"The Parable of the Drowning Men"

There were once two men, who were in the midst of drowning. How they came to end up in this unfortunate circumstance is beside the point; truth be told, they were rather astonished about the whole thing themselves. But as they were flailing about in the water, one of the men looked at the other and was filled with grief. Here was his beloved friend, whom he had known since childhood, and he would now be forced to watch him die.

"Friend," said the man, "You are drowning. I cannot bear to watch this. Save yourself!"
The second man looked at the other and laughed, "Brother, you are drowning too! Who are you to tell me what to do?"
"I don't know," said the first man. "But perhaps we can figure it out together."
"Figure it out yourself," said the second. "For I am done with this life. I have had nothing but heartache day in and day out. I've died a little each second. Now I'll finally be done with it."
"But what if you knew how to swim?" said the first man.
"Yes? So what?"
"Then wouldn't you swim to shore in order to live? And wouldn't you live even better than you did before, having just barely escaped the jaws of death?"
"Well," said the second man, "that's all very well and nice and good, but the fact remains that I don't know how to swim, so it's rather pointless to think about it."

There was silence between them as they thrased about in the water. Then the first man said, "What if you learned how?"
"Learned how to what?"
"Swim."
"Swim? I can't swim. I'm too busy drowning."
"But what if you stopped drowning and learned how to swim?"
"You can't learn how to swim on your own, fool. Someone must teach you."
"I could teach you."
"You don't know how! You're drowing too!"
"We could teach other."
"You're an idiot."
"We can swim. I think we just don't know that we can. Perhaps if we stop drowning long enough to teach ourselves how, we'll live."
Now the second man looked at the first man with pity in his heart, and he said "Let it go, friend. Let us not needlessly prolong the inevitable and increase our suffering. We lived our life with some dignity. Is it not fitting to die with that same dignity?"
The first man was quiet for a moment. And then he and the second man drowned.

A young boy, about sixteen years of age, watched the whole scene from the shore. And from that day on, he would always wonder which of the two men was the wisest.