Don’t Be a Sieve: Be a Sponge

I’ve been told that in life, there are two kinds of people when it comes to advice and knowledge. The sieves and the sponges. As we grow older, we get to pick which one we belong to and it’s amazing the way a number of people end up becoming sieves rather than sponges. Those who want to become sponges, end up becoming sieves.

You are probably wondering why I’m harping on about kitchen items but here is what I actually mean by sieves and sponges when it comes to our society.

Picture a sieve. Flour flows through it freely with only a few particles sticking to the metal mesh. Sometimes, the occasional dirt particle clogs up the pores in the sieve, stopping the flour from going through. And in other cases, you may find a small piece of stone among those tiny particles of flour. The sieves are people who let advice and knowledge pour through them in masses but they never retain any of it. They just let it go through them when that advice that is flowing through them could actually be quite useful. Even though they let the information go through them, they don’t really store it. As time goes by, just like a sieve, they clog up their holes (their ears) and avoiding letting any advice or knowledge pour through them at all. Sometimes, when they are really obstinate, they only retain the massive negatives which hinder the knowledge from going through. The sieves are the kinds who only hear but don’t listen. They know that they are being subjected to knowledge but they don’t bother breaking it down and understanding it. All of us have had sieve moments. I know that sometimes when my mum asks me to do any chores while I’m watching TV, I know she’s talking to me but I don’t analyse why she’s asking me to do those chores. I just say something like, “Yeah, okay, later, mum.”  All of us have had moments like that, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t become sponges.

Picture a sponge. It soaks the water in it and becomes wet, with the occasional drop oozing out. You then take the sponge and squeeze it to let the water out. You squeeze it tightly if you want a lot out and you squeeze it slightly if you just want a little. This water then wipes away any impurities that may lie on surfaces. The sponges, in terms of people, are those who listen carefully to advice and information and store it in them. Because they are making space in their brain for so much knowledge, they may ooze out the occasional useful piece of knowledge. But when it comes to using that knowledge, they use it according to how much will get them the best result. This knowledge that they store and then use when needed, really pays off to wash off any iffy situations if they do fall into any. The sponges are the listeners. They know that whatever they hear is essential. They can effortlessly understand what they hear and they know that actually synthesising what they hear could be useful in the future for their own advantage. Using the situation above, if I understood that mum needed me doing the chores at that moment because she was tired, I could have been a better individual and there could have been even room for a reward.

Life is filled with people who are either sieves or sponges. All of us have moments when we are sieves and other moments when we are sponges, but we essentially belong to one category most of the times. In every one of us, there is either a sponge or a sieve that is dominant. Neither is permanent because it can change with our lifestyle and thoughts but when it comes down to listening to other people’s knowledge and advice, don’t be a sieve, be a sponge.