The Perfect Heart

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,  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 heartand 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. How sad it must be to go through life with a whole heart.