The Tower

This is like my most favorite ever story that I read years and years ago but misplaced where I found it only just recently to come across it once again. So here I share, with proper credits! Enjoy! Think about it! Use it!

There once was a country where none of the people ever lifted their heads. They always looked downwards, just in front of them. And yet every person in this country spent their whole life searching for the highest tower in the world.

Of course, no one ever found the tower, because not one head was ever lifted. And so they were a restless people, never happy with staying in one place, always searching and forever moving about. Every day you could see them walking up and down all the winding little roads, studying maps and arguing with each other.

There were, in fact, signs which pointed to the tower. But as the people wouldn’t look up, they never saw the signs.

Instead they argued with each other about the ‘right’ road to the tower. They never followed a road to its end, because as soon as they’d traveled a little way along it, they would be persuaded to try a different road. Thus they went around and around in circles.

One day a man named Trevor was walking about when he saw a large gathering of people. They were gathered around the lake, all pointing excitedly at the reflection of the tower in the water. Many of them jumped into the lake and were drowned. Some of the others said that the tower was evil; others said that there was no tower, it was just and illusion.

In the commotion which followed, Trevor was knocked down. Now this might not sound like a big deal, but in a country where all the people always look down in front of them – well, let’s just say that people didn’t fall very often. When the crowd had cleared, Trevor was still lying flat on his back. But when he opened his eyes, he could see the tower clearly, way off in the distance! He tried to tell his countrymen, but they thought he was mad. In fact it was a sign of disgrace to fall down like that.

So Trevor journeyed towards the tower alone. There were many roads which seemed to lead to it, but he took the nearest one. The journey was not easy. The road was sometimes rough and bumpy. And he wasn’t sure sometimes that he was heading in the right direction.

A couple of times he slipped and fell over again. But it was at these times that he was able to gaze up at the tower and get his bearings again.
And he noticed that the only other people who traveled in the right direction were the sick, the crippled, the lame and the hungry. For only they who had fallen were able to look up and see the tower.

Original source: “Stories for Sharing” by Charles Arcodia, E.J. Dwyer Publisher 1991