Those of you who earnestly supported the good things that OWS has been trying to accomplish should try not to feel bitter. To have aspiration for good, even if it got frustrated this time around, is better than to fall into uncaring cynicism, IMHO. There’s always hope. Without it we might as well be dead. Let the scoffers enjoy their scoffing—it changes nothing…unless you let it.

The Old Woman Who Wanted to Buy Joseph

It is said that when they sold Joseph to the Egyptians the latter treated him kindly. There were many buyers so the merchants priced him at from five to ten times his weight in musk. Meanwhile, in a state of agitation, an old woman ran up, and going among the buyers said to an Egyptian: “Let me buy the Canaanite, for I long to possess that young man. I have spun ten spools of thread to pay for him so take them and give me Joseph and say no more about it.”

The merchants smiled and said: “Your simplicity has misled you. This unique pearl is not for you; they have already offered a hundred treasures for him. How can you bid against them with your spools of thread?” The old woman, looking into their faces, said: “I know very well that you will not sell him for so little, but it is enough for me that my friends and enemies will say, ‘this old woman has been among those who wished to buy Joseph’.”

He who is without aspiration will never reach the boundless kingdom. Possessed of this lofty ambition a great prince regarded his worldly kingdom as ashes. When he realized the emptiness of temporal royalty, he decided that spiritual royalty was worth a thousand kingdoms of the world.

The Conference of the Birds: A Sufi Fable
Shambhala Publications, Boston 1993.