There was once a boy, a very nice and happy boy, who lived with his parents and three older sisters in a beautiful cottage by a babbling brook.
This boy's childhood was full of joy and love and play. He'd wake up happy. He'd spend the day with his wonderful family. He'd eat marvelous home-cooked food. He'd sit with his family until late in the evening listening to stories, playing games, and reading books. And when at last each day was over, he'd get into his big comfortable bed and sleep blissfully, dreaming about what tomorrow would hold.
But childhood, sadly, does not last forever and there came a day when this boy needed to make his way into the world outside of his family cottage. His sisters, having already ventured out into the world, offered him their advice and support, as did his parents, even though it broke their hearts to see him leave. But leave he did, one cloudy morning, bag on his shoulder, brook babbling a little more ominously than usual.
The boy, now a man (at least on the outside), went to school and learned a trade. He met a girl, fell in love, got married, and started a family of his own.
The man's life was wonderful - his own family filling his days with joy and love and play; his frequent visits to his parents' cottage - and to his sisters' family homes - always a blessed reminder of his happy childhood days and the happy little boy still thriving inside.
And the story would end here, with a comforting but dull "happy ever after", if it weren't for an embittered and jealous wizard who passingly knew the man and vehemently resented his seemingly enchanted existence. One fateful day, this wizard cast a spell on the man: It didn't change him at all on the outside, but on the inside the spell put the happy little boy into a deep and enduring sleep.
Slowly, the man changed. He found himself short-tempered with his loving children and loving wife. He no longer found joy in the little things; he no longer looked at the world through the naive and wondering eyes of a child. He suffered through the work that he used to enjoy so much - wanting all the people around him to leave him alone. He came home and ate his meals in silence. He lost interest in playing with his children. And even the increasingly infrequent visits to his parents' cottage left him empty and resentful - for the inner-child who called that cottage home was silent and still.
He passed his days as if living for the quiet of nighttime when he could finally be on his own - then spent restless nights tossing and turning unconsciously aware that he had lost something, but unable to find it.
Days and months passed. The seasons came and went. And the man got older and angrier and became more and more alone. The solitude that he thought would bring him peace instead brought him deeper misery.
Now as we all know, when a wizard passes from this world, the spells he cast during his lifetime - whether for good or for ill - are suddenly reversed. And so it happened that many years after putting the man's inner-child to sleep, the wizard's demise suddenly awoke the boy within. The (now fairly old) man, standing in front of the mirror shaving his gray and grizzled beard at that moment, felt the awakening and immediately saw himself for what he had become.
He quickly dressed, face half-shaved, and ran out into the street ready to re-embrace the world, where a car hit him and he was instantly killed.
His family was devastated (for they had loved him even during the years of grumpiness) and they spoke of the happy child, the loving father, and wise old codger in his eulogy. His co-workers and acquaintances came to his funeral and cried for the man who didn't want them around when he lived.
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And so, dear children, that is why you must look both ways before you cross the street.
And to you adults who find yourself passing your days in anger - focused only on work, pushing your family and friends away, and never taking the time for simple play - don't wait for an evil wizard's passing to awaken your inner-child. And you too must always look both ways before your cross the street, especially in countries where they drive on the other side of the road. And in movies, where busses are always seeming to hit people crossing the street these days.
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