A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to
visit their old University of Notre Dome lecturer. Conversation soon turned into
complaints about stress in work and life.

Offering his guests coffee, the lecturer went to the kitchen and
returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups - porcelain, plastic,
glass, some plain-looking and some expensive and exquisite, telling them to help
themselves to hot coffee.

When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the lecturer said:
"If you noticed, all the nice-looking, expensive cups were taken up,
leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is but normal for you to want only
the best for ourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress.

What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you
consciously went for the better cups and are eyeing each other's cups."
"Now, if Life is coffee, then the jobs, money and position in society
are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, but the quality of Life
doesn't change."

"Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the
coffee in it."