Passing parameter to function on stage from symbol

I have a symbol on the stage: symbol1

Inside symbol1 I have an image: symbol1_image1

I have another symbol on the stage: symbol2

Inside symbol2 I have an image: symbol2_image2

in composition.ready I have an action on the mouseout for symbol1:

var theTarget = sym.getComposition().getStage().getSymbol('symbol2').$('symbol2_image2');

sym.getComposition().getStage().doMouseoutGS(theTarget);

In composition.ready i have the following function defined

sym.doMouseout = function (colorTile){

sym.$(colorTile.show());

}

I cannot get this to work and I am not understanding why.

If I do an alert on the mouseout function for

alert($(colorTile).attr("id"));

I get the correct referenc to the element I want to show but it does not actually  happen