In the whimsical tale of ‘The Eternal Smile’ by Gene Luen Yang and Derek Kirk Kim, a mercenary frog craves to have a swimming pool that is so deep that it can hold all the gold coins he has, such that when he hops into it for a swim, he wouldn’t hit his nose at the bottom. Later, to his shock, he realises that he was programmed by humans through a chip on his head to be money-minded, for their entertainment. He catches sight of a pond that shines with golden water in the sun. Suddenly, he yearns to go towards it. He breaks free and leaps forth. As he dives into it joyfully, the chip becomes dislodged. (See this last frame of the story in the picture above.)
The story reminds me of how all that glitters is not gold – including gold itself. While we might be misleadingly attached to the material, what is truly valuable is that which is immaterial, as exemplified by the freedom from craving for the material. It is as if the frog had been wanting freedom that is worth more than all the gold in the world all along, but didn’t know where to find it, and was distracted by physical gold. The real gold he was looking for was freedom, that was priceless, while it didn’t cost a single cent (or gold coin). Swimming in a pool of coins was stinky, hard and stifling too, while it was water that brought about natural unbounded ease. He was a frog, who found his true home.
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