K@W 23rd May, 2009.- The Blind Boy

This story was sent as an e-mail to me.
The Blind Boy
The source of the story is:
From: em_dita@hotmail.com
To: dcord75@yahoo.co.uk
Subject: Blind Boy
Date: Sun, 3 May 2009 17:09:54 +0000

The Article: The Blind Boy
A blind boy sat on the steps of a building with a hat by his feet. He held up a sign which said: ‘I am blind, please help.’ There were only a few coins in the hat.
A man was walking by. He took a few coins from his pocket and dropped them into the hat. He then took the sign, turned it around, and wrote some words. He put the sign back so that everyone who walked by would see the new words.
Soon the hat began to fill up. A lot more people were giving money to the blind boy. That afternoon the man who had changed the sign came to see how things were. The boy recognized his footsteps and asked, ‘Were you the one who changed my sign this morning? What did you write?’
The man said, ‘I only wrote the truth. I said what you said but in a different way.’ What he had written was: ‘Today is a beautiful day and I cannot see it.’
Do you think the first sign and the second sign were saying the same thing?
Of course both signs told people the boy was blind. But the first sign simply said the boy was blind. The second sign told people they were so lucky that they were not blind.

K@W 23rd May, 2009.
The above story is an example that proves the importance of emotion and how if used correctly can change be helpful. It is said that if an individual is driven by emotion and no reason then the outcome is generally problamatic. However, the above story proves to be an example of a counter argument to the above statement. Indeed, it is via reason that the man changed the sign, but he used emotion in the form of language, which drove people to read the sign and give the blind boy money. The meaning of the sign did not change, the boy wanted to say that he needed help as he was blind. Both the sign said that he was blind, but the second sing was said with emotion and this is what caught the eyes of the people and drove them to give the blind boy money.
Was it ethical for the man to change the sign?
Q) Did the man write anything that was a lie?
Ans) No.
Q) Did the man do anything illegal?
Ans) No.
Q) Did the man change the sign for his personal benefir?
Ans)No.
Q) Did the boy benefit from what the man did?
Ans)Yes.
Then it is ethical for the man to change the sign.
How does perception play a role in the above story?
The man perceived that emotion added to language will have an impact on the public. And this proved to be true. The second statement must have impacted the public and changed their perception about life, i.e, first when people read the sign, they must have perceived the boy to be just a usual beggar or an orphan. But, when people read the second sign it changed must impacted their thinking which inturn must have changed their perception about the blind boy.
If something is done with emotion it generally has more meaning to it. For example in history, the Taj Mahal was built by emperrror Shah Jahan as a tomb for his wife Mumtaz Mahal. It was a tribute to her beauty. And beacause she was his favorite queen, he built her this tomb. If the Taj Mahal would have been built only as a tomb for Mumtaz Mahal, then maybe it would only be a pretty monument. But, this structure has a lot more to it and this is only beacuse of the emotion (love), which is the reason behind the creation of the monument.
Why is the Bibi Ka Maqbara in Aurangabad, which is known to be a copy of the Taj, not appriciated so much? The Maqbara, is also a tomb. This tomb was built by emperror Aurangzheb's son, for his mother Arjamat Bahanu Begham. It is beacuse the emotion behind the creation of the Taj Mahal is superrior than most of the reasons behid the buliding of both the monuments, that the Taj Mahal is recognised more and appriciated. It the the emotion that gives the Taj Mahal more charm than the Bibi Ka Maqbara.
Another example which proves that emotion is necessary is, while doing mathematics, if an individual does it with a negative frame of mind, then generally the solutions to the mathquestions is incorrect. However, if a math lover does those same sums, then he/he gets them correct, first, beacuse he/she knows how to solve the sums and second, because the emotion while doing the sums is positive.