The Color of Almond (short story)

Hi Sir, i'm sorry if i'm too late, and sorry if it is too long ^^. well this is a good story(i think), actually, i have this idea from my mother (of course she tells different story, but still it has the almost same moral value), so let me spread it ^^, enjoy..

There was once two young squirrels who always fight each other. Everyday, when they tried to make a choice, their choice is always different. When Pucky, the older squirrel said A, then Tucky, the younger one said B. They always did this everytime and everywhere until sometimes they disturbed other animals by their not-important-matter. Of course, at school they always annoyed the teacher so much by their different opinion until one day, they were called to the teacher’s office.

At the teacher’s office, they met Wizzy, the wise owl, or known also as the counseling teacher of their school. He already knew what’s wrong with them and he also had made the solution for them. Afterward, he asked those two squirrels to enter two different room. The room was only separated from wooden wall, so each of them could hear the other sound. In that room, there was an almond painted by a color, then the owl asked them to mention what color it is.

Soon, the two squirrels start shouting. Pucky said its color is white, while Tucky said the color is black. They shouted louder and louder because each of them felt like their answer was the right one. After 5 minutes, Tucky started to yell at Pucky,” That color is black, you know that? you’re stupid!”. Pucky shouted louder, “What? Are you blind?, of course the color is white!”. When the owl heared this, he said,”calm down you guys, now let’s switch your place and try to tell me what color that you see”. When they entered the room, then with the hoarse voice Tucky said,”wh-whi-white, sir” and Pucky said the color was black. Finally, they realize that they are both right, it’s just each room has different color of almond. Noone is wrong. They hug each other and said thanks to owl. The owl just smiled at them. They leaved the room now...

What lesson can you get from this story? Sometimes we are those squirrels. Debating endlessly on something and never find a way out. We often fight, disagree, debate with many things, in many situation. Even worse, we don’t want to hear or just negelect someone’s opinion, someone’s voice. We often think that all of our answers are the best.

Well, actually that’s not a fault, differences are good, and sometime with debating we can gain a better solution and also nothing wrong with variety. But, we need to unite more often then arguing each other. We need to hear someone’s voices, understand them and know their perception, the way they look into something, their foundation of the solution/answer from some situations. We need to “peek” into the other “room”, before we start to mention “color” of the “almond”. I think there is no “ absolute right thing” except from God’s. So, let’s try to understand the differences of our perception before we start agruing. that's all, thanks..

(M. Jundi Arrofi/XI IA 6)