The Water Cart – Use Things to Give Meaning to Your Life 

By Vincent Kituku 

A story is told of what King Fredrick William III of Prussia did as his country suffered huge financial losses due to wars. He asked Prussian women to donate their gold and silver jewelry to be melted down and converted to items that could be used as exchange for the things their nation needed the most. The women were given a bronze or iron decoration, with the inscription, “I gave gold for iron, 1813” as a token of the king’s appreciation for their contribution. 

As the exercise gained momentum, the women started to value the gift from their king more than their jewelry. Their new possession was a symbol of sacrifice for their king’s cause, and as such, it became fashionable in the early nineteenth-century to wear a cross made of iron. That was the practice and the meaning attributed to the iron that led to the establishment of The Order of the Iron Cross. 

It is how we use our material possessions that bring meaning in our lives. The possession of things does not bring meaning to our lives, but it is what we do with our possessions. 

Years ago, I learned that a poor woman I knew before I came to America had started fetching water from a spring and selling it to businesses. She would get 50 or so pounds of water in a bucket, place it on her head and transport it. Carrying heavy things on the head is dangerous. I was told by a chiropractor that my neck, due to carrying water that way in my youth, is as damaged as the neck of someone who has been involved in an accident. 

Further, one must sell many buckets of water to make enough money to buy basic life necessities. But with a cart and two bulls, one could fetch 15-20 buckets of water in a single trip. That would be sufficient to support a family for several days and there would be no damaged neck. My family managed to help the woman with the purchase of two bulls, a yoke and a cart. After a while, I forgot about it. 

When I visited Kenya in January 2010, the lady handed me some photos that were carefully placed in an envelope which was wrapped with a plastic bag. One photo still brings tears to my eyes. It was a photo of the cart we had bought for her and it had “Muli & Wanza” inscribed on one side. Muli is my given name and Wanza is my wife’s name. 

That photo brings a meaning of life far different and fulfilling than all the photos of accomplishment that were taken of me in my three graduation ceremonies or of any of the material possessions of which I am blessed. 

Each day, we have the opportunity to add a meaning to our lives with the way we use our things. When our things are used for a cause, they become more valuable and their impact lasts, sometimes outliving us. The choice is ours to make our things bring meaning to our lives. 

Dr. Vincent Muli Wa Kituku, motivational speaker and author of “Overcoming Buffaloes at Work & in Life,” is the founder and executive director of Caring Hearts and Hands of Hope, a non-profit organization that raises tuition and fees for poor orphans and other children from poverty-stricken families in Kenya. Contact him at [email protected] or (208) 376-8724.