Beneath every story, there is always a plethora of other hidden stories. We can never know what is truly going on in the lives of other people because not only do human beings have secret hidden worlds but also there are circumstances that we can never understand unless we’re walking in that person’s shoes. When you read a story, you probably take it at face value. I know I do. That’s just what we do as people. We’re complex beings, but when it comes to the information we process that involves other people, we can be obtuse and one-dimensional. In the story below, the teacher shares a valuable lesson with a classroom full of students. What can be learned from this fictional story is priceless. You just never know the full story unless you’re living inside of that story and even then, you may not truly know.
A teacher was tutoring a class of students when she shared the amazing story of a cruise ship capsized at sea. A couple on the ship managed to make their way to a lifeboat but found there was only space for one person. You’ll never guess what lesson this class learned from the story.
A cruise ship had an accident at sea and needed to evacuate the passengers. One couple, having made their way to the lifeboats, realized that there was only space for one more person. At this moment, the man pushed the woman behind him and jumped onto the lifeboat himself. The lady stood on the sinking ship and shouted one sentence to her husband.
The teacher stopped and asked, “What do you think she shouted?”
Most of the students excitedly answered, “I hate you! I was blind!”
The teacher noticed a boy who was silent throughout. She asked him what he thought and he replied, “Teacher, I believe she would have shouted: Take care of our child!”
Surprised, the teacher asked, “Have you heard this story before?”
The boy shook his head admitting, “Nope, but that was what my mom told my dad before she died to disease”.
The teacher lamented, “The answer is right”.
The cruise ship sunk. The man went home and brought up their daughter single-handedly. Many years later after the death of the man, their daughter found his diary while tidying his belongings. It turns out that when the parents boarded the cruise ship, the mother had already been diagnosed with a terminal illness. At the critical moment, the father rushed to the only chance of survival. He wrote in his diary, “How I wished to sink to the bottom of the ocean with you, but for the sake of our daughter, I can only let you lie forever below the sea alone”.
The class was silent as the teacher finished the story.
The teacher knew that the students had understood the moral of the story: good and evil are complicated and can be hard to understand. This is why we shouldn’t only focus on the surface and judge others without understanding them first.
Those who like to pay the bill do so not because they are loaded, but because they value friendship above money.
Those who take the initiative at work do so not because they are stupid, but because they understand the concept of responsibility.
Those who apologize first after a fight do so not because they are wrong, but because they value the people around them.
Those who are willing to help you do so not because they owe you something but because they see you as a true friend.
Those who often text you do so not because they have nothing better to do but because you are in their heart.
One day, we will all be separated from each other. We will miss our conversations of everything and nothing, the dreams that we had. Days will pass by, then months, then years, until this contact becomes rare One day our children will see our pictures and ask Who are these people? And we will smile with invisible tears because a heart is touched with a strong word and you will say: It was them that I had the best days of my life with.
