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Two men, both seriously ill, occupied the same hospital room. One man was allowed to sit up in his bed for an hour each afternoon to help drain the fluid from his lungs. His bed was next to the room’s only window. The other man had to spend all his time flat on his back. The men enjoyed talking about their families, their jobs, their military service, their vacations. Every afternoon when the man by the window could sit up, he would take time to describe what he saw outside. The man in the other bed greatly enjoyed this because he learned more about all the activities of the world beyond the hospital.
One afternoon, as the man by the window was describing something special, there came a new thought to the listening man, “It doesn’t seem fair that the other man can see everything while I can’t!” Then—the man felt ashamed for thinking such a thing. But as days passed, the man continued to feel sorry for
himself in missing out on “all the fun.” Now his one goal in life was to be by that window. This thought so controlled his life that he couldn’t even sleep.
Late one night, as he lay awake, his roommate began to cough. He was choking on the fluid in his lungs. The other man knew that his struggling roommate needed help fast. Listening from across the room he never moved; he never tried to help in any way. In five minutes the coughing stopped as well as the breathing. Then it was all quiet—too quiet! The following morning, when the nurse came, she found that the man by the window had died. The hospital attendants took him away.
Later, the other man asked if he could be moved next to the window. This was permitted. When he was alone, he painfully raised up on one elbow to have his first look at the world outside. But, surprisingly, the window faced only a blank wall. The puzzled man asked the nurse why his deceased roommate had taken the time to describe such wonderful things outside the window. The nurse responded that the man was blind and could not even see the wall. She said, “Perhaps he just wanted to encourage you.” |
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