What We Accept

There is an ironic tale involving a blind person and a deaf man, both of whom have visited a renowned ear-eye-and-throat specialist in the hope that one might recover his hearing and the other his sight.  The skilled physician healed them both.  The blind could not see, and the deaf could now hear.  Ecstatically happy, both patients departed.  But the very next week, they returned.  “We can’t take it any longer!:” they complained. 

“What’s the matter?’ asked the doctor.

Said the man who was formerly blind” “I cant endure it.  All these years I have never been able to see my wife, but now that I do, I realize how utterly unattractive she is.  I had always imagined she was beautiful. But she’s so homely I am terribly disappointed.  I just can’t bear to look at her.”

And the formerly deaf man explained, “For over 30 years I have never heard my wife’s voice, and now I hear her all the time.  I just can’t escape from her constant complaints, incessant nagging, and unending criticism.  I simply cannot bear it!”

Smiling the physician asked the first, “So you want me to restore your blindness??
And of the second he inquired, “Do you really want to be deaf again?”

“Oh no!” they both replied.  “We would want you to do that.”

“Well,” said the physician, “If you want to keep your hearing or your eyesight, you must be willing to face reality, and you will just have to see or hear things as they are, even if they are not to your liking.”

Is this story about learning to accept what we do not like about ourselves?

Is this tale about learning to love another not despite their defects but because of them?

Is this story yours?