An amazing story

A tourist wanders into a back-alley antique shop in San Francisco’s Chinatown. Picking through the objects on display, he discovers a detailed, life-sized, bronze sculpture of a rat. The sculpture is so interesting and unique, that he picks it up and asks the shop owner what it costs.

“Twelve dollars for the rat, sir,” says the shop owner, “and a thousand dollars more for the story behind it.”

“You can keep the story, old man,” the tourist replies, “but I’ll take the rat.”

The transaction complete, the tourist leaves the store with the bronze rat under his arm. As he crosses the street in front of the store, two live rats emerge from a sewer drain and fall into step behind him. Nervously looking over his shoulder, he begins to walk faster, but every time he passes another sewer drain, more rats come out and follow him.

By the time he’s walked two blocks, at least a hundred rats are at his heels, and people begin to point and shout. He walks even faster, and soon breaks into a trot as multitudes of rats swarm from sewers, basements, vacant lots and abandoned cars. Rats by the thousands are at his heels, and as he sees the waterfront at the bottom of the hill, he panics and starts to run full tilt. No matter how fast he runs, the rats keep up, squealing hideously, now not just thousands but millions, so that by the time he comes rushing up to the water’s edge, a trail of rats twelve city blocks long is behind him. Making a mighty leap, he jumps up onto a light post, grasping it with one arm while he hurls the bronze rat into San Francisco Bay with the other, as far as he can heave it. Pulling his legs up and clinging to the light post, he watches in amazement as the seething tide of rats surges over the breakwater into the sea, where they drown.

Shaken and mumbling, he makes his way back to the antique shop. “Ah, so you’ve come back for the rest of the story,” says the owner.

“No,” says the tourist, “I was wondering if you have bronze officemates.”

How about you, how do you deal with the people you dislike? How do you deal with difficult people?

There are things that delight us and there are things that annoy us. What we need to remember is that, WHAT DELIGHTS US DIRECTS US.

What types of people annoy you? Survey says, these are the things that annoy us most about our co-workers:

* Talk too much - 41%

* Complain a lot - 36%

* Talk about personal business indiscreetly - 33%

* Talk too loudly on the phone - 33%

* Eat noisily - 27%

* Suck up to the boss - 26%

* Read emails over your shoulders - 21%

* Have a messy desk - 20%

* Light fingered with stationery - 13%

* Play childish pranks - 12%

* Personal hygiene issues - 8%

We cannot avoid these people, you and I might as well live with that fact. But that’s not reason for us to allow them to control our day. Today could be the best day of your life – make sure no loser is going to make you miss it!

We may not be able to control our circumstances, but we sure can control the way we respond to them. And here’s the most important thing: make sure you don’t get into the list of people who annoy other people as well.

God has given us the gift of life and love. Learn to live to the full and learn to love fully.

Or else somebody may be requesting some storekeeper for a bronze statue of YOU!

(Get daily inspirational quotes and thoughts from Francis! Send “Inspire” to 288 for Smart or Sun subscribers, and 2889 for Globe. Visit facebook.com/franciskong2 for more details.)