These are some verses by the popular poet ‘anonymous’ I came across long before WhatsApp university came into being. Later I came to know from the net that the poem is attributed to Ella Wheeler Wilcox.
Lifting and Leaning
There are two kinds of people on earth today,
Just two kinds of people, no more, I say.
Not the good and the bad, for ’tis well understood
The good are half bad and the bad are half good.
Not the happy and sad, for the swift-flying years
Brings each man his laughter and each man his tears.
Not the rich and the poor, for to count a man’s wealth
You must first know the state of his conscience and health.
Not the humble and proud, for in life’s busy span
He who puts on vain airs is not counted a man.
No! The two kinds of people on earth I mean
Are the people who lift and the people who lean.
Wherever you go you will find the world’s masses
Are ever divided in just two classes.
And, strangely enough, you will find, too, I ween,
There is only one lifter to twenty who lean.
In which class are you? Are you easing the load
Of overtaxed lifters who toil down the road?
Or are you a leaner who lets others bear
Your portion of worry and labor and care?
The poet come out with the ratio of 1:20; in the management studies , there is a saying that in any organization , 80 percent of the work is done by 20 percent of people; for those arithmetically challenged , the ratio is one lifter to four leaners. It is only the ratio one can haggle about, not the fact that there are more leaners in this world than lifters.
Today the division between lifters and learners is more pronounced than ever before. The poem is more figurative than literal, but someone, hale and hearty, who cannot lift his own brief-case can’t be expected take on any kind of load of the family or society he is part of. Can he be ?
Whenever I spend some time in the airport I never fail to notice that we have a class of people who simply do not want to lift or worse still, do not want to be seen lifting anything heavier than a food tray with a coke and a hamburger.
Micro suitcases have mega wheels and wheelchairs are ubiquitous.
Yes, we need to provide mobility to temporarily or permanently disabled and the elderly; but why are these wheel chairs not available at Railway Stations.?When I badly wanted a wheel chair at a Railway Station, I had to collect one from the Station Master’s office after depositing my original Identity Card. Later I had to retrieve my identity card after returning the wheel chair. Of course, at Railway Stations you need to pay the porters for theses services while at the airport, they are free; because air-travellers are entitled ‘ Leaners’.
Another place I see the stark division of the two classes is in Hospitals. The hospitals are designed on the lines of five star hotels. In one of the leading hospitals, I noticed over 10 different classes of wards from the shared ward for about 2500/ per day to VIP suite for Rs 25000/ per day.
After all everybody needs help at times and has to be wheeled around by his fellow-citizens; but how is it that almost every one who is serving is malnourished and the one who is being served is obese?
What happens to those arms that have stopped lifting any load ; and those legs that have stopped walking beyond the distance from their cars to the nearest building? The fat deposits increase and the muscles start wasting away and presto ! we do have a solution for that ! Just drive down to a physiotherapist and start a scientifically designed work out on how to regain the strength of these muscles; surprise ! surprise ! ….. that is done by lifting weights that members of this elite class scrupulously avoid in their day to day life. And they walk on treadmills to exercise their ‘unwalking ‘ legs!
Welcome to the Brave New World!
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