A group of alumni, highly established in their
careers, got together to visit their old
University of Notre Dame lecturer. Conversation
soon turned into complaints about stress in work
and life. Offering his guests coffee, the lecturer
went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot
of coffee and an assortment of cups - porcelain,
plastic, glass, some plain-looking and some
expensive and exquisite, telling them to help
themselves to hot coffee.

When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand,
the lecturer said: "If you noticed, all the
nice-looking, expensive cups were taken up,
leaving behind the plain and cheap ones.

While it is but normal for you to want only the best for
yourselves, that is the source of your problems
and stress. What all of you really wanted was
coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for
the better cups and are eyeing each other's cups."

"Now, if Life is coffee, then the jobs, money and
position in society are the cups. They are just
tools to hold and contain Life, but the quality of
Life doesn't change."

"Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we
fail to enjoy the coffee in it."