A Hole in the Boat
The news has been full of disaster and tragedy in far away places: the cyclone in Myanmar, the earthquake in China, human rights violations in Tibet. Despite the distance across oceans and the distraction of our daily lives, we are still connected to our fellow human beings in these places, even when their plight does not seem to concern us.
A man in a boat began to bore a hole under his seat. When his fellow passengers asked him what he was doing he answered: “What do you care? Am I not boring under my own seat?”
— from The Busy Soul: Ten Minute Spiritual Workouts Drawn from Jewish Tradition by Rabbi Terry Bookman