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.
Unknown