I found this today and thought of all of you. I can't imagine why......
--
A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in
front of him. When the class began, wordlessly, he picked up a very
large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf
balls.

He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it
was.

So the professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into
the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open
areas between golf balls.

He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it
was.

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar.
Of course, the sand filled up everything else.

He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with a
unanimous "yes."

The professor then produced two cans of beer from under the table and
poured the entire contents into the jar, effectively filling the empty
space between the sand. The students laughed.

"Now," said the professor, as the laughter subsided, "I want you to
recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the
important things--your family, your children, your health, your
friends, your favorite passions--things that if everything else was
lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.

"The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your
house, your car.

The sand is everything else--the small stuff.

"If you put the sand into the jar first," he continued, "there is no
room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If
you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never
have room for the things that are important to you. Pay attention to
the things that are critical to your happiness. Play with your
children. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your partner out
to dinner. Play another 18. There will always be time to clean the
house, and fix the disposal.

"Take care of the golf balls first, the things that really matter.
Set your priorities. The rest is just sand."

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the beer
represented.

The professor smiled. "I'm glad you asked. It just goes to show you
that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a
couple of beers."

But as he'd poured in the beer he'd failed to notice that he'd over filled the glass and some had run down the outside.

At the end of his lecture as everyone was about to leave the room he started to clear the table. He picked up the glass to take it away and empty it but the excess liquid had made the outside slippery and this combined with the weight of balls, sand and such meant that it slipped from his grasp.

It shattered into a thousand piece. There were golf balls, sand and pebbles everywhere.

This of course proves that while there may always be room for beer too damned much of it and your whole life will be destroyed.

Glaubt es mir - das Geheimnis, um die größte Fruchtbarkeit und den größten Genuß vom Dasein einzuernten, heisst: gefährlich leben.
- Friedrich Nietzsche

Read all about my travels around the world here.
Read even more of my travel writing and poems on my weblog.

Bravo, Bob! That was great!

Yes, Bob, I love it!

I had heard that story before, WinterBranch, without the beer part. I like yours much better!

Now, dare I ask if there would have been a difference if that beer had been Bu......no, I will leave that alone!

(I think it was Schlitz.)

Almost onomatopoeic, really.