The Beach.
A wealthy and influential baroness without an heir was looking for a wise and able manager who she felt was skilled enough to hold the reins of her charity when she retired.
She summoned the best of her own charity’s management and commissioned the services of recruitment agencies to assist her in finding more suitable candidates.
On a particular day in the wake of autumn, all the possible contenders were assembled on a particular beach, somewhere in the Lake District.
The baroness then addressed all of the selected managers. “I have a problem, and I wish to know who, if any among you has the aptitude to resolve it. What you see by the edge of the waters is the most dangerous and difficult child in all of England. Who among you, without any help, has the power to make him speak?”
Some of the managers were quick to shake their heads, saying they remembered seeing him on the news, that he was one of the rescued child soldiers from Sierra Leone and was extremely disturbed. Others walked closer to the waves and examined him from a short distance, then discussed aspects of his psychological condition, his refugee status, and social awareness techniques they learned at University, ultimately concluding that it seemed impossible.
When the wisest and most respected among them had accepted defeat, the rest of them casually followed suit.
Only one manager walked all the way to the boy, getting her shoes soaked in the process. She knelt down right beside his chair, looked into his eyes for almost a minute and asked him, “So how do you feel about the world today, young man?”
The boy looked back at her, studied her face for about eight seconds and ever so gently replied “The world feels a little cold today, Miss.”
The manager, almost in tears, immediately took off her coat, wrapped it around the 12 year old boy, and the two just stayed there, in a deeply special warm embrace.
The others had made the assumption that the boy and his story were both too dangerous and too disturbing to speak about. In fact, the boy was a loving British child in foster care, who lived only a few miles from that beach, not a child soldier from Sierra Leone.
The noble baroness had found her successor and proceeded to address all the managers that were invited:
“Success in life and any endeavour depends on certain key things. They are as we have just seen demonstrated. Firstly, rely on your senses to fully understand the reality of what is going on around you. Second, do not make false assumptions. Third, be willing to make tough decisions. Fourth, have the courage to act with boldness and conviction. Fifth, put your powers into action. And finally, do not be afraid to make mistakes.”
A retelling of The Door, an oriental story taken from The Magic of Metaphors, by Nick Owen
