The Book of Mu Gratitude for Living

A Story of Gratitude: One day, after weeks of endless frolicking, a young boy came upon a peculiar man. "Good sir, will you help me find my way?" the young boy asked naively. Surprisingly, the wobbly man happily obliged. And shortly after, they arrived at a rundown tavern. Unfortunately, the young boy was dissatisfied, so he thanked the wobbly man and continued on his journey. A week later... Skipping along a desolate road, the young boy happened to bump into a beautiful woman who introduced herself as Ms. Pie. "i love pie!" whooped the young boy. So Ms. Pie happily guided him to a nearby Pleasure Palace. And again, the young boy was unfulfilled. So he thanked Ms. Pie and resumed his Pilgrimage. One month later... "Sensei," moped the young boy, "people are only interested in their own views. They never even think to ask me what i want. Oooh! i got it! Will you help me find my way, Sensei?!" "Ribbit!" croaked the frog. And the young boy burst into laughter. Seventy years later... in his dying breath, the young boy now an old man, looked back on that fateful day. it was seventy years ago on a riverbank with the late Mister Ribbit when his life would change forever... After cheerfully agreeing to help him find his way, Frog-sensei led the young boy across a shallow river, then through a thorny thicket, then up a steep slope, then carefully over the belly of a giant napping beast, and finally they arrived at a vacant clearing where a weather-beaten book was lying abandoned. Mister Ribbit wasn't a reader, so the anxious boy knew that the tattered book just had to be for him. Thus he cracked it open and gobbled it down in one sitting. And right then and there, on that vacant clearing, alongside his best friend Mister Ribbit, the young boy knew that he had finally found what his wishful heart had longed for from the very beginning. From that day forward, the young boy's life had been so deeply shaped by this old and worn book, that in the countless years that followed, no matter how taxing or arduous life became, not once did he reconsider his way. As he heaved his final breath, this memory replayed through his mind over and over. Until the very last drop of life seeped out of him. The End