Picture it... a little boy, with a beautiful Tonka truck. This truck has not always seen it's value and in fact saw itself as flawed. The little boy has always loved the truck and thought it to be the best on the whole playground.... it may seem like it had flaws, yet all the little boy could see what the beauty and awesomeness of the truck. Others admired his truck, yet none ever really paid it much mind. One day, the truck decided to work on what it saw as it's flaws and started looking more and more appealing to the eyes. A new paint job, spiffy new tires, and it's rear suspension was just a sight to see. As the truck worked through the transformation, little by little more and more kids started taking notice, both boys and girls. The little boy was always looked at as having a nice looking truck, but now it was hard not to notice all it's wonderful attributes. The boy was very proud of his truck, for now EVERYONE was seeing the beauty that he had seen all along.
As time went by, kids started making comments about his truck and how wonderful it was and the boy could only beam with pride. He loved to take it out for a drive and loved the attention that his truck got. The only problem was this.... the truck wanted to go out for drives all the time.... in fact the truck became resentful for neglecting it and not taking it out for more drives. The truck would sit and stew about not getting what it so desperately wanted. One night, a little girl grabbed a hold of the truck and started admiring it's paint job.... a little boy came along and wanted to spin the wheels and another little girl just wanted to hold the truck for a little while. The little boy stood by, uncomfortable with the way they were handling his truck, yet still proud that they were giving it so much attention.
Gradually, the little boy was spending so much time with other parts of his life, that the little truck started searching out others to give it attention. A spin of the tires here, a caressing of the paint job there, and the worst part was that the little boy was so involved in making a wonderful playhouse for the little truck that most times he did not know the little truck was gone. As he started to take notice, he brought it to the trucks atention that he wanted to play with it and take it for a ride. Too little, too late, the little truck claimed, and off it went, night after night to just "be around" other children. One day, after spending the whole day together, the little truck wanted to go and be around some of the other kids, and the little boy had enough and threw a little tantrum about how the little truck was never home anymore. They fought for a while till the little boy had had enough and wheeled the truck out the door and slammed the door behind it.
After the truck had gone, the little boy started to cry, for he felt so lost without his truck. He had had other trucks in his life, yet this one was the best ever and his prized possession. He laid there all night crying, wondering where he went wrong and willing to do anything to have his truck come back to him. He was in hell without his truck and knew that night that he would do anything to keep the truck, even share it with any kids of the trucks choosing.
Meanwhile, the truck had gone to the little boy and girls house that it liked so much and after telling the kids about how awful the little boy had been, was offered to have it's needs met. For hours, the kids spun the trucks wheels, played with it's dump bed, played with the rear suspension and felt that since they never actually "took the truck for a drive", that they were doing nothing wrong. The truck never told them to stop and therefore was equally guilty of betraying the little boy at home, crying his eyes out.
The next morning, as the truck came home, the little boy ran out , wrapped the truck up in his arms and swore to never neglect it again. For the next few days, the little boy shined the truck, spun it's tires and took it for as many drives as he could. What the little boy didn't know, is that the other little boy (who also had a beautiful truck at home) was sneaking the truck notes to tell it how beautiful it was, how he would like to spin the trucks tires and play with the rear suspension. The owner of the little truck would no sooner get done tending to his beloved prize and the other little boy would slip the truck a note. For almost a week this went on, till all the kids were playing together and the little boy and the other little boys truck realized what was happening.
This little boy has one prized possession and that is his truck. Why do others have to come along and take that from him? It's not fair! Bummer is, now the little boy feels responsible for all the relationships that have been damaged and all he ever wanted was to love, cherish and play with his truck..... the truck the others decided to selfishly take from him.
