The Briefcase

Chennai Speakers Forum

CC Project 8

The Brief Case

Props: 1) A briefcase 2)Poker Chips 3) Dice 4) Cards 5) Dealer puck

[Walk towards the stage with a briefcase in hand.]

Ladies and Gentlemen , Today I would like to introduce to you a personality like no other. A personality whom we all intimately want to know. A personality who means different things to different people.

A personality about whom thousands of books have been written, millions of articles published, scholars for centuries have tried to write a complete biography but failed, the personality who has many children including Fate, Hope, Desire and  Greed. Today we will meet the personality and his 4 kids as well.

I present to you the Briefcase of LIFE.[Opens up the case to show the contents 2,3,4,5]

Think of this briefcase as yourself. Think of the contents inside. There are 4 types of contents here

[Displays the 4 contents conspicuously to the audience and arrange them on the table in a row.]

You have all the children of Life within you. Each one of us has them within us.

Fate – Show the cards

Hope – Show the dice

Greed – show the Chips

Desire – Show the dealer PUCK

It’s how we nurture each of them that fill up our life. The games of life are the games we all play.

[Pick up the cards] This is the game of Fate. Life deals you a hand;[give one card to the front row audience] you have to play that hand. You do not have an option. Sometimes it is good hand, sometimes it’s a bad hand. Sometimes it brings happiness, sometimes it brings sadness, but the trick here friends is not to give up. Play the game, play against Fate because you can be sure that one day Fate would be defeated. As someone once said “A man’s character is his Fate”. Change your character. You will change your Fate.

[Pick up the dice] This is the game of Hope. [Role the dice on the floor along the aisle]. In life, you role the dice of action, and hope for the desired outcome. Sometimes you hit the jackpot, sometimes you miss by one turn, and sometimes you cannot hope to win. But still.. Hope lives. Hope that the next turn will bring you the results u wanted. His actions i.e the results are called the Re-actions .  Control your reactions and you will control Hope.

[Show the Poker Chips] Another mischievous child of Life is called Greed. For him everything is less. Nothing is enough. We keep on building our life on greed [build a chip stack], sometimes so high that it eventually falls on itself [make the chip stack fall].  You have more chances of winning a game with Greed when you know when to quit and when to move on. Control the chip stack. You control Greed.

The last and the final game of Life is called “Desire” [Pull out the puck]. There is no way to win against Desire. Because you see, he never plays. He just watches the fun from afar. He gives a puck to someone[throw it to someone in the audience], and watches others envy him, hate him, befriend him ONLY to get that PUCK. The desire to get that PUCK. In that desire to achieve the puck, we close all our senses to logic and focus on the PUCK. As soon as you have done that, you have lost.  Avoid Desire and you are better off.

So now, having met the kids, I shall introduce to you the personality.. Life itself. 

Life is humble, gentle and caring.

In fact the word defines itself. LIFE. Look Inside For Everything.[Close the briefcase].

In words of Mother Teresa,

 “Life is an opportunity, benefit from it.
Life is beauty, admire it.
Life is a dream, realize it.
Life is a challenge, meet it.
Life is a duty, complete it.
Life is a game, play it.
Life is a promise, fulfill it.
Life is sorrow, overcome it.
Life is a song, sing it.
Life is a struggle, accept it.
Life is a tragedy, confront it.
Life is an adventure, dare it.
Life is luck, make it.
Life is too precious, do not destroy it.
Life is life, fight for it.” 

I am going to do that. Are you?

 [Walk back]