

That's not fair!"

The manager said, "I'm sorry, but all the time you've been sitting

here, the telegraph has been ticking out the following message in

Morse code: 'If you understand this message, then come right in. The

job is yours.' None of you heard it or understood it. This young man

did. The job is his."

Life has its own subtle ways of whispering wisdom, pre-empting

opportunities, echoing answers, directing courses. Who said, "The

world outside is tough". It is only challenging. Live in awareness,

else we will miss it all.

>From Kan Sai Light, volume 111, July October 2003

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