A Story Beyond Borders
There was once a boy who grew up in a tiny village in the beautiful Austrian countryside. He was different to the other children. He had been born blind.
His father, a simple man, loved him as any father would love a son and never felt that his son was less than normal. Instead of sending him off to a special school in the city far away, as everyone advised him to do, he raised him at home and the boy lived his life as fully and as joyfully as possible. His way of experiencing the world was through the other senses, above all, touch.
But the boy had one great fear. A fear of the unknown. He was afraid to open doors and enter rooms as he did not know what was behind them. One day his father asked him what it was that scared him and the boy told him that he was afraid of what might be behind the door.
His father replied, “Why be afraid? Why do you only imagine the bad things that could be behind that door? Why do you only think of the risk, of the danger? Behind each of these doors, there could be something amazing for you. There could be a room full of teddy bears. You cannot know. Until you enter the room. Until you cross that border.”
The boy became a man. The man remembered his father’s words and saw no reason to be afraid anymore. Indeed, he stepped over thresholds that most of us would never consider to cross. He had a dream to climb mountains, and he realized his dream. He has climbed most of the tallest mountains in the world and is still climbing. Blind. With no fear of borders. Always imagining a room full teddy bears behind every threshold.
The teddy bear is EVERY where.
By Chris Rogers & Mario C. Bauer. Inspired by Andy Holzer.
