| |
like to sleep. Moreover, he goes on waking others in the family."
He would knock on the doors of his daughter-in-law, "Are you awake?" Now, just to answer him her sleep is disturbed. But the whole night... what else can he do?
I asked him, "What is the fear? Why don't you want to sleep?"
He said, "The fear is that if I go to sleep, what is the guarantee that I will wake up alive."
I said, "This is certainly a very significant problem. But who told you that you are alive?"
He said, "I am not alive?"
I said, "As far as I can see you have been dead since you retired. You can sleep; you cannot lose anything, you are dead already."
He said, "That solves the problem. All these people have been bothering me: `Sleep!' but nobody could give the right answer. You convinced me. If I am dead already, who cares?"
I went to see him the next morning. He was taking his breakfast. He welcomed me with great love and said, "It is a miracle! I awakened alive."
And I said, "Remember, if you don't sleep you will be dead. If you sleep there is a possibility you may wake up alive."
After twenty years I went back to the city. He had become very old, and he said to me, "Now I have come with a very different question: I want to die."
I said, "Sleep well. One day it is certain, I can guarantee you will not wake up. The best place to die is in bed. Ninety-nine percent of people die in bed. That is the most dangerous place."
He said, "My God! I have been sleeping on a bed."
I said, "You start sleeping on the mattress down on the floor."
He said, "What is that going to do?"
I said to him, "Remember, there is no way to avoid death. You can make every effort, and the best thing is not to go to bed. The bed is very close to the cemetery."
I have heard about an old Jew who was dying, a very rich man. His four sons were discussing: "The old fellow is going to die. What to do about the funeral procession?"
The youngest son said, "He always wanted to have a Rolls Royce. The poor fellow could not manage it, not because he did not have the money, but it was impossible to part him from
|
|
|