The View Outside

I don’t know how many of you have heard of this story but I’m going to try and recite it for you…

There were once two men who were both bed bound in the same hospital room. One mans bed stood next to a big window whilst the other mans bed was next to the door disabling him from seeing the outside world. Every morning the man next to the window would wake up and act as the other mans eyes. He would tell him what’s going on outside. He would describe what the trees looked like, the colour of the setting sun. He would explain how happy the children looked as they skipped down the road with their parents and how beautiful the street looked when it snowed or was covered in red leaves.

The man in the bed next to the door would lay his head on the pillow and hear these daily stories. His imagination would come alive with the narration of his friend next to the window. The stories would fill him with hope and passion knowing that there was a world out there waiting for him; however what he wished most was to see the world with his own eyes. Suddenly one night, the man in the bed next to the window got very ill, he called out to his friend in the bed next to the door to call a nurse as he was dying. The man in the bed next to the door closed his eyes and pretended to sleep…

The next day the doctors wheeled the poor dead man in the bed next to the window out of the room, as they were leaving the man in the bed next to the door requested from the nurse to be moved next to the window. The nurse wheeled his bed to the window and left him to his own devices. The man had finally got what he wanted; he could now look out the window every day and see the beautiful world outside. However to his horror he turned his head and saw that the view of the outside world was completely blocked due to a big brick wall in front of the window.

It turned out that the man who had previously lain in the bed next to the window would wake up every morning and see his friend upset and stranded in his bed. He would imagine and describe a beautiful world outside to cheer his friend up.

I don’t know what the point is I’m trying to make with this story. It has a lot of levels to it. The first one that jumps out to me is what some people are willing to do for their friends and the people they love. Whilst some try their best to look after and nurture the people in their lives, others will crush and destroy them. Another level is a more individual perspective; some people will do anything to make their lives better even if it means stepping on others to reach it. I guess sometimes we have let other people guide us; we have to rely on our friends and let them rely on us for if we are unreliable then we will end up somewhere we always wanted to be only to find it’s not what we expected it to be without the people who truly care about us…