In George Saunders' novel, "Tenth of December", there is a short story in which two men change each other's lives unintentionally. One of the characters, a boy, who was playing pretend with his bow and arrow, went walking through the wood playing an imaginary game so that he could save his pretend girlfriend. A man, had set out a few minutes earlier than him on the same track. The man had decided that on that day, he was going to commit suicide. About 10 minutes into the walk the man decided to take off all his clothes and lay in the snow and fall asleep. The boy saw this and in order to save his life, decided to risk walking across the frozen lake that divided them. Unfortunately, the ice was not thick enough and the boy fell in. The man, who was laying down saw the boy fall and went to rescue him. In the end, they both end up saving each others life by making sure both were ok.
This was such a powerful story to me. The message it gave me was that no matter what's going on in life there is always someone there. The man had no value to his own life and when he saw someone else's life in danger he was willing to put his on the line for the boy. After they were both rescued the man was greatly emotional. The boy had unintentionally gave the man's life reason.
This was one of my favorite stories throughout the whole book, I appreciate it a lot and I think you hit the meaning of it right on the head. It was really beautiful how through saving the life of someone else, who's a total stranger, you can find a reason to save your own too. It means a lot to me.
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