This is a story of a soldier who had returned from the Vietnam War. He made a phone call from San Francisco to his parents, telling them “Dad, mom… I’m back. But I have a request, could I bring a friend home?”

 “Well of course! We’d be glad!” replied the parents.
But after a few moments, the soldier continues…

 “But, there’s more… He lost an arm and a leg from the war. He had nowhere to go so I asked him to come back with me.”

 “Son, it’s saddening to hear that. Perhaps we could find a place for this young man.” replied the father. Then, the father continues “Son, are you aware of the current condition? If your friend is disabled now, he could have burdened us. This will affect our lives too. I suggest that you come home alone and forget about him. I believe he would have his own way.”

The soldier hung up the phone after that. Ever since then, the parents could hear no more regarding to their son. A few days later, they’ve received a call from the San Francisco police department informing them about their son’s death. It was a suicide case.
Bringing along their sorrow, the parents took a flight to San Francisco. When they were brought to identify their son’s body, they were shocked to learn that he had lost an arm and a leg.

The parents in the story are people like us, people who favour those with a better appearance. That’s easy. But it’s always hard to accept people who trouble and burden us. Most of the time, we’d rather stay away from those who are worse in health, appearance, and intelligence than ourselves.

Nevertheless, we should be grateful that certain people would not treat us so cruelly. There are people who’d accept us, and do anything for us without a single complaint. Thus, we must tell ourselves to not behave arrogantly. We need to accept each other no matter if they’re good or bad on the outside and also the inside.

Stop for a moment, and start to understand the difference among people. There’s something mystical lying in everyone’s heart. A thing called ‘Friendship’. You may never know how or when it’ll grow, but one thing for sure, is that it’ll present us a special gift. When you understand friendship, you’ll know that it’s a valuable gift of life!

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