Adversity; an essential part of success

Teacup Story

There was a couple who used to go to England to shop in the beautiful stores. They both liked antiques and pottery and especially teacups. This was their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary. One day in this beautiful shop they saw a beautiful teacup. They said, "May we see that? We've never seen one quite so beautiful."

As the lady handed it to them, suddenly the teacup spoke. "You don't understand," it said. "I haven't always been a teacup. There was a time when I was red and I was clay. My master took me and rolled me and patted me over and over and I yelled out, 'Let me alone', but he only smiled, 'Not yet.'"

"Then I was placed on a spinning wheel," the teacup said, "and suddenly I was spun around and around and around. 'Stop it! I'm getting dizzy!' I screamed. But the master only nodded and said, 'Not yet.'"

"Then he put me in the oven. I never felt such heat. I wondered why he wanted to burn me, and I yelled and knocked at the door. I could see him through the opening and I could read his lips as he shook his head, 'Not yet.'"

"Finally the door opened, he put me on the shelf, and I began to cool. 'There, that's better', I said. And he brushed and painted me all over. The fumes were horrible. I thought I would gag. 'Stop it, stop it!' I cried. He only nodded, 'Not yet.'"

"Then suddenly he put me back into the oven, not like the first one. This was twice as hot and I knew I would suffocate. I begged. I pleaded. I screamed. I cried. All the time I could see him through the opening nodding his head saying, 'Not yet.'"

Then I knew there wasn't any hope. I would never make it. I was ready to give up. But the door opened and he took me out and placed me on the shelf. One hour later he handed me a mirror and I couldn't believe it was me. 'It's beautiful. I'm beautiful.'"

"'I want you to remember, then,' he said, 'I know it hurts to be rolled and patted, but if I had left you alone, you  would have dried up. I know it made you dizzy to spin around on the wheel, but if I had stopped, you would have crumbled. I knew it hurt and was hot and disagreeable in the oven, but if I hadn't put you there, you would have cracked. I know the fumes were bad when I brushed and painted you all over, but if I hadn't done that, you never would have hardened; you would not have had any color in your life. And if I hadn't put you back in that second oven, you wouldn't survive for very long because the hardness would not have held. Now you are a finished product. You are what I had in mind when I first began with you.'"

When you are going through adversity, and searching for reasons and answers, remember that it may not be punishment, it may not be your fault or anyone's fault. Adversity is here for a reason, for it is only through struggles, pain and suffering that we grow stronger and wiser.

DID YOU KNOW:

·         The first kind of PENCIL was a bunch of GRAPHITE sticks held together by string. Then someone decided it would be better to push the graphite into the inside of a hollow wooden stick. JOSEPH RECHENDORFER was the first person to think of putting a piece of rubber onto the top of a pencil which makes it real easy to rub out mistakes.Did you know that the average lead pencil can draw a line that is almost 35 miles long or you can write almost 50,000 words in English with just one pencil?

·         This is what an old airplane looked like. The Wright Brothers invented one of the first airplanes. It was called the Kitty Hawk

 

·         No two zebras have stripes that are exactly alike. Zebras enemies include hyenas, wild dogs, and lions. Male zebras are called stallions. Zebras usually travel in herds.

Do you know these interesting facts?

Did You know  - The opposite sides of a dice cube always add up to seven!

A cat can run about 20 kilometres per hour (12 miles per hour) when it grows up. This one is going nowhere today - it is too lazy !.

A  cheetah can run 76 kilometres per hour (46 miles per hour) - that's really fast! The fastest human beings runs only about 30 kilometres per hour (18 miles per hour). a cheetah does not roar like a lion - it purrs like a cat (meow).

A Zipper joins two pieces of material together.A zipper is used everywhere, on clothing, pencil cases, boots and suitcases, wallets, and a zillion other things. Everyone thinks it was Whitcomb Judson who invented the zipper but it was really Elias Howe. Elias was so busy inventing the sewing machine that he didn't get around to selling his zipper invention which he called a "clothing closure".

Did you know Sailor, Dead Leaf, Paper Kite, Blue Striped Crow, Julia and Great Egg Fly are all names of BUTTERFLIES The original name for the butterfly was 'flutterby'!

(Picture of a grizzly bear) Bears whose brown fur is tipped with lighter-colored hairs are called grizzly bears . The smallest species of bears is called sun or Malayan bears. Male bears are called boars. Bears are native to the continents of North America, Asia, Europe, and South America. Alaskan brown bears, world's largest meat-eating animals that live on land, can weigh as much as 1,700 pounds (771 kilograms)

(frog) The largest frog in the world is called Goliath frog. Frogs start their lives as 'eggs' often laid in or near fresh water. Frogs live on all continents except Antarctica. Frogs belong to a group of animals called amphibians.

There are more than 50 different kinds of kangaroos. Kangaroos are native of Australia. A group of kangaroos is called a mob. Young kangaroos are called joeys.

No two zebras have stripes that are exactly alike. Zebras enemies include hyenas, wild dogs, and lions. Male zebras are called stallions. Zebras usually travel in herds.

How do reindeers survive in the extreme cold? Most animals don’t eat moss. It’s hard to digest, and it has little nutritional value. But reindeer fill up with lots of moss. Why? The moss contains a special chemical that helps reindeer keep their body fluids warm. When the reindeer make their yearly journey across the icy Arctic region, the chemical keeps them from freezing—much as antifreeze keeps a car from freezing up in winter  Some scientists believe that the earth began billions of years ago as a huge ball of swirling dust and gases. If you dig in your backyard, don’t worry about running into the earth’s core. You’d have to dig a hole 4,000 miles (6,437 kilometers) deep!

Mahatma Gangdhi: Why he did not get the Nobel Peace Prize?

Nobel Peace Prize Controversies and Mahatma Gandhi

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By LensMan999

What Is The Relation Between Nobel Peace Prize and Mahatma Gandhi

Whenever a prize is proclaimed or declared anywhere in the world, it is not a new thing for controversies & conflicts to follow regarding the qualifications or the right for the person who has won the prize.  After the forties each time the Nobel Peace Prize is declared there is always a question that arises. Why Mahatma Gandhi was never given Nobel Prize? Many disciples of Mahatma Gandhi, those who respected his ideologies, those who built up workshops similar to his were at sometime or the other found place in nominations or recommended for the Prize.

Both the American president Barack Obama who respected Gandhiji’s principles & Younus MohammadGrameen banks, received this honor. But this honor never came along Gandhiji’s way. Martin Luther King, Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela, Vangari Maatai...like that many....let us simply check why this happened. from Bangladesh, who created an alternative method for economy stabilization to help the poor by introducing the idea to set up

The rules & regulations behind the prize that Gandhi did not receive & the award deciding committee’s take on the issue is very surprising .Five times Gandhi was nominated for the Nobel Prize. In that only, three times he found place in the final list. But he did not receive the prize. Some of the jury’s views on this issue s like this; Mahatma Gandhi was a strong supporter of Indian Nationalism. Many times it felt like Jesus Christ, at the same time he was a normal politician. This is one limitation according to the Jury...

Mahatma Gandhi never received the Nobel Peace Prize, though he was nominated for it five times between 1937 and 1948.

How Nobel Prize is Decided ?

The Nobel Prize should be given to a person for his community works or to the leaders? The world criticized Theodore Roosevelt’s Nobel Prize by asking this question. Questions were also raised against the German Nobel Prize winner in 1935, Carl von Ossietzky. In the past he has become a prisoner of Hitler.

Another committee’s take on the issues are as follows; actually it is difficult to decide whether he was a politician, idealist, social worker, or person who worked only for world peace. Sometimes he was all these. Therefore the jury showed helplessness to judge him.

Gandhiji showed us the example of non-violence Satyagraha. A life example which is considered very difficult to follow. Gandhiji was considered for the Nobel Prize in the years 1937, 1938, 1939, 1947.The next year (1948) after which he was considered last for the Prize in ’47, he was shot dead.

Nobel Prize; Fast Facts

• Named after Alfred Nobel, Swedish chemist and inventor of dynamite.
• First awarded in 1901, five years after Alfred Nobel's death.
• Prizes first awarded in five subjects: chemistry, physics, physiology or medicine, literature, and peace.
• Sixth subject, economics, added in 1969.
• Prizes can only be awarded to individuals, except the Peace Prize.
• Each award can be given to a maximum of three people per year.
• Money from Nobel's estate went into a fund managed by the Nobel Foundation. The interest from the fund constitutes the monetary prize each year.
• Each prize constitutes a gold medal, a diploma, and a sum of money.
• If there are multiple winners of one subject, the award money is split equally among the winners.
• The Literature and Peace Prizes are very controversial because the award criteria is considered subjective.
• Each year there are 100 to 250 nominees for each prize.
• If someone nominated himself/herself, he/she would automatically be disqualified.
• Someone cannot be nominated posthumously. Yet, if someone was alive when nominated but died before the award was given, they may be awarded posthumously.
• Prizes must be awarded at least once every 5-year period.
• A few prize winners have declined the awar