A Bedtime Story

My Philosophy teacher's uncle told him this story before bed one night, back when he was a young lad. I'd like to share it here, because I think there's a valuable lesson to be learned, also I think it's a funny story to tell a kid.

Once upon a time, there was a young boy. The boy was alone in the world. He had no parents, no friends, no family, not even any teachers. He was very, very sad, all of the time.

One night, the boy thought that he would be happier somewhere else. So he looked at the moon, and how big and bright it was in the night sky, and decided to go there. But when he got to the moon, it was nothing more than a big ball of cheese. Disappointed, the boy went home.

The next day, he looked up at the sky and saw the sun. He thought that the sun looked like a happy place to be, so he went to it. When he got there, though, the sun was nothing but a plastic yellow ball. Hardly an entertaining place to be. Disappointed, the boy went home.

That night, he looked skywards again and saw the stars. They had a mysterious allure to him, and their twinkling was even encouraging to him, in a way. So once again, he journeyed skywards, but when he got there, he saw that the stars were nothing but small holes in a big black piece of construction paper. Disappointed, the boy went home.

And there he remains to this day.

There is a point to this story, which I have forgotten.