When judging is not as easy as it seems

Do you remember the plot of the movie, ”Titanic?” A new couple had to face a tragedy and change their paths forever after a terrible accident that caused the death of thousands of people, separated them forever. Leonardo D Caprio, the star of the movie sacrificed his life to save his partner and gave her the only plank that was available at the moment and could only hold one person. He let himself die to give his girlfriend the opportunity to live. The story I am going to tell you now is very different from the story in the movie and seems nothing but cruel and violent at first, however, it has some valuable lessons to teach us.

The teacher of a classroom decided to share a story with the children of the class to help them improve their critical judgment and be able to read between the lines when challenging situations appear in their lives in the future. According to the story, a ship crashed on some rocks and started sinking. A small boat was available on the ship in case of an emergency. A couple of two newly married people immediately threw the boat on the sea and jumped on it to save themselves from drowning. As soon as they found themselves in the tiny boat, they realized that there was only space for one person and if both of them decided to stay on the boat, it would probably sink just like the ship they had previously abandoned. At this point, the strangest thing happened. The man without any further notice, pushed the woman off the boat to save his life and the woman yelled at him a few words before drowning in the cold waters.

Once the story was completed, the teacher addressed the students and asked them what they thought the last words of the dying woman could be. In a world where kids are raised with fairytales talking about the bravery of young princes, the choice of the man could only be considered as a sign of weakness of a cruel personality. All children agreed that the woman would have probably something like ”I hate you,” or ”You are a terrible person, or something like that; all children except for one. One kid stayed silent.

The teacher asked the kid what he thought the woman would scream. The boy replied: ”I guess she told him to take care of their child.” The teacher asked if he already knew the story since the answer was right. The boy said he did not know but he knew that this was what his mother told his dad before she died.

After receiving everyone’s answer the teacher shared with the students the rest of the story. According to it, the couple had a daughter. When the daughter grew up she found her dad’s diary. Based on the notes, her mom was diagnosed with a disease that had sentenced her to death two months after the accident. The father knew that his wife had no chance to survive and that his daughter would be left without any of her parents if he didn’t take the brave decision to save himself. His confessions in the diary explained that he would prefer to jump in the water instead of seeing his wife dead. However, his love for their daughter made him take the particular decision. His wife’s last words were, indeed, ”Take care of our child.”

The decisions we make are the result of certain information we have. Everything we choose to do is based on the things we know and the things we want. We all know that we should not rush to judge others but stories have greater power than words and lectures. Being ready to jump to conclusions will only make us lose the essential information. Sometimes, we just have to sit back silently and care for our fellows, perhaps they deal with tragedies we are not aware of and this is why we should always give them a break. Besides, the boy of our story who had experienced a similar tragedy was wise enough to detect the traps and tell the right from wrong.

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