The Beautiful Heart (A Short Story)

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.

~ The End~