The Wall

There once was a man named Gary who lived in a certain neighborhood. Gary liked his neighbors very much.

He would have them over to his house to watch football. Their wives would come over and drink tea. Gary always spoke highly of them.

One day he learned that his next door neighbor was moving out of the neighborhood. He went over to meet his new neighbor.

When Gary returned, his wife asked him, "What do you think of our new neighbor?".

"He makes me sick!" Gary said. "I find him revolting! He will bring this whole neighborhood down. He seems to have no special talents or skills. He doesn't strike me as intelligent or scholarly. He just has this simple way about him that makes me want to throw up."

His wife later agreed. Soon the entire neighborhood was talking about what a bad man their neighbor was.

Several days went by, and Gary decided he had to do something. Eventually he decided to build a large wall to divide their yards.

So he started building. It was to be two feet across and four feet high. It took several weekends to build. Every weekend Gary would start out asking himself, "Why am I doing this?" As he worked he thought of many answers to that question.

Occasionally Gary would drive past his neighbor on the street, and his neighbor would wave kindly at him. Gary would pretend like he didn't notice him and would keep driving.

Gary continued to invite his neighbors over to watch football, but he never invited the neighbor who lived across the wall. One time the state college made a spectacular play, and everyone cheered, but Gary just looked over his wall, noticing the smile on his neighbor's face as he went back and forth, mowing the lawn.

In his heart Gary cursed the day his neighbor moved in. He decided to build the fence higher -and thicker.

Several weekends later, the additions to the wall were nearly complete. Gary's neighbor came outside and shouted, "How's the wall coming?".

"Fine." Responded Gary.

"Hey," Said the neighbor. "Why are you putting so much into that thing anyway?"

"I don't know anymore." Answered Gary. After pausing for a moment he called out, "It's because I've never had much inside me, and now I have nothing left."

The neighbor walked out onto the street then came across Gary's yard. "What do you mean?" Asked the neighbor.

"I have been telling lies about myself." Said Gary. "And I have wronged you. I told everyone around here that I didn't like you, so I built this wall to keep you away."

"Really?" Said the neighbor.

"Yeah, but the truth is that when I met you I saw clearly what a rotten person I was, and I built this wall so I would never have to see that again. The real wall was the one I was building in myself."

The neighbor looked stunned for a moment. "I have a backhoe on my property and a big truck. I don't think it would take very long for us to take this wall down."

Gary smiled. "Somehow, I thought you would say something like that ..."