Harry & Gary: A Story of Friendship
Malik Heru El-Shabbazz
eBook
Harry and Gary are two friends from different worlds and very naïve about the social rules of friendship. In their naiveté, they form a bond that is both solid and unshakable and because they are unaware of the separation of air breathers and water breathers they share a deep and meaningful companionship full of dreams and adventure as they both perceive the world. Gary the goldfish, has a wider perspective on life beyond his fishbowl. It is through his fishbowl view of the outside world, he is able to describe his point of view to his friend, Harry the Hamster. Harry the hamster is oblivious to the world beyond the perspective told by his trusted friend. He has no reason to see the world through a fishbowl perspective because of where has been positioned in life.Both Gary’s and Harry’s world is turned upside down when they meet a new friend, Barry the bird, a well-traveled crow who does not sugar coat the realities of life as he relates his wider perspective of the world beyond Gary’s and Harry’s world. Barry explains that the world is a fiercely brutal place that is as expansive as it is deep, full of predators and some of those predators live in worlds like Gary and in worlds like Harry. While Barry’s revelations cause the two friends to fear for their safety as well as destroy all possibilities of an adventure together, a more insidious revelation is revealed that truly distresses them; In the outside world, they are not friends! Because they come from different worlds, they could never be friends and in fact, the Bird warns that even he would eat them if they were to ever leave the safety of their own isolated worlds.It was determined by the more aware Gary the goldfish that as much as he wanted to go on adventures and meet new and exciting animals, he would never allow the bond between him and Harry to be put into jeopardy. He never wanted to lose his friend. The moral of the story is that before society pollutes your perspective with whom to hate, whom to love, whom to befriend and with whom to be enemies, you should invest the time to find out for yourself who is friend and who is foe and the barriers that may come in the way can always be overcome. Friendship is better than Enemies and Love is greater than hate.