WINDOW

In school, we heard the story of two men sharing a hospital room. The younger man’s ailment forced him to lie flat on his back all the time. Every morning and evening, the older man – whose bed was near the room's only window - would sit up and describe to his roommate all the things he could see outside the window... a park with a lovely lake, ducks and swans, children sailing their little boats, lovers sharing intimacy amidst flowers of every colour of the rainbow…

The young man would eagerly wait for his world to be enlivened by colour of the outside world. As the elder described in detail, the young man would close his eyes and imagine the scene. When he heard the description of a parade passing by, though he could not hear the band, he would see it in his mind’s eye. However deep down the young man was envious and resentful of the old man’s position next to the window.

In due course, when the old man died, the youth sought to be shifted to the bed with the view. The nurse was amused and told him that it would be useless as the only view he could see was of the ceiling as he was forced to lie flat on the bed. Nevertheless, he persisted and eventually the nurse shifted him next to the window. As soon as she left, he painfully propped himself up on one elbow. He strained to slowly turn to look out the window beside the bed. It faced a blank wall!

The lesson that endures in the above story is the about the choice to envision a colourful view in an otherwise blank window. So often when faced with a dead-end, we subscribe to pessimism. It is pertinent to note that we describe what we subscribe and inversely so as well. Hence to be better at overcoming a blank situation, we must choose to colour the view with the hues of hope and positive thinking… and such forward-looking vision is best fortified through sharing.

Let’s BE BETTER at how a situational void we may describe…

After all, every window holds only the view that we subscribe!

- Pravin K. Sabnis