One day a young man was standing in the middle of the town proclaiming that he had the most beautiful heart in the whole valley.
A large crowd gathered and they all admired his heart for it was perfect. There was not a mark or a flaw in it.
Yes,
they all agreed it truly was the most beautiful heart they had ever
seen. The young man was very proud and boasted more loudly about his
beautiful heart. Suddenly, an old man appeared at the front of the
crowd and said,
"Why your heart is not nearly as
beautiful as mine." The crowd and the young man looked at the old man's
heart. It was beating strongly, but full of scars, it had places where
pieces had been removed and other pieces put in, but they didn't fit
quite right and there were several jagged edges.
In fact, in some places there were deep gouges where whole pieces were missing.
The
people stared -- how can he say his heart is more beautiful, they
thought? The young man looked at the old man's heart and saw its state
and laughed. "You must be joking," he said. "Compare your heart with
mine, mine is perfect and yours is a mess of scars and tears."
"Yes,"
said the old man, "yours is perfect looking but I would never trade
with you. You see, every scar represents a person to whom I have given
my love - I tear out a piece of my heart and give it to them, and often
they give me a piece of their heart which fits into the empty place in
my heart, but because the pieces aren't exact, I have some rough edges,
which I cherish, because they remind me of the love we shared.
Sometimes I have given pieces of my heart away, and the other person
hasn't returned a piece of his heart to me.
These are the
empty gouges -- giving love is taking a chance. Although these gouges
are painful, they stay open, reminding me of the love I have for these
people too, and I hope someday they may return and fill the space I
have waiting. So now do you see what true beauty is?"
The
young man stood silently with tears running down his cheeks. He walked
up to the old man, reached into his perfect young and beautiful heart,
and ripped a piece out.
He offered it to the old man with
trembling hands. The old man took his offering, placed it in his heart
and then took a piece from his old scarred heart and placed it in the
wound in the young man's heart. It fit,
But not perfectly,
as there were some jagged edges. The young man looked at his heart, not
perfect anymore but more beautiful than ever, since love from the old
man's heart flowed into his. They embraced and walked away side by side.