There was once a man who suffered terrible pain all over his body. When he pressed his head with his finger, it hurt. When he pressed his stomach, it hurt. Even when he pressed his knees, the pain was unbearable. Unable to endure it any longer, he went to see a doctor. After examining him, the doctor said,
“Don’t worry. There’s nothing wrong with your body—it’s just that your finger is broken.”
Because he had been pressing every part of his body with a broken finger, it felt as though his whole body was in pain.
This anecdote appears in Taste of Cherry (1997), a film that won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival. In the story, an elderly man shares it with a middle-aged man who is on the verge of ending his life. The old man adds,
“It’s natural to feel as if hardship is all there is to life. But try looking at it another way—perhaps the problem is simpler than it seems.”
The man looked around: children running across a field, birds soaring freely in the sky, the city bathed in the glow of sunset. The world before him appeared different from what he had seen before.
At times, a hardship may feel as if it is shaking the very foundations of our lives. Yet when we remember that it is only a part—not the whole—of life, we can begin to discover hope everywhere.
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