A MORAL STORY: The father's advice - "cows don't offer milk"

(NOTE: This is a moral story contributed to "The Clay Center Dispatch" by Richard Strachan. You can find the original link here: https://www.ccenterdispatch.com/blogs/blog_three/article_3dceb910-9ce9-11ed-833f-d392f330b60a.html)

(READ MY DHIVEHI TRANSLATION PUBLISHED ON "ADHIVES ONLINE" MAGAZINE)

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A father used to say to his children when they were young: "When you all reach the age of 12, I will tell you the secret of life." 

One day when the oldest turned 12, he anxiously asked his father what was the secret of life. 

The father replied that he was going to tell him, but that he should not reveal it to his brothers.

He said: "The secret of life is this: The cow does not give milk."

"What are you saying?" asked the boy incredulously. 

The father replied: "As you hear it, son: The cow does not give milk, you have to milk it. You have to get up at 4 in the morning, go to the field, walk through the corral full of manure, tie the tail, hobble the legs of the cow, sit on the stool, place the bucket, and do the work yourself.

"That is the secret of life, the cow does not give milk. You milk her or you don't get milk. There is this generation that thinks that cows GIVE milk. That things are automatic and free: their mentality is that if 'I wish, I ask, I obtain.'

"They have been accustomed to get whatever they want the easy way. But no, life is not a matter of wishing, asking, and obtaining. The things that one receives are the effort of what one does. Happiness is the result of effort. Lack of effort creates frustration."

So, share with your children from a young age the 'secret of life', so they don't grow up with the mentality that the government, their parents, or their cute little faces is going to give them everything they need in life.

Remember: "Cows don't give milk; you have to work for it."