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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,"
"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
How sad it must be to go through life with a whole heart
Remember,
Work
like you don't need the money
Love like you've never been hurt
Dance
like
nobody is watching
Pass this on to someone you like, I did
 
Song Playing:A Perfect Heart
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