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�����There was once a lowly stonecutter, who chipped away all day at a huge gray mountain. "I don't want to be a lowly stonecutter all my days," he thought. Then he saw a king ride by. He saw that the king was dressed in golden brocade. He rode on a fine, black stallion. "AHHHHH! I wish I were a king," he thought.
The spirit of the mountain heard him, and before he could take even one more breath ...
����.... he was riding on a beautiful black stallion too, and he looked, and he saw that he was dressed in golden brocade, and, upon his head was a crown. He rode along feeling his own magnificence, until, he noticed the sun was shining brighter than all of his finery. "I don't want to be king at all," he thought. "I'd much rather be the sun."
����And, he found himself in the sky. He was the sun, casting huge rays of light in every direction. "At last, at last! The most powerful thing in the world am I. Nothing in this world is more more powerful than Me! Just then, a huge gray cloud came and covered him over. "Oh! I don't want to be the sun at all," he thought, "I'd much rather be a cloud."
����And, he found himself floating throughout the sky. He was white and gray and billowed for miles (pronounced: "miiiiiiilllllllleeeeeeessssss."). At last, at last, the most powerful thing in this world am I. Nothing in this world is more powerful than Me!" Just then a huge gust of wind came and smashed him into the mountain sending puffs of him into every direction. "Ohhhhhhh! I don't want to be a cloud at all," he thought, "I'd much rather be the mountain (pronounced: "mouuuuuuuunnnnnnnttttttttaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiinnnnn")
����And, he found himself looking out across a vast landscape. He was huge and gray, with steep cliffs, deep caverns, impressive boulders along his bottomost edges. "AHHHHHH, AT LAST! AT LAST! THE MOST POWERFUL THING IN THE WORLD AM I! NOTHING IN THIS WORLD IS MORE POWERFUL THAN ME!"
����He felt a sharp, stinging pain in his lowest boulders. He looked down to see a lowly stonecutter, chipping away.
Here is yet another view on the attitude and the lesson that the stonecutter's image offers:
When nothing seems to help I go look at a stonecutter hammering away at a rock perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack. Yet at the hundredth blow it will split in two and I know it is not that blow that did it, but all that had gone before.
The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want and, if they can't find them, make them.
-- George Bernard Shaw --
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